Envelopes--Have you used them?

I need a quick head count of people who have used envelopes.

Have you used envelopes? Y/N


Optional: How do you use them?

 

Y, but only once.

The only time I've ever used envelope parts was to add parts that were used
to locate other pieces in an assembly without adding anything to the BOM or
to the weight. I can't even remember now what they were and how they worked.

Jerry Steiger
Tripod Data Systems
"take the garbage out, dear"

 

I think there were three presentations at SWW that touched on envelope
usage. There was an envelope in the old SW demo. Remember the assembly
line that machined motorcycle crankcases?

 

Yes. All the time

How - machining fixtures - the machine table with machine strokes (X,
Y, & Z) is inserted as an envelope. Works very well for that.

and any other time bob z. wants something in the assy that he doesn't
want to show up any where else (mass, etc.).

 

And a drawing view property box STILL says "Envelop". Grrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

WT

 

The assembly line showed envelopes well. It had a workspace for a
person as an envelope. It doesn't show up for mass, in the BOM, or
anything significant. You can do advanced selection with the envelopes
as well. You can hide or show anything in or out of the envelope which
worked well for that "workspace". Enveplopes can be parts, assemblies,
or sketches. I design faucets now and then and I use sinks and counter
tops as my envelope parts.

KMaren

 

I use them for skeleton parts in assemblies. I've never used them for
selection.
Ed

 

i use an envelope body in an assembly. i make a driven body in an
assembly in a new configuration and suppress all other bodies/parts.
we are on the edge of usability on our large assemblies and this
assists in speed and workability. iQ

 

I used envelopes for designing hinges, though not in their intended
fashion.

For custom hinge design, we would get an environment to design in.
Hinges are usually designed in closed position. I would design base
leaf in-context as a regular component. I would design the moving leaf
as an envelope. All in-context design was applied to the envelope.
The moving leaf model was then added to assembly as a regular
component.

This way, I could have in-context features in a fixed position that
were not affected by movement. I could move the moveable leaf to any
position, the "master" envelope would stay fixed.

 

Can you send me an example of that, please? I run into those situations
once in a while and I didn't quite follow your method. Thanks.

WT

 

Clever application. I like that. I have used a hidden part to do the
same thing, with a second instance for motion, but the envelope is far
better. Have you run into any quirks using a part as both an envelope
and a regular part in the same assembly?

 

Paul,

I haven't used an envelope in years. They can be used in cool ways, but
since they are mainly assembly tools, and I tend to work mostly on
individual parts, I don't think I'm in many situations where they would
be useful.

Matt

 

Just posted it.
<http://www.esoxrepublic.com/models/> filename Hinge.zip (SW2003)

 

No major negative repercussions. The only annoying thing is that you
can't see them in drawings or 2 levels removed.

I was using hidden components, but I switched to envelopes so that the
hidden parts don't accidentally carry into the BOM.

 

Got it - thanks. I'll take a good look at it when I get a chance.

WT

 

Wow! Sounds like another great feature that the average SW user doesn't
know how to use. Perhaps the Inventor folks will find out about
envelopes and use them as one of their next great sales features....
They do sound useful.

Ed

 

I second that - very clever application.
I have been doing my in-context the same as matt, usually hiding the
components in my 'IN-Context' configuration. Then I have another
config (actually, where motion is involved, I usually have dozens for
design verification) where the in-context stuff is supressed and only
the copies are active. Interestingly, changes will propgate through
the suppressed in-context parts (at least last time I verified - I
would not lay wagers on SWx not messing with it. It just feels like
the kind of useful function that SWx would 'fix' so it didn't work any
more)

I like the envelope approach.

Question - anyone have a way of making a part that is already in the
assembly into an envelope? I tried looking into this a while ago,
talked to some experts, and ran into a dead-end.

Ed

 

There were several presentations at SWW that used envelopes. I ran into
an ex SW AE this week and he was of the opinion that nobody used them.
The reason people don't use them is that VARs don't do much educating.
Envelopes are one of the most stable features in SW. They behave just
like parts in an assembly with the exception of mass and countability
in a BOM.

The real beauty of an envelope part if it is made up solely of surfaces
is that it can be brought into an assembly AND a part. This means it
can be used as a "fixture" to build parts and later it can be used in
the assembly to get everything into position.

 

They don't have to be mainly assembly tools.

Make a skeleton part with surfaces and planes representing where you
want your geometry to be (like you would with a solid in a standard
envelope).

Now take that part and insert it into a part before you start modeling.

Now use the imported surfaces to guide the creation of the part.

Then when in the assembly pull in the skeleton part and mate the
skeletons in the previous parts to that.


This was presented at SWW for building cabins in boats. They built a
master layout from surfaces that represented the boat hull and the fore
aft location of the cabin walls. Then each cabin could be modeled based
on this master layout including trimming the cabin wallls to the hull
without needing in context relations or having to work in the large
assembly.

 

re: components to envelopes...

I have combed through the API for a way to do this. Nothng yet.