Q about Part Copy and curves

[meganine]

Howdy,

Is it possible to have curves (and any other construction elements) show up when a part is inserted into another part with Part Copy?

Thanks,
Chris

 

[jwillison]

Howdy

Just tried inserting a part with construction elements & sketches. Only thing I could get was part itself either as a solid or as a construction element. Not sure what it is you need to do but you can pull lines etc. from inserted part using the include command in sketch, if that is any help to you.

Keep in mind I do use SE v11 here so things might be different in v12 (although I've heard there isn't a lot of diference between the two).

 

[meganine]

Thanks for the tip. Unfortunately, it's not what I need.

The part that I'm trying to copy with Part Copy has no solid features--it only contains construction elements. It's those elements I'm interested in.

Here's why: I'm trying to make a complicated assembly comprising of tubes, plate, fittings, etc. When the shape and size of the base structure changes, I want the shape and size of each component to change accordingly (as well as their part drawings).

For example: my base part is a sketch of a square. I have five other parts: four tubes and one plate. Each of these parts has the base part as a Part Copy. The tubes are each one side of the square and they are mitered to allow for welding (based on the base's sketch). The plate is welded inside the square, so it's profile is the area left inside the base's sketch after subtracting half the pipe's OD. One assembled, I would get a square pipe-thigy with a plate inside. Now, if I change the length of two of the sides, the pipe length's change and the plate size changes to match.

Obviously, my problem is more complicated than this, or else I would just make four pipes and a plate and leave it at that.

The wall I'm hitting is that it doesn't seem like SE let's you access a construction element from outside the part it was originally made in. Also, I'm not sure if it's related, but I've noticed that you can't pattern or mirror a construction element.

Thanks again,
Chris

 

[jwillison]

I do believe that it is possible to use sketches and construction elements between parts if the sketches etc reside in the assembly file instead of the part file. You have to click inter-part copy (?) in the tools / options menu (if I remember correctly, don't have SE open at the moment). This I believe allows you to use features between parts and assemblies. Try creating the sketches and construction elements in an assembly file and then create the parts in-place. You should then be able to use the sketches in the part file.

Mind you I haven't tried this myself, I'm just going on what I've read and experimented with here and extrapolating. But I believe it should work.

Let me know if it does.