External dimension reference

[OficineRobotica]

Hello everyone,

Please help me with finding the best strategy of importing dimensions into a sketch. I know that the simple answer is setting up a shape binder but i want to save my body into it's own file to be later imported in a separate assembly.

shapeBinder.png (298.99 KiB) Viewed 1476 times

shapeBinder1.png (336.74 KiB) Viewed 1476 times

What i only need is the 2D dimension/placement of the holes in the linear bearings as they are placed in the screenshot. If i make a sketch based on the shape binder and then try to delete the two bearings from the file it all breaks down.

[kisolre]

Constraint to shapebinder, add reference dimensions, delete shapebinder, convert reference dimensions to real ones.

[OficineRobotica]

Constraint to shapebinder, add reference dimensions, delete shapebinder, convert reference dimensions to real ones.

Thank you for the tip, but...

If i try to add dimensions before i delete the shape binder i get this error

shapeBinder2.png (293.11 KiB) Viewed 1457 times

if i first delete the shape binder with dimensions still to be added the sketch straight up collapses

shapeBinder3.png (266.41 KiB) Viewed 1457 times

Any suggestion?

[kisolre]

Reference dimensions - the blue ones.

[chrisb]

I remove in such cases first the reference to external geometry from the elements list, because I don't want to have them anyway. The references to external geometry are always the last ones in the sequence. To be recognized by checking the "Extended naming" box below the list and the additional information "ExternalEdge" in the list.

This will add DOF to the sketch depending on the type of the external reference element; e.g. in case of a line you gain to 4 DOF if you have coincidence constraints on the ends, perhaps even more if there are multiple coincidences.

[OficineRobotica]

Tank you guys, removing first the external reference did the trick.