Assembly pattern

[Jee-Bee]

I have a feature request for assembly mode.
I think it would be very handy when there is the possibility to create Patterns in assembly based on features done in part mode.
Sound difficult maybe but saves lot of work.
Let say you have a set of holes(8 holes or so) created with a pattern in part mode. In every hole there have a bold with a washer and a nut placed.
You quite busy with every time add bold, washer and nut.
If you can add a bold washer and nut on one hole and pattern them just by following the pattern allready is it saves quite amount of work

[DeepSOIC]

I sometimes use patharray for such purposes. But it is not always good enough, because the spacing is not arbitrary.

[DeepSOIC]

example: (uses sketch-to-sketch links)

assembling-with-patharray.png (51.85 KiB) Viewed 4291 times

assembling-with-patharray.FCStd

(12.34 KiB) Downloaded 110 times

Positions of pins are controlled by Sketch (circles). Not superb, but better than having to place stuff manually.

Made with the following (but will work when opened in regular FreeCAD just as well)
OS: Windows 8.1
Word size of OS: 64-bit
Word size of FreeCAD: 64-bit
Version: 0.16.4905 +21 (Git)
Branch: origin/FreeCAD-DeepSOIC,master-mirror
Hash: 3064e7e0beabca8cbf599ae96c5173c55d37f046
Python version: 2.7.8
Qt version: 4.8.6
Coin version: 4.0.0a
OCC version: 6.7.1

[Jee-Bee]

I don't know how you do it but i can't link the geometry of the circles to the lines…
Yeah faster when you do this than manually but not handy when you want a part list.




Something different i disabled a few WB's. And my arch WB lost some of his funcionality. I would be nice when i do that a messege apears that other WB's lost functionality...

[DeepSOIC]

I don't know how you do it but i can't link the geometry of the circles to the lines…

I use my own FreeCAD branch for this. It is possible to do with regular FreeCAD, but it is tricky.
Try:
1. Python: App.ActiveDocument.Sketch001.Support=(App.ActiveDocument.Sketch,"Face1")
2. Edit Sketch001, link in the required stuff
3. Reorient Sketch001 to detach it from the fake support.

[Jee-Bee]

Your approach is more on part level in my feeling with simple forms. When more complex screws and sets of nut washer and bold it is quite difficult i think...

Is this something that could add to a feature list for future implementation.
That would be very nice.
It is of course possible that i'm the only one who sees a screw/ bolt/ nut/... as a part and not as a part of a part….

[Jee-Bee]

I tried but i can't use the circles. Then use external geometry i can't select them..
Or do you that some way around..

[severoraz]

This is however a valid feature request, in my opinion. Assembly patterns are very useful. Does anybody have a reason why this should not be a feature?

[DeepSOIC]

This is however a valid feature request, in my opinion. Assembly patterns are very useful. Does anybody have a reason why this should not be a feature?

Check out Draft PointArray. If you want more functionality like that, check out Lattice2 add-on workbench.

[dan-miel]

This is however a valid feature request, in my opinion. Assembly patterns are very useful. Does anybody have a reason why this should not be a feature?

I think it is valid. It is also a bit tricky to accomplish.

Is this something that could add to a feature list for future implementation.
That would be very nice.
It is of course possible that i'm the only one who sees a screw/ bolt/ nut/... as a part and not as a part of a part….

Even though I normally think of a screw/nut/bolt as a subassembly. In this case I think the screw/ bolt/ nut/ would need to be inserted as parts in the assembly in order to make the BOM count correct.
Dan