Family Table or UDF?

[mechstudent3]

Hello All,


I'm about to start a project which will involve using alot of wood in its construction. I will be modelling using top down methodology and would like to define family tables of standard lengths of bought in wood, which I can then assemble and constrain a cut feature within the partto skeleton to effectively cut them to length. I have had a practise run where I have modified a assembled component by constraining to skeleton and it work great until I assembled the same instance in the table! which was now the size of the previously modified part. obviously I doing something wrong I'm new to the use offamily tables for this kind of application and would like to know what i'm doing wrong.


Would perhaps a UDF be more suitable not had much use of these and have never created on for myself, only used predefined ones!


I would also like to show the cut length at a later stage when creating BOMs for 2D drawings, I think I wouldneed to create a measure feature within the part and link to parameteram I correct?


Any help on the matter would be greatly appreciatted and I will continue my search in the mean time

 

[jabbadeus]

For this type of problem, Component Flexibility might be a better option.


In the part, choose Edit > Setup > Flexibility and make the length dimension flexible.


Then when assembling the wood part, change the length (or use the Measure method). That way the same part can have different lengths in different instances.

 

[jayuy]

for me i will use family table because repeat region in drawing will not work with component flexibility unless you use WF3.0

 

[mechstudent3]

Hello,


Thanks for your replys gentleman, I will stick with family table however will this mean I will need to create multiple instances of the same part with say a different prefix at the end everytime i want to cut a particular instace to a length or suppose i could use asm cuts however there would be hundreds, so it looks like either way im faced with a nightmare

i open to anymore suggestions

 

[Dell_Boy]

I use family tables to make different lengths of steel sections to be welded together into larger structures. In a typical project i have one RHS part to make all my RHS parts, one flat part to make my flats and so forth with channel and angle sections. Each part may end up with 5, 10 or even 30 instances associated with it but not hundreds.

The part name includes the project name, section size, length and sometime other designators to cope with machining requirements. If I need to change a length I usually create a new instance and do a component/replace however with patterned parts it is sometimes necessary to do a modify and rename to avoid having to recreate the pattern

If your family tables become unmanageable due to size or feature modelling requirements, sub-divide them into logical units such as only capturing parts for one sub-assembly or one size of section.

By the way, I have ALL the sections as start models for some of them such as channels, if I change the channel height, the flange width, thickness, web thickness , radii and material description are all updated automatically via Pro/Program relations


DB

Edited by: Dell_Boy

 

[stefanba]

Hi mechstudent,


so you want to design frames of wooden beams which have standard sections?? I suggest to try PTCs module EFX, which is for making structures of steel beams, but the library can easily be extended so you can add your wood sections. It is very easy to use and cuts the beams to length just with one or 2 mouseclicks.


If you want more information or a test installation just send me a personal E-mail


Stefan