Same part with different lengths

[jbrouse]

Greetings,


I am new to this board, and relatively new to SolidWorks, though I am learning quickly. I design a lot of racks and such and my question is this: Currently, to make tubing of different lengths, I have to set the length of each individual piece and save as a different file. Is there any way around this? Is there any way to bring in two of the same part, but change the length of one of those pieces without affecting the other or saving it as a new part?


Thank you in advance for your assistance.


Regards,


Jim

 

[Topper]

Jim-


You can use the configuration manager. Basically, in your tube part, you create a configuration with the length you want. If you look at your feature manager (where your model tree is) you should see 4 tabs, FeatureManager design tree, PropertyManager, ConfigurationManager, and DimXpertManager. If you click on ConfigurationManager you can add new configurations, and changes in one configuration do not affect the other configurations (unless you force them too).


This will create multiple instances of the same part number, and you can choose which you assemble or display in assemblies.


There might be another way to do this, you could also go through the tutorial that comes with solidworks called Design Tables, that will walk you through some of the table driven options for parts.


I am sure some others may have some suggetions for you as well.