Checking safety critical spacing

[Jimijames]

I am looking for a way to determine if 2 parts are within a specified distance from one another.

Example: a battery terminal needs to be 5mm away from any metal surface. I would like to be able to pick 2 components, the terminal and the enclosure, and have Solidworks tell me if there are any areas that violate the 5mm spacing. I know interference detection will not work (because there is no interference)... does anyone know of any other way to accomplish this short of measuring distances manually?

Thanks,
Jim

 

[rgrayclamps]

Hi, Jim:

Select the two components from Feature Manager Tree, and use "Measure" command to measure distance between the two components. "Measure" command can be found at Tool menu.

Alex

 

[AnnaWood]

Could you take your battery/contact area and do a 5mm offset of the outside surfaces, then make that into a dummy solid. Do you interferance check on the dummy model.

You can use the offset surfaces command and some of the other surface commands for this.

I know of no other way automagically....

Regards,

Anna Wood
SW 2007 SP2.2, WinXP
Dell Precision 380, Pentium D940, 4 Gigs RAM, FX3450

http://designsmarter.typepad.com/solidmuse

http://www.phxswug.com

 

[SBaugh]

Measure tool (as listed above) should tell you whether or not they are I would think.

Scott Baugh, CSWP

http://www.scottjbaugh.com

faq731-376

 

[Theophilus]

I was thinking of Anna's solution. You can add the offset surface (and thicken) features to a configuration of your part, so you can then toggle between the "real" part geometry and the tolerance-check geometry quickly and not have two parts cluttering your assembly for this function.



Jeff Mowry

http://www.industrialdesignhaus.com

Reason trumps all. And awe transcends reason.

 

[CorBlimeyLimey]

Anna's method would be my choice. Create and use the "no-go zone" feature in a config of the part.

 

[AnnaWood]

I would most likely not even make a solid out of the offset surfaces.

In my past life in automotive product design when we were doing 3D wireframe and surface models in CGS, we would just offset the few surfaces of interest then spin the model around with our spaceball and give it a good look for interference.

If there was air to spare life was good....

A configuration for interference checking would be all you need to keep your model clean.

Regards,

Anna Wood
SW 2007 SP2.2, WinXP
Dell Precision 380, Pentium D940, 4 Gigs RAM, FX3450

http://designsmarter.typepad.com/solidmuse

http://www.phxswug.com

 

[Jimijames]

Thanks all. We have tried the measure tool, but unfortunately it leaves alot of room for user error (missed a spot, did not look at the model thoroughly enough, etc).

However, I didn't think about offset surfaces and thickening... sounds like a good solution. Thanks Anna and Jeff. Next step will be to use VBA to try and automate this ;-)

Jim

 

[rgrayclamps]

Hi, Jim:

It is not possible to miss a spot (did not look at the model thoroughly enough, etc) when you use "Measure" command. You were looking for distance between the terminal and the enclosure. This measure command will give you exact what you want. Just make sure that you select your terminal and enclosure from Feature Tree Manager when you use "Measure" command. If you select them from srceen graphic area, you may not have them selected depending on setting of your selection filter.

Good Luck!

Alex