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Sub-assemblies

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Sub-assemblies

Daniel Barna | 11.11.2008

VariCAD does not support (yet?) inclusion of sub-assemblies (i.e. I create a sub-assembly file, and I include this file into a larger assembly file, and they keep this relationship as assemblies-part do currently: if I update the sub-assembly file, the changes will have effects also in the big assembly) I thought I am missing this feature very much, but I realized that it can be overcome in the following way: make the largest assembly, containing everything, and then create 2D drafts selectively, from objects belonging to the sub-assemblies only. Some remarks on this: 1) There seems to be only one 2D drawing area, so I distinguish the different sub-assembly drawings by displacing them in this 2D area. However, I face then the printing problems, which I reported before (since then I discovered that the only reliable way to print to a given papersize is to a) put a frame corresponding to the papersize b) do NOT move this frame (this indicates the reliably printable region) and c) put all objects within it and d) print without rescaling or interactive selection of the print-region, etc). If I have now several 2D drafts, displaced, I need to make the interactive selection of the print-region, and my printouts will not be of the right papersize anymore. Also, I am sure I would have problems, if I want to have different papersizes for the different 2D drafts (for example small sub-assemblies would be printed on A4, full assembly on an A3) I would find a solution with several 2D sheets (a'la Excel?) (or work areas, or whatever we call them) much easier, and also more logical (different 2D drafts would be clearly distinct from each other, and not be on the same 2D drawing area). One could define for a 2D export, into which 2D sheet it should go. 2D sheets could be indicated by tabs. Different 2D sheets could have different papersizes, scales, etc. 2) Updating of the different 2D drafts is ok: once I create the 2D exports, it will always contain only the selected objects. Selecting a sub-assembly in 3D view is also ok, by, for example, introducing an attribute 'subassembly.id', and setting this attribute for each part, corresponding to the subassembly, to which they belong. Then one can blank/unblank solids based on this attribute quickly. This works as long as sub-assemblies don't overlap. They could, however: one part can belong to different sub-assemblies.