Thinking Globally...

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  Thinking Globally...
  March 14, 2008, 04:16 PM Jay Tedeschi

  The next time you are thinking about using Excel for dispensing global parameters throughout your assembly I would like you to consider the following proposal… use a derived part instead. Yep, a derived part. Many of you have probably noticed that when you create a derived part, there is a folder in the Derived Part dialog box which is labeled “Parameters”. Those of you who did, and who investigated further are probably already using this workflow… if this is you, kudos, you can stop reading now. If not, then continue on…

  Take a look at the image below. There are several interesting topics that could be covered with this example, e.g., skeletal modeling, component position, sketch properties, however we are going to focus on using derived parts for pushing global parameters throughout the assembly. Take a look at the User Parameters in the dialog box shown in the image. There are two parameters in particular, which we want to share amongst several of the parts which make up this F1 rear wing assembly, BRKT_RECESS and WIDTH_INSIDE. To facilitate this we need only enable parameter export by checking the radio button as shown in the image. Once this is done, these parameters will be accessible to any part file which uses this .ipt file as a base component.

  

  Upon opening the rear wing assembly, and creating a new part for the upper airfoil section we exit the base sketch and start the Derived Component command. You will be prompted to select a part for the Base Component, and if we select the part that we just flagged with the two exported User Parameters then what we see when we expand the Parameters/User Parameters folders in the Derived Part browser should look very similar to what I am showing below.

  

  These two parameters are now available for use and will function exactly like any other user parameter. At this point let’s select the Extrude command and pick the magenta section in the image above. We will select Distance for our Extents, a midplane direction and as our termination we will choose “List Parameters” as shown below…

  

  From the following dialog box we select the user parameter WIDTH_INSIDE…

  

  The result is a component with its length driven by a global parameter, which is controlled in a single .ipt file along with the sketch elements needed to create all of the components which are similar to this one, e.g., all of the interior wing airfoils. This is extremely powerful, as all of these parts can be updated by simply editing the source .ipt file and then issuing a global update at the assembly. It is more importantly a clean alternative to using Excel, and can significantly cut down on the number of files required to be linked to achieve similar results.
   

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