One is the loneliest number...

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  One is the loneliest number...
  September 8, 2009, 04:17 PM Jay Tedeschi

  One is the loneliest number... especially when we are dealing with assemblies.  Most of the assemblies that we find ourselves working on in the course of completing a design will require a number of purchased components... and depending on the type of product, that percentage can be pretty high.  In order to support a full digital mock-up or prototype of our designs, it is a frequent practice to model a geometrically accurate facsimile of those parts or assemblies or download from the vendors themselves, those models in some neutral format.  When we work with components such as these, often a single part file is used as a placeholder for what is actually an entire assembly.

  Consider this example... a caster wheel used on a piece of medical equipment.

  

  There is a locking mechanism which needs to pass through the slot in the top of the pivot axle of the caster wheel assembly, but unfortunately, this component, which was downloaded from the vendors site, is made up of only two parts, and therefore lacks the mobility to allow this type of movement in our model.  What we need to do is open this part, and using Inventor's new Multi-Body functionality, split this part into two new individual parts, and then save that split configuration to a new assembly document using the Make Components command.

  

  

  It would take far too long to explain this process right here in text, and you don't want to read that much, and I certainly don't want to type that much [grin]... so I created a video for you that will consume only about 4 minutes of time out of your busy day and will give you a really good idea on how to employ these new tools to your advantage.  I hope this sheds some light on what is otherwise possibly an obscure process, and please let me know if you have any specific questions that I can help you with...

   

  4 Comments | Add Comment The Gear Box > Tips

Comments

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  September 9, 2009 01:13 AM Wayne Easton

  Please could you consider adding the "download option" to your post page. Garin has it on his, and I find it quite handy as I can simply download his video files in windows media format directly from his post. Thanks

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  September 9, 2009 09:04 AM Jay Tedeschi

  I will not only "consider" it, I will make it a mandate to find out how to add this to our page. Thanks for the great suggestion.

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  September 9, 2009 09:13 PM Sunith Babu

  Thanks for the post on Multi Body Functionality

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  September 16, 2009 10:52 AM Jason Pealo

  I've actually used that split command a number of times to modify purchased parts and it's pretty handy. As a former chair designer I'd have to say I don't think I would split a caster shaft like that though. Typically the shafts extend into the plastic cavities. It is a great tool though.