Flexible subs

SW2004, SP2.1

I just found a problem that I believe is related to SW2004, but I only have
one service pack available right now to try. The short version is that with
a flexible subassy that has patterned parts in it, the patterned parts would
not move with their parent part when it was moved.

Here's the bigger picture. I have a lift that goes up in the air 30'. It
has a tower that is bolted to the floor, and a carriage rides up & down on
it. That carriage assy has arms that go in & out, so I had made the
carriage assy flexible to be able to drag the arms while in the main assy.
So, with 2003, I could drag the carriage up & down normally and also drag
the arms in & out because of the carriage assy being flexible.

When I converted to 2004, I didn't immediately open the whole lift, but
instead was working on drawings of subs. So, when I finally opened the
whole lift, I found that most (not all) of the patterned parts in the
carriage assy would not go up & down with the carriage as it was moved
either manually or by postioning with mates. The strange part was that upon
opening the carriage assy, the parts were out of place there also, which
made no sense at all since none of the patterns were dependent on the upper
assy.

I could make them move by opening (editing) each pattern and closing it, not
even changing anything, but it wouldn't stick. I tried choosing another
edge for the pattern, blowing away the pattern and recreating it,
suppressing stuff, cycling through lightweight & back, large assy mode &
back, all to no avail. At first I thought it was maybe only the ones that
were patterns of patterns, but then disproved that.

So finally I found the lightweight switch, updated per the above proceedure,
and now all is well. I had tried all of this on more than one machine, and
had created a test assy, and all results were the same, so that ruled out my
machine, and also my lift assy.

Take a look at flexible subs and see if they still work - let us know.

WT

 

SW2004, SP2.1

I think this was an issue in SWX2001+ as well, but I don't remember if
it behaved the same in 2003. (In other words, it may have been like
this since the introduction of FSAs)

Have not worked with FSAs lately, but IIRC, a rebuild (maybe a cntrl-Q)
would fix the issue.

 

Multiple CTRL Q's, rebuilds, etc. did nothing. It used to work just fine in
2003, SP5.1, and I just tried it in 2004, SP0. No workey there.

WT

 

Wayne,

A few questions -

Are your patterns that won't move Derived or Local?

The components that are not moving are they in the top level assembly
configuration or in a subasssembly configuration?


So who is the one that goes 30 feet in the air to see if this works?


Regards, Marie

 

The patterns are manual linear patterns - none derived, and not all one
direction or 2 directions. They are also all in the carriage assy, which is
one level down in the lift assy. But what's interesting is that a few
patterns are not misbehaving, and I couldn't tie it to patterns of patterns
either. On the junk test assy I made up, I just put a sub (with a manual
bolt pattern) into another assy and if the sub is defined as flexible, the
pattern will not stay updated in the top level. I can send you my test if
you wish.

The lift is the one I was working on that I showed you at SWW. Hopefully
I'll make it down to Nissan to climb to the top.

WT

 

I had a similar problem with patterned features not flowing dynamically with
the assembly but not flexible. I was animating an assembly and the
component patterns were causing interference because they were not
dynamically moving with the assembly, thus causing lockup and me pulling out
my hair because I didn't at first know what to look for. VAR told me that
it is working as designed I still think it should work as NEEDED. I ended up
just mating each component individually because there were only a few. This
could cause major problems for somebody who derived other mates off of the
pattern though, especially if the patterns were not bolts. The thing that
gets me is when I would drag in the assembly everything, as I recall, moved
as expected.

Corey

 

Ok - I tried this out at spin 0 - no need to send me the file.

In my opinion at the top level - things work fine - but go one
flexible level
down and the bolts stay at the bottom location and every thing else
moves to the top shelf.

I do agree that this happened a few releases back.

Will have to wait and see if it was fixed at a later spin

Are you calling this one in?

Regards, Marie

 

Wayne Tiffany wrote:

I say this behavior several weeks ago in a very simple assembly. FSA
have a lot of problems. I'm convinced that they produce application
instability as well. When combined with limit mates, things get ugly.

Jim S.

 

I sent it to my VAR, but I don't think he has tried it because of teaching
classes. I'll push him again. Thanks for trying it.

WT

 

Component patterns and mates again. I think I've seen this in a
previous release as well. I'm kind of superstitious about a few things,
and flexible subassemblies is definitely one of them. I think in the
end, this is the same question as your other component pattern issue,
but I think you're right that this one is a bug, where SW got caught
playing that fast and loose game with the history dependent assembly
items.

matt