June 23, 2014

Assembly Constraints

            Assembly Coincidence Constraint
                        Modifying Assembly Coincidence Constraint
            Reuse Pattern

-Review the conversation in Moving copied Instances with the Compass to consider your assembly choices.  Also review making Patterns in parts (e.g. Rectangular Pattern) since this can simplify assembly of many common components that interface with a patterned feature.  This simplified assembly is accomplished with the Reuse Pattern assembly constraint.

-Before initiating the “assembly constraints” the component’s parent assembly must be:
-highlighted blue
-The assembly requires at least one component
-Any components that you will be selecting must be in Design Mode and be a component that is indentured “under” the highlighted blue assembly.  If this restriction does not allow for ample references than use the Moving an instance with the Compass or Move Icon Group (Assembly) instead.

Note on highlighting the correct assembly:
While in an assembly, double click the assembly (to make highlighted blue) who’s next indentured components will be aligned with “assembly constraints”.  These top level sub-components (next indentured components) will move as a whole (i.e. lower level components move together with these parent “top level sub-components”) when constrained per the above assembly constraints.
-A  branch will be added to the assemblies Assembly Tree.  Expand it to keep track of the Constraints that you create as you create them.
-Recommended to use the Update  icon following each constraint definition to see the results of each constraint.  Press Undo (Ctrl-Z) if the Update made selection difficult during the next Constraint definition.  In such instances, it’s recommended to press Update either when your part is fully, or partially, constrained. 
-You can expand the  branch and update the newly added constraint by selecting Update from the right-click menu.  The constraint icon will have a little yellow squirrelly (e.g.  instead of ) if it needs updating.  Sometimes the Update icon will still be grayed out so you will have to force the constraint to update by double-clicking on it (then the Update icon should be colored and ready to use).

-Undo after an Update will only Undo the Update and not the last Constraint unless Undo was selected twice.  So feel free to use Update temporarily (i.e. Ctrl-Z afterwards).
-Make sure that the parts that you will be selecting are in Design Mode or else their entities won’t be useable for selection.  See Design & Visualization Mode.
-Consider using the Fix Component  constraint for one of your components before applying other assembly constraints.

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