Missing Reference in Interchange Asm

[conrat]

Hello,



I am having a rather peculiar problem. I have an interchange
assembly that consists of two sheet metal parts, which have eight
family table instances each. There is a pattern of holes in four
of the family table instances, the other four instances do not have the
holes.



I have assembled one of the interchange parts into an assembly and can swap the two parts with no problem.



The problem comes in with the holes. I am trying to assemble a
screw to the parts, and allow either part to be swapped and still have
screw assembled, regardless of which interchanged part is in the asm.



The problem is, the screw loses it's reference when the I swap from one
part to the other. I am using the axis from the hole and the axis
from the screw to assemble. It always loses it's axis asm
reference.



Could this be because not all of the instances of my family table have
the hole? I am not trying to assemble the screw to the parts
without a hole and I am not interchanging those instances with no holes
where the screws are.



Anyone ever had this problem? I searched through this forum, as
well as a few other sites, but cannot find a similar problem.



All comments are welcome and I thank you in advance,

Jim

 

[conrat]

Update: I added the hole to every instances of the family table
of both parts but still get the missing axis reference when I
interchange the parts.



Thanks,

Jim

 

[Jodster]

This is just a suggestion, perhaps something to try so you can narrow down where the issue is.


I think the problem may be the pattern. You may want to try to create the holes without using a pattern and tag the axis'. I've had simular issues with using patterns for different things.


Jody

 

[conrat]

Jodster,



That might just work. I will let you know. Basically, you
mean to place datum axis and then place the hole in reference to the
axis. Then pattern the axis, which will allow me to ref pattern
the holes. Then, assemble the screw to the axis and make the axis
the reference tag in the interchange asm. Then ref pattern the
screw to the axis, not the hole.



I did use the an axis, but it was created with the hole. Maybe by doing the axix first, it will solve it.



I will let you know how this works out.



Thanks,

Jim

 

[conrat]

Well, thank God for active maintenance. I looked up the issue on PTC's site and found this:



http://www.ptc.com/appserver/cs/view/solution.jsp?n=100310




Title: Child
Components in a Top Level Assembly Fail Regeneration when a
Sub-assembly is Replaced with its Family Table Instance. The
Sub-assembly Instance is Created by Replacing One Component with
Another Component Using an Interchange Assembly.



What is says is, interchange assemblies are junk.



No, actually, it says that I need to add datum features in my
assembly. That sort of defeats the purpose, as I want to minimize
as many assembly features as possible. But, it is a workaround.



Thanks again for your help,

Jim

 

[gt rider]

Try to create holes in top assembly and replace parts with interchange assemblie.


Just thinking


Ales

 

[conrat]

Ales,



I could have done that, but I want to minimize the amount of asm
features. I think a skeleton would be a better option. I
may rework the assembly to use a skeleton and pass the geomtery to all
of the parts.



Anyone know if there is a problem usng family tables, interchange asms, and skeletons?



I figured I'd mention it here before going down that path, in case someone has seen problems before.



Thanks to all for your help,

Jim

 

[Jodster]

Conrat


I use skeletons alot. It seems to be the most stable way to interchange/suppress/move stuff without failure.


Good luck with that!

 

[conrat]

Jodster,



I was shying away from skeletons, as some of our users do not have AAX,
but then I realized using interchange asms requrie AAX too. I
think we will try to upgrade a few license, and take advantage of the
advanced tools in Pro/E, notable, AAX.



Thanks again for all of your help,

Jim