Sketch Driven Assemblies

Using Sketch Driven Assemblies for
Design Automation & Re-Use
Patrick Barrett
Sherpa Design, Inc.
Portland, OR
1
Sketch Driven Assemblies
f Why use it? When?

f Advantages
f How to get started
f NX Tools involved
f WAVE, IPE’s, Cloning
f Skeletons
f How we’ve used it with some of our clients
f Casting inspection fixtures
f Nano / Semi tool
f Vehicle structures
2
www.sherpa-design.com
Who Am I? What’s a Sherpa?
f Engineering Design Services: ‘get there’

f Multi-CAD firm
f Have the privilege of working with a lot of great
companies
f NX Mentoring
f TCT Article: “Accelerating Design of Complex
Products”
3
Why Do It?
f Sketches are visual: easy to see what you’re

doing/changing
f Capture ‘Tribal Knowledge’
f Standardize
f Build in Flexibility
f Save Time
f Even 20% faster is still faster
f 1 day per week, 1-2 months a year…
f Go kayaking
4
When To Use This Approach
f Designs that are changing WRT

f Size
f Position
f Configuration
f Assemblies that will probably have a long,
evolutionary development cycle
f Déjà Vu Design (2 or more: automate it!)
f Not every design is a good candidate for this
f Where’s the ROI?
f Focus on the PROCESS
5
Make a Model Plan
f “Most people don’t plan to fail; they fail to plan”

f Model Plans
f Identify Key Drivers of the design/assembly
f Layout the sketch, expressions, etc. on paper first
f Allow you to troubleshoot (easier) your fundamental
assumptions when you encounter road blocks
f After you have the design programmed on paper, you
CAD faster
f Example Model Plan
6
NX Tools Used
f Sketcher
f WAVE Geometry Linker
Basic NX Applications
f IPE’s
f Cloning (for re-use)
f ‘Skeletons’
f Geometry that serves to constrain or locate assembly
components (or features in linked parts)
7
Skeletons
f Can be whatever geometry

makes the most sense to
drive your assembly
f Assy Solids, Curves,
Datums, C-Sys, etc
f Lighter the better
f Can be inside Master part or
it’s own component
f Consider how these play
with
f BOM & Drafting
f Teamcenter & your part
number system
f Cloning
8
WAVE Geometry Linker
f Wave is powerful: use it

sparingly*
f Updates can take some
time on large
assemblies
f Link the whole Sketch
vs. Individual Curves
f Smaller feature tree
f Can add/delete from
the sketch and not
have to re-parent
anything
*If you do a lot of WAVE consider the full-
blown package. Easier to find/troubleshoot 9
www.sherpa-design.com broken links
IPE’s
f Share important expressions between parts

f Have a plan to where you want the user to update
the expressions (Skeleton, TLA, etc). Keep it simple
and consistent.
Basic construct:
“part_file” :: expression
(Cloning maintains the link,
Save-As will point to original
part)
10
Cloning
f The “Intelligent Save-As” for Assemblies

f Allows you to Create/Edit Assemblies
f Works on file saved on disk, not open session
f Maintains inter-part relationships
f Re-names Linked Expressions
f Maintains relationships between assemblies and their components
r
N u mbe nt
Part import
a
e is
S ch e m
11
Internal Training/Documentation Is
Key
f Test your process and try to break the model

f If someone can’t easily figure it out they will break it
or make their own. Period.
f Develop internal SME’s
f Review the process and evaluate how well this is
capturing the design intent. (Things change)
f Take big automation tasks in phases
f Don’t try to do it all at once
f Don’t wait until the post-mortem to do a retrospective
f Find and fix problems as you go
12
SDA’s In Action
f Inspection Fixture for

Investment Castings
f 70% of the
assembly design
is done in a few
hours
f Consistent things
changing from
part to part
f Started this 8
years ago (still
paying for itself)
13
SDA’s In Action, 2
f Turret Assembly
Development
f Lot’s of pieces that
shifted around
during development
f Flexible layout
f Tried multiple
arrangements to
get optimized
design
f Rules pertaining to
interpart locations
14
SDA’s For Fast Conceptual Layouts
f Program Manager/Lead could generate skeleton

layout model
f Add PMI, key notes, etc. to the model
f Hand-off to design engineers for detailed design and
component placements
f Review what had to change to make it work
15
SDA’s In Action, 3
f Vehicle Chassis Structure Tool

f ‘Standards’ that dictate position of members and sub-components
f Vary with overall chassis length & wheel base
f Many prismatic components
Get the bulk of this automated and leave room for design/customs
16
Chassis Sketch Layout
fUsing established standards.

fExperimented with a Part Family at first
17
The Rear View Mirror
f Select candidates based on anticipated ROI

f Doesn’t make sense for all projects
f Make a Model Plan

f Design on Paper Program It
f Evaluate/Break It Improve It
f Document it
f Share it and train people
f Benchmark your improvement
18
Thanks!
Questions/Comments
Contact me:
[email protected]
19

Sketch Driven Assemblies

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Sketch Driven Assemblies

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Description:

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Sketch Driven Assemblies

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Using Sketch Driven Assemblies for

Design Automation & Re-Use

f Why use it? When?

f Engineering Design Services: ‘get there’

f Sketches are visual: easy to see what you’re

f Designs that are changing WRT

f “Most people don’t plan to fail; they fail to plan”

f Can be whatever geometry

f Wave is powerful: use it

f Share important expressions between parts

f The “Intelligent Save-As” for Assemblies

f Test your process and try to break the model

f Inspection Fixture for

f Program Manager/Lead could generate skeleton

f Vehicle Chassis Structure Tool

fUsing established standards.

f Select candidates based on anticipated ROI

f Make a Model Plan

You might also like