Part II: Building Intelligence into Your Parts
Caution
Changing sketch planes indiscriminately can have serious consequences for your model. “Face/Plane Normals”
sometimes point in different directions, and can cause a sketch to flip, rotate, or mirror when you change it
from one plane to another. One strange result is that changing it back to the original location can cause the
sketch to flip again, but in a different way so that it does not go back to its original location/orientation. As a
result, every time you change the configuration, the sketch could appear in a new and unexpected location or
orientation. n
Controlling configurations of inserted parts
Inserted parts have a long history in SolidWorks. They have had several names in the past, and
some sources (including SolidWorks documentation such as training documents and even help
files) still use some of these legacy names out of habit or precedence. For example, you will some-
times hear inserted parts called derived or base parts. Both of these terms are obsolete.
Cross-Reference
Inserted parts are discussed in detail in Chapter 28, which describes master model techniques. n
Inserted parts use one part as the starting point for another part. The inserted part sits as a feature
in the FeatureManager of the child part. You can insert just the body geometry itself, or you can
bring forward reference geometry, sketch data and all features, and break the link to the original
part if you wish to.The role of configurations with inserted parts is that the configuration of the inserted part can be
controlled from the child component. For example, you may have designed an engine block for an
automobile. This engine block is a casting, and using configurations, you have both the six-cylin-
der and the eight-cylinder blocks in a single-part file. This model represents the “as cast” engine
block. The next step is to make the block with all the secondary machining operations, such as fac-
ing mating surfaces, boring cylinders, drilling and tapping holes for threaded connections, and so
on. As a result, the as-cast part is inserted into the as-machined part, and the configuration is
selected before you add the cut features. As the name suggests, you add inserted parts by choosing
Insert ➪ Part from the menu.The interface for assigning the configuration is shown in Figure 10.19. Simply right-click the
inserted part feature and select List External References. It would seem to make more sense if the
configuration could be selected when the part is first inserted, but it does not work this way; you
have to select the configuration after the part is inserted.Library features
Library features can have configurations, and they carry those configurations with them into the
part in which they are placed. Unfortunately, part configs cannot reference different library feature
configs.Cross Reference
Chapter 18 discusses library features. n