Asm3 - assembly with ~200 fasteners.

[Svet]

Go to : https://github.com/Shkolik/CNC4060

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Extract content to any folder (in my case C:/Projects/SVET)

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Open file 4060CNC.FCStd from 'cads' folder.

It should work. At least on windows And please check that you have Fasteners workbench installed or you'll got an errors that some objects can not be displayed.

[bambuko]

Done!
don't know what's different between downloading individual FreeCAD files and downloading the whole package as .zip (both look identical), but I guess downloading individually screws up link path?
Anyway... it all works and I am able to open your file easily in Linux (without disabling partial loading) and with no problems (illegal path) when closing it.
I shall now play with it and look into details.

Thank you!

[Svet]

Done!
don't know what's different between downloading individual FreeCAD files and downloading the whole package as .zip (both look identical), but I guess downloading individually screws up link path?
Anyway... it all works and I am able to open your file easily in Linux (without disabling partial loading) and with no problems (illegal path) when closing it.
I shall now play with it and look into details.

Thank you!

There is no difference at all - you probably just did typo or screw some directory structure. Glad that now it works and there is no issue with loading linked files! And also that issue with illegal storage access is isolated to windows. Hope @realthunder will fix it somewhere soon.

If you'll have some suggestions about my model - will glad to hear it. I'm not an expert in cad so there is possibility that I did something drastically wrong

[bambuko]

There is no difference at all ...

Well, that's what it looks like at the moment:

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I will try to work out what is what
It will take me out of my comfort zone - I have so far preferred to work with single file with no external links.
I will probably have more questions than answers
For example - why there are so many greyed out (partially loaded?) files?
later edit:
I ended up "reloading" all the greyed out files and it is all there now,
but I still do not understand why does it load Z-axis, X-axis and Z-carriage, but not the rest
I would at least expect Y-axis to be loaded as well
Like I said - more questions than answers at the moment...

We need

...

here

[Svet]

Grayed files just up to date and do not need to loaded and recomputed. But I have load them all on windows - already wrote about it. If you want to change something in a linked file - just click on it and do whatever you want - this change will be propagated to the main assembly. Great feature, sad it not working properly on win now.

Be careful with editing - it's not the mast stable model in the world. For some reason after changing for example pad height of side plate some sketches can lost external refs... have no idea why. I ended up just leave with that and do some fixes after changing some base geometry. Have fun!

[bambuko]

Just out of curiosity
What line width and vertex size are you using in your design?
I ask because everthing appears size 6 making it very heavy and I wonder whether it is because you have set it or is it another strange things happening

am slowly (very slowly) going through it, boy is it a complex animal...

[Pauvres_honteux]

My tupence,
- Create each part as just that, a part.
- Create hole patterns per part. "Publish" them points from each sketch. Group them sketches by intended screw size(diam.+length). Name the sketches by screw size(diam.+length).
- Make each hole as a separate Body(if we are lucky, someone in the future will implement "make user defined pattern of Body") then put all them Bodies in a new Body, then boolean the lot from your plate or thingie.
- Make an Assy(single part assy) of your single part and add/insert your screws(if they consist of screw+washer and/or more then make an assy of that). Make sure this Assy-file has its file-zero / coordinate center coincident with the Top-Assy file-zero / coordinate center before starting to place stuff inside your single part assy. This is called "working in context".

Now you can link to them published hole centers from another part and get everything perfectly lined up. Works if and only if you adopt "working in context".

If you like to take it up a notch, you can make each contact interface in/as a separate file(master/skeleton). Then link them contact planes and hole centers into your parts to make everything absolutely rock solid AND guaranteed to fit together AND one change in skeleton fixes at least files in one go! Ofcourse this works if and only if you adopt "working in context".

[bambuko]

...

First question, starting at the beginning (table):
Why do you use a group for the components to link them twice over, into table assembly? and further into main assembly?
instead of having components as parts of assembly?
Your table top file tree looks like this:

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whereas I would have done it, like so:

Screenshot from 2021-07-14 15.01.24.jpeg (10.13 KiB) Viewed 1572 times

or, simpler still, just having part design body file and linking it directly as assembly part into top assembly.

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Not criticising, just trying to understand why are you doing it this way?

[Svet]

My tupence,
- Create each part as just that, a part.
- Create hole patterns per part. "Publish" them points from each sketch. Group them sketches by intended screw size(diam.+length). Name the sketches by screw size(diam.+length).
...

Thank you! Have to sleep with that to understand

[Svet]

First question, starting at the beginning (table):
Why do you use a group for the components to link them twice over, into table assembly? and further into main assembly?
instead of having components as parts of assembly?

Just because it makes model more solid and allow me to reuse bodies and components easily. I started with your approach, but soon face lots of broken elements and no way to fix them. For less complex assembly I'll use just part inside assy.