components hide when editing mates

[vdevan]

Hi, 

you may find this question stupid.. 

i find out that in creo assembly, lets say i have 10 components .. 

when i wanted to edit the mate (say distance mate) of the 5th component, 

then the components 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10 hides... 

the problem here is when i edit the distance, i am not sure whether is it going to hit/interfere with any of components that was added after 5th .. 

after coming out of edit definition .. i find that it is interfering , then i have to change again .. 

the case is not just with editing mates, but changing mates / position and so on .. 

is there a way to avoid hiding of rest of components...  or is it too much to ask from creo... 

thanks in advance .. 

[StephenW]

Use EDIT instead of EDIT DEFINITION to change the distance and then regenerate.

The only other way is to change the order of assembly of your parts (in the model tree) so the one you are trying to edit is after the ones you want to be able to see.

[vdevan]

Thanks.. Stephen, 

i am doing exactly what you have stated.. 

but when i wanted to change mates , like from coincident to distance / parallel .. then its a problem .. 

any way thank you again for the effort.. 

in simple, my case here is i am trying to arrange a number of components inside a box so as to accommodate everything inside, i do not know which one to bring in first and which one next .. 

it like a trial and error thing .. 

i am coming to assembly to plan the arrangement, looks like i have to plan for creo first .. no offence .. but it sounds ridiculous to me .. 

[dgschaefer]

Creo and SW are built around different assy paradigms. Personally, I find SW's ridiculous just as you do Creo's, but that has as much to do with the fact that I started with Creo first as anything.

That said, understanding Creo's paradigm will help you work with it better. Creo is built around mimicking the physical world.  So, assembling your components in the order that they will be built in the physical world should help you. That's why when you edit the definition of the 5th component, the 6th component and up disappear.  During physical assembly they won't be present yet so that aren't in Creo. In some cases the order may not matter, in that case pick something logical.

I think if you begin to think like you are building the physical product, your assemblies, and Creo, will begin to make more sense.

[vdevan]

thanks for the reply my friend (dgschaefer)

as you have said , 

may be its just the perspective ..  

what you said makes more sense, if we are doing a machine assembly, like we will assemble one by one in order .. and we can do the assembly in creo as we do in real time .. ( i have experienced such situation and it was useful).. 

but, if you were to have my problem here , 

as i have mentioned in earlier comment, 

" In simple, my case here is i am trying to arrange a number of components inside a box so as to accommodate everything inside, i do not know which one to bring in first and which one to bring next .. 

it like a trial and error thing...." 

what would be your approach...  any suggestions ..

can you please share ... 

[HamsterNL · Accepted solution]

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@vdevan wrote:

"In simple, my case here is i am trying to arrange a number of components inside a box so as to accommodate everything inside, i do not know which one to bring in first and which one to bring next .. 

it like a trial and error thing...." 

what would be your approach...  any suggestions ..

can you please share ... 

---

In that case, I would constrain every component to the datum planes of the assembly. This way, you are not creating any references between the components themselves.

If you need to edit any of the components, you can drag that component to the bottom of the model tree, and then use "Edit Definition" to redefine the constraints. That will keep all the other components visible.

[RL_9901588]

Ran into the same problem here. I can't believe they haven't bothered to make a separate mate tool like their competitors. Creo never fails to disappoint.

[dgschaefer]

If everything is truly independent, it really doesn't matter and it really would be trial and error.  There are some things to consider.

Are any components that cannot be moved for whatever reason?  Bring them in first so you can position the flexible components around them.

Bring in the larger components first, positioning the smaller ones will be easier.

Bring in related components in groups.  For example, if components A and B need to be connected by a cable, then bring them in one after another.

HamsterNL's suggestion to only use datums is a valid one, but it means that you don't capture any relationships between them. For example, if components C & D must be 2" from each other, assembling them both to the default planes won't capture that specification.  Ideally you'd want it so that the 2" distance was maintained when one was moved.

If I was doing this, I'd be using a skeleton to drive component location and design.  This allows relationships between the locating geometry (coordinate systems, datum planes, points, etc.) to be defined in the skeleton but the order of the components will be independent of one another.

[TomU]

Two other possibilities:

1.)  Assemble each object to "oriented" to the three planes (or the sides of the box).  This will leave them 'packaged' so they can be freely dragged around.  Once everything is assembled, use the hand tool to manually drag the components around.

2.)  Same basic concept as #1, but use mechanism constraints to limit the range of travel for each component to the inside dimensions of the box.

Neither option is perfect since the components can interfere with each other, but both will let you freely drag the objects around while keeping all others visible.

[kdirth]

Looking though the list of configuration settings today, I found a setting that may help:

comp_rollback_on_redef  no    - No - Assembly is not rolled back when the user redefines a component.  Yes is the default setting.

Setting it to no leaves all components visible when redefining.  However, you can not select any components below it as a reference.

[JN_10377877]

Thank you. It helped very much..