Flexible Pipes

I'm using flexible pipes (hydraulic hoses actually) in a number of different places in an assembly.


The lengths are identical, but the routing varies.


I am trying to figure out a way to route the pipe through datum points, but my investigations, along with my efforts to jfgi, have drawn a blank.


The alternative is to do separate pipes for each instance, which makes the BOM inaccurate.


I assume that there is a way to do this, but for the life of me, I cannot figure out how.

I did a little work with Komatsu a while back & I think for some situations like this they used Pro/CABLE to get the 3D geomrty to behave more like a pipe would.
Having just typed that, I am not sure it would work for your situation.
Maybe a flexible assembly?
Setting the position of a CSYS to control where the end fittings are.

Of the top of my head the only other way is to accept a system where you have an original pipe numbered ABC123 with a detailed drawing and then pop a sufix on the end ABC123_c01 for each copy that is the same length (detail drawing is unchanged) but a differant shape in Pro/E.

Good luck.
Ian.

red-arete said:

I did a little work with Komatsu a while back & I think for some situations like this they used Pro/CABLE to get the 3D geomrty to behave more like a pipe would.
Having just typed that, I am not sure it would work for your situation.
Maybe a flexible assembly?
Setting the position of a CSYS to control where the end fittings are.

Of the top of my head the only other way is to accept a system where you have an original pipe numbered ABC123 with a detailed drawing and then pop a sufix on the end ABC123_c01 for each copy that is the same length (detail drawing is unchanged) but a differant shape in Pro/E.

Good luck.
Ian.

Click to expand...

Your suggestion with the _c01 is what we are currently doing, but, as I noted, this crews up the automated BOM generation.

I had a thought: If I define the pipe with segments to points, then if I can make those points coincident with the points in the higher level assembly, then it should line up, but I cannot figure out how to make the points location flexible.


I can drive the dimensions, but I do that with springs and cylinders all the time, where the OAL is equal to a distance, but how would I make the points coincident?

In order not tomess up the automated BOM, rather than using the model names which appear in the model tree you can have a string type parameter assigned to every component that is supposed to be a BOM itemand let this parameter (for example Part_NO) be the one that drives the repeat region.


ali

alibahadir said:

In order not tomess up the automated BOM, rather than using the model names which appear in the model tree you can have a string type parameter assigned to every component that is supposed to be a BOM itemand let this parameter (for example Part_NO) be the one that drives the repeat region.


ali

Click to expand...

This would require major changes to existing BOM tables, and a fairly massive effort by the CAD support folks to cut in, and so is not a viable alternative.


Additionally, if the hose changes, this came up when I was upsizing the hose, then you have to change each and every hose.


One solutionat this point is to put all the hoses in a single asembly, each rounted as necessary, and putting them in as flexible multiple times, and using flexibility to suppress the hose(s) that are not used for each specific location, which is clearly suboptimal, as if you are using a hose in a few.


The best location would be to be able to route the cable flexibly on the assembly in which it is used.


As I have noted, I can make a hose using points, but I can't apply flexibility to these points (probably 4-8 per hose) that would allow th hose and ends be set and routed, and (a would be nice, not a would be essential) that would move as the actuator and associated linkages do.

thentry to make the the location dimensionsof the routed pipe (considering that they are routed offset by a coordinate systems) flexible.


I tried it works(I use WF 4.0)and in the BOM it works as well meaning more let say 3than one version of the same pipe in the assembly counts 3 for rpt>qty of repeat region.


ali