Multibody parts

Hi

I would like to draw eg. a wooden bookshelf as a single part to aid the design process, make changes easier (rather than each side etc as a single part.) If I make sure each side/shelf etc is a seperate body, is it possible to extract a cutting list for the wood later? (sizes) or maybe create an exploded drawing? or is it best to create each side and shelf as a part and assemble it later (which seems like much more work)

anyone have experience here?

Rich

ps. I wanted to create it as a single part because I will be importing

2D sketchs and converting them. Just seems easier....
Reply to
Sygenics
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Multibody parts is really the wrong approach for this, in my opinion. I would just design it in context in an assembly. It makes it easier to get BOM type info and also the exploded view.

matt

Sygenics wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:

Reply to
matt

Rich,

Using multibodies in place of assemblies is a bad idea. You'll have much more sucess using SW the way it was designed to be used.

Regards

Mark

Reply to
MM

thanks guys, just wanted to check.

Rich

Reply to
Sygenics

FYI, I just got back from the Midwest SolidWorks Conference where they demoed the 'Weldment' feature. It generates cut-lists. One interesting thing they showed was a wooden deck that was made with this feature. It looked like it was worth trying... who knows?

They showed some house frames as well.

Mike Wilson

Reply to
Mike J. Wilson

Mike,

That was going to be my suggestion, but he needs to have each piece detailed seperatly, or an exploded type view, whcih I didn't think was possible with Weldments. Otherwise, Weldements would be an easy deal in this bookshelf case.

Mr. Pickles

Reply to
Mr. Pickles

There are three viable approaches and a fourth that is not so good.

  1. Do a layout sketch(es) in an assembly that drives the dimensions of the individual parts. Then model each part incontext to the sketch(es). This is the traditional way to do this sort of thing. When done, join all the parts to get a single part for the assembly.

1A. Create a single part for the entire assembly of parts. Use this as an envelope part to drive all the other part in the assembly in 1.

  1. Use the split feature to break apart a single solid into separate, but related parts through the assembly which the split feature creates.

  1. Use a multibody part to create the final assembly. Besides the top level assembly, make each unique part in a separate configuration by suppressing the other parts. Then, create an assembly from the parts using the top level part as an envelope to mate to.

and

  1. Use the weldment feature with some custom cross sections to represent boards, etc.

We do a lot of weldments. I prefer them as multibody parts when > Hi

Reply to
P.

Thanks guys, that gives me a lot of options. I will try them all, and choose the best when SW arrives!

cheers

Rich

Reply to
Sygenics

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