External Reference

[Ketan_Lalcheta]

Do we use external reference into design? AFIK, one should avoid it. Another question is where I can find that my feature has external reference. I donot want to use reference viewer to check as it ask to check for all features individually.

If external references are not good, why to use copy geom and publish geom? Is this just available and one should not use it or there is no harm using the same?

[BHOoi]

There are some good reasons to use external references in design:

1. top- down approach to allow the control of critical design criteria to flow from top level to down stream.

2. Centralized location for design parameters to ease cross and consistent referencing.

3. Promotes reuse hence reducing modeling time/errors.

A simple example : 2 external parts referencing to a common ID surface. It would be much easier to have the ID surface stored/created in one common reference part(this can a skeleton or so called "master") and then copied over to that 2 external parts.

what we really need to avoid is referencing to weak or too many dependencies such as referencing to a big assembly. The common practice is to use skeleton/master files. 

Hope this helps.

[BHOoi]

Instead of using reference viewer which gives you a detailed breakdown of external references in your file, you can make use of model tree columns for a quick glance :

[Ketan_Lalcheta]

Thanks for responding on this.

Let me try to replicate an issue I am focusing right now.

I created three parts. Assembled them in an assembly. Activated first part. Placed one hole on part 1 with reference edge of part 3. Activated assembly and saved it.

Now when I open assembly, everything looks fine. But individual opening of part 1 says external reference missing into message window and that hole feature is also not defined. This is not in case we open assembly as it got reference from part 3.

Can anyone show me how to identify from assembly window that part1 has one feature that is hole which has external references. I do not want to go to reference viewer for each feature of each part.

Attaching sample CAD data for easy and quick reference.

[BHOoi]

Try this if this solves your issue:

1. In the assembly, add "Dependency Status" to the model tree. You will see the word "dependent" next to prt0001:

2. When you open up prt0001 w/o assembly, you can always right click to retrieve its reference part/assembly:

[Ketan_Lalcheta]

wow great BhOoi

Dependent status at assembly level helps me to identify what parts are dependent on others. Here in case it is part 1.

Is there a way to identify that Hole 1 feature of part1 making it dependent?

[BHOoi]

You need to go to part level to display its feature info, not able to display in assembly level. Th best way is still by ref viewer  

[Ketan_Lalcheta]

Even if to go to part level is still okay. But to get feature info or reference viewer for each feature of part is tedious.

Do we have something which directly show info for each feature in a part mentioning external reference present at least for which feature in a part?

Thanks and Regards

Ketan

[BHOoi]

If you referenced via data sharing features, it would be possible to list in part  model tree as shown in my 1st reply. Also, the external references (in this case, the assembly) would be retrieved automatically each time you open prt0001.

May be we should post another question on how to retrieve the external reference in cases like this?

[jbob]

Add Parents Details column to your model tree, if you open the part that has external reference that is not in session, you will see Out of Session. Now RMB on that feature and select Edit References, the Edit References window will show external reference.