Re-Scale Ass and Prts

[mcalinden]

I have a project that consists of a large number of parts that make up an assembly in WF4. I have now been informed that we require a smaller version ( possibly half size ). Can I resize the assembley which intale will resize all the parts or will I have to go into each part and rescale them and then the assembly ?


All suggestions on how to save time are welcome .


Thanks

 

[dgs]

There's no way to rescale an entire ass., you're going to have to go part by part. I'm not even sure you can scale an assy, so you may have to manually edit any datum features or assy. constraint dims to scale them.

(BTW - When I saw the title, I thought, "Gee, I could use that first bit myself."

)

 

[dantheguitargod]

Of course, if you only scaled half of it, it would be...

 

[Mindripper]

I could stand to have my ass about half the size it is now, but Pro/E cannot help me with this. But I like my parts just the size they are now.


But regarding the real topic here:


This relates directly to a posting a couple of months ago regarding applying shrink rate to a molded part. The same strategy should work for you.


1) Create a new unit of measure that is the shrinkage ratio you want. Call it whatever you want: say a 'widget'. In your case, it's 0.5 widgets per linear unit (inches, cm or whatever).


Edit > Setup > Units > Units > New > Widget, with the ratio to a standard unit of measure.


2) Change the model to the new unit of 'widget' with the 'interpret' option:


Edit > Setup > select 'widget' > Set > select 'interpret' option


This scales the model, but now you have a funky unit of measure.


3) Change the model back to standard units:


Edit > Setup > select the units you actually want > Set > select 'convert' option


Not too difficult: just a little trickery. I think you could eliminate the 'widget' unit of measure at this point, and no one would know of your magic.

 

[Mindripper]

Oh yeah:as dgs suggested, this strategy won't work on the parts within an assembly, just on individual parts or the assembly dimensions themselves (such as offset alignments). But you could write a macro that performs this on a part - or perhaps the macro could drill into the parts within an assembly. This would save you time and help prevent carpal tunnel syndrome. In any case, it's a whole lot easier than editing every sketch, every feature and every offset alignment.

 

[dgs]

Or you could use:

<div style="margin-left: 40px;">Edit -> Scale Model
</div>
But ... that (and your units trick) will only work on individual parts, or on the features or dimensional constraints in an assembly. There is no way to scale an entire assembly and parts in one step.

 

[dgs]

Simultaneous posting.

 

[kdem]

If you have offset reference dimensions or geometry in the assembly (i.e. assemblysurfaces)the assembly dimension values will be scaled but the assembly components are not.

 

[dakeb1]

You should not scale an assembly. What will happen to all your sheet
material thicknesses, Standard sections, fasteners, purchased
components, etc.? You need to consider all these things.

 

[skraba]

One option is to change the units of the assembly and then open Mechanica, which should ask you about conversion of all the parts and subassemblies to the same unit system as the main assembly. By confirming this window, Mechanica should do that automatically (not part by part).