Copied surfaces in assembly

Anyone had this problem? I copy a quilt using copy-and-paste from one
part into another part. If this new copy feature fails for whatever
reason (...or for no conceivable reason...), while regenerated the
assembly then you would expect the quick fix/redefine menu to take you
back to the assembly, right? Because that's where the feature was
made. But sometimes it doesn't. It really pisses me off because I
can't redefine the surface within the part, I need the assembly, and
if I try to resume the failed feature (because I've clip/suppressed
it) within the assembly, it just takes me back to the bloody part
again.

I can get around it with an elaborate and counter-intuitive workaround
but does anyone know how to force the redefine back into the assembly
where it belongs?

 

Anyone had this problem? I copy a quilt using copy-and-paste from one
part into another part. If this new copy feature fails for whatever
reason (...or for no conceivable reason...), while regenerated the
assembly then you would expect the quick fix/redefine menu to take you
back to the assembly, right? Because that's where the feature was
made. But sometimes it doesn't. It really pisses me off because I
can't redefine the surface within the part, I need the assembly, and
if I try to resume the failed feature (because I've clip/suppressed
it) within the assembly, it just takes me back to the bloody part
again.

I can get around it with an elaborate and counter-intuitive workaround
but does anyone know how to force the redefine back into the assembly
where it belongs?

The last time I got anywhere near what you seem to be trying to do, I wound up creating a large, nice skeleton model which I used for communicating geometry from one model to another. I created Publish Geometry features in the reference models, then, by activating the skeleton model within the assembly, did a lot of Copy Geoms in the skeleton from the Publish Geoms in the components. The skeleton Copy Geoms were used as feature creation references (or even features) in other parts. Actually, I was using it inside of a 19" rack model for creating and routing cables and wire harnesses, over 60 individual cables and more than double that number of terminations. It was a little tricky getting the hang of the workflow but as long as I did most of the work in the top level assembly, activating components to work on them, regenerating the skeleton when geometry and components changed, it was just about bullet proof and the most stable way I've seen of communicating feature and geometry information between models. I know that's not the answer you were looking for, but it's the best I can do.

David Janes

 

Thanks. I've never been in the habit of using Copy Geom because
wherever I've worked it hasn't been an available module, i.e. it
wasn't in the license. I've used #component operations#merge from
since before Copy Geom existed, but that becomes troublesome in WF
with its preselect highlighting. The whole frigging model strobes and
leaps out of the screeen at me when I'm trying to find a little corner
round. So sometimes I'll copy surfaces - usually I'll copy the solid
geometry because then it's less likely to fail. Then in the part I
will copy the part of the aforementioned quilt that I need, using surf
and boundary or individual surfaces or whatever. It adds an extra
feature but I'm less likely to have to redefine something in assembly
mode. Trying to find the surface and boundary in the assembly when
there's 20 other parts in the way is a pain.