How do I create a single "dumb" part from an assembly.

Both join or save as part from assembly are the way to go. If you save as you have three options. The one you want is the shell with just the outer boundaries.

If you use join you could apply a scale feature to it or create a "block" of material inside to obscure inner detail.

TOP

Save the .sldasm as a .sldprt, using options to specify external surfaces only. Then open the new .sldprt up and export to iges.

Matt Lorono

Top,

Thanks for the feedback.

I tried the shell option; I assume you are describing the exterior surfaces option. That does decrease the ability to see what is going on but instead of having X "dumb" solids in the part I have X 'dumb" surfaces. Its better but I not exactly what i was looking for.

My join option does not have the ability to apply a scale factor. Maybe it's because we are still using 2007. As for the creating a block inside, I can do that on piece parts, which I have already done on some of the parts, but that still gives the customer a BOM of the assembly.

It might not be possible to get a single "dumb" solid in the part.

Looks like the fourms are acting up again. Anyway, just in case the post didn't go thru, here's whatcha do: Save the Assembly as a part, making sure you pick the option to only save as external surfaces. Then open the part and save as iges or whatever.

Matthew Lorono

Depending on how much you want to obfuscate the innards I would go with join and then scale of external surfaces.

Join does not scale in and of itself of course. But since a join feature resides in a newly created part there is no reason you cannot add a scale feature after the join. You can also use delete face to remove any features that you think are not needed by the recipient.

I believe delete face will work with the exported external surfaces. I have had trouble with external surfaces capturing everything correctly so I don't often use it.

Sometimes when looking forward to when I need to give a model to a customer for interface purposes I will create a simple interface model that I use in the assembly as an envelope part. I can give this model to anyone interfacing with my assembly and know that we are both working of the same music.

TOP

I have no clue what you want the potential customer to be able to do with the file. Would a pdf file serve just as well?

Bob

Sometimes when working on a collaborated project one of the partners wishes to claim real estate in the project for their components without giving details.

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Thanks everybody for the feedback. I should be able to put something together that serves my needs based on your help.

Bob at att.net, Phil at tagaerospace.com is correct. My company provides small mechanisms (latches, release mechanisms, hinges, etc.) to larger companies building a spacecraft (Lockheed, NGST, JPL, etc.) During the design phase of the program, the designer enigneers at these larger companies opt to purchase small mechanisms from other companies due to cost, schedule, and heritage reasons. Since "real estate" on these S/C is in high dermand it is nice for them to be able to drop in a high fidelity CAD model of the mechanism they plan to baseline in their overall design.

Thanks again!