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passing values within an assembly

Bounty Hunter

New member
Hi all - Im new to solidworks (~2 months), came from Pro-e (~10 years).


I am looking for a way to pass information between the assembly and its components. Like if the assembly design table has a length proterty in it, I want to be able to reference it in a part.


Thanks for your help.
 
Have you tried editing a part "in-context" with part to assembly references? Open your assembly, right click on one part while viewing the assembly, then select edit part. Edit the sketch in the part that is related to your assembly "length". Add in-context relations to make the part shrink and grow as the assembly changes length. See "Help" about the in-context editing. I really like this but prefer to break the references after the assembly is correct. I say YES to ASSEMBLY configurations, but NO to PART configurations.
 
I know and use external references. But it is not always a simple dimension that I need to pass. Lets say I had a hole patern in one part and, depending on how many holes there were, I wanted different brackets (ie 3 hole = bracket1, 4 holes = bracket2, ect.)
 
Sounds to me that your question may be a little too broad for me to be able to answer precisely. I do know that when modeling parts and assemblies all of the underlying data that you input is stored within the files like "D1@sketch1" (obvious) and other data such as linear pattern definitions (not obvious) available in the Solidworks API. Record a macro and read the source code and you may find a lot of the information that you need there.
 
You may be able to do this using the formula function in excel for excel-based configurations.


Using IF in excel, you could write a formula that calls the "number of instances" dimension. You may have to set it (number of holes) in the assembly, rather than thanthe related part. Set the result of the IF formula to the desired configuration.
 

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