family table driven assembly with skelton part problem

[sales3]

I’ve recently decided to recreate some of my old libraries of parts and assemblies, some of which were created in version 15 years ago, in Creo Elements/Pro 5 (Wildfire 5).

I want to take advantage of Top Down Assemblies and skeleton parts to control the size of the assembly components. This seems like it should be very simple to do but I’m missing something and not getting the results I need. I have Advanced XE with the AAX (advanced assembly) module so I should be able to do this.

What I want:

An assembly with a top level skeleton part that controls the width and length of several other component parts which will be created in the assembly after the skeleton part. A family table of the assembly used to select the different sized variations of the assembly and it’s component parts.

What I’ve tried:

- created an assembly

- created a skeleton part comprised of a few sketches, one sketch determines the width and length of a rectangle

- created a family table of the skeleton part inserting the dimensions that control the width and length of the sketch, then added instances to create various sizes

- created a component part in the assembly and made a protrusion using the sketch created in the skeleton part for width and length

- created a family table for the assembly adding instances for different sizes and inserted the skeleton part into the family table with it’s different instance names created in its own family table

What I expected to get upon retrieving and assembly instance:

Upon opening an instance from the assembly family table I expected to have the resized skeleton part and resized component part.

What I actually get:

A resized skeleton part but the component part that was created by using the edges of the sketch in the skeleton part was the generic size and not the instance size.

What am I missing here? Any light that anyone could shed or any documentation you can direct me to in order to solve this would be appreciated. I haven’t been able to find any settings or tools to fix this within Creo Elements/Pro 5.

sales@3d-accuracy.com

www.3d-accuracy.com

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[anagnost]

Hello,

I think that this approach doesn't work. To accomplish this you can do
the following

1. erase the skeleton's family table
2. define a set of parameters in the top level assembly that control
the geometry of the skeleton model (write also the appropriate top level
assy relations, that link these parameters with the design)
3. make a new family table of the top level assy using your parameters.
4. add new instances to the family table

That's it, you should be done!

hth

Vassilis Anagnostopoulos*
*
SPIDER SA
Industrial Area - Rodotopi
45500 - Ioannina
Greece

[MIchael_Ohlrich]

Hello ya'll -

I would 2nd this approach... The parameter based skeleton control is far more robust then family tables. The use of family tables at an assembly level (or even really complex parts) should be always used with caution. Using parameters directly or even including them as Pro/Program controls seem to be the most robust and cleanest.

Thanks,

Michael Ohlrich, Design Engineer
Benchmade Knife Company
mohlrich@benchmade.com<">mailto:mohlrich@benchmade.com>
(503) 655-6004 x122

[cid:image001.jpg@01CBEEA4.59543850]

[sales3]

Thank you for your posts, I appreciate your help.

I see what you are saying but I was hoping for a more simple solution. Controlling the width and length of the assembly component parts is just the beginning. I have about 40-50 datum axis and a few other sketches I need to control as well. Plus I’ll have several hundred instances in my family table of varying sizes with different combinations and locations of the datum axes which control the location of other component parts (screws, pins … that sort of stuff) and UDFsthat will be placed into the assembly.

I’ll give your suggestion a preliminary try just to see the number of relations required for the intended results. I’m still open to other suggestions as well as I’m seeking the cleanest, easiest way to do this.

Have a terrific day!

Best Regards,

Robert

3D ACCURACY

sales@3d-accuracy.com

www.3d-accuracy.com

[sales3]

Challenge solved, it can be done easily with family tables as I suspected.

I received a couple private emails with the solution (thanks Matthew & Gordon). I needed to place the skeleton reference model into the family table of the component part and specify which instance to look for during regen. I just created my first successful instance from the main assembly about an hour ago, worked like a charm.

Have a terrific day!

Best Regards,

Robert

3D ACCURACY

sales@3d-accuracy.com

www.3d-accuracy.com

[dgschaefer]

So, you add the Copy Geom to the family table, and then you can select
which instance the Copy Geom should refer to? Nice!



Doug Schaefer

[sales3]

Good afternoon Doug:

In the component part I chose to insert a reference model in the first column. The only option available was to use the main assembly as the reference model so I selected it. The main assembly family table is as one would normally expect it to be. Upon opening an instance from the main assembly family table it now regenerates correctly changing the size of the component part to match the size of the skeleton part.

This will have to be done with all component parts that need toreference the skeleton part to determine sizes and locations.

Have a terrific day!

Best Regards,

Robert

3D ACCURACY

sales@3d-accuracy.com

www.3d-accuracy.com

[anagnost]

... hmmm, interesting and yes it works! But, if you have some hundreds
of parts on your assembly, then this is a lot of work! By the way, how
many components you assembly has?

Vassilis Anagnostopoulos*
*
SPIDER SA
Industrial Area - Rodotopi
45500 - Ioannina
Greece

[ptc-3935553]

Hello Robert,

I’m new to this PTC User group but not to ProE.

I’m responding to this tread because I have the same need as you to drive a assembly family table using a skeleton with its own family table. And I’ve experienced the exact same problem as described in this thread. It seems like PTC has placed intention in the software to do this type functionality but I just can’t figure it out and the documentation out there is lacking.

It looks like you figgured out the solution. If so, would you please mind explaining it to me?

Thank you,

Peter Hines

Product Development Engineer

Otto Bock HealthCare

3820 West Great Lakes Drive

Salt Lake City, Utah84120

ph (801) 956-2515

fx (801) 956-2401

peter.hines@ottobock.com