Creating part in assemblies

I had a project in school were my instructor gave me an aseembly and i had to make an enclosure around the assembly. I created my part in the assembly referencing parts in assembly. Stuff like hole patterns and counterbores. All of my enclosure edges and features were built around parts in assembly. I got points taken off because enclosure was linked to assembly. My question is was this method kosher?In my oppinion it was a lot easire than making enclosure and inserting it into assembly. Was just wondering if this is not real world practice. Any feedback would be appreciated since i am not designer, just taking solidworks classes. Thanks

It depends on application. In some of cases it becomes easier to make part in assembly.


Mark Wilson

Provided the links between the enclosure and the assembly were robust then you probably shouldn't have points taken away from you.


If I'm given a PCB for example and need to design an enclosure around it, I would do as you have done. Bosses, location pins and tetaining walls would all be linked to the PCB so that if things moved position on the PCB then these features would move with it. It can take quite a bit of experience to get this right though.


I've been doing this sort of thing now for 10years so in my opinion you went about it the correct way. I'd need to see your model though to see if your teacher was justified in taking marks away though.

For me, that is the right plan to do on how you create the part in an assembly. coz, it would take you long on creating holes in a part document having your reference on another part. On that way, you can view the other part and make a link to make the work faster..