SolidWorks 2010 Bible

CHAPTER

Building Efficient

Assemblies

IN THIS CHAPTER

Setting apart the elements of

an assembly

Increasing performance by

using SpeedPaks

Organizing assemblies by

using subassemblies

Grouping parts and mates by

using folders

Showing names and

descriptions with tree display

options

Employing helpful assembly

tools

Arranging assemblies tutorial

Managing the FeatureManager

tutorial

C

hapter 4 provides a brief introduction to the basics of assemblies,
how to put parts together, the basics of mating, and so on. The basic
process for putting assemblies together remains the same for assemblies
of any size, but once the assembly passes a certain point — and this point is
likely different for each user or application — the assembly will benefit from
some sort of organization or management techniques. This chapter introduces
you to the tools and techniques that are available to help you manage
performance issues as well as general-use issues, efficiency, browse-worthiness,
or searchability.

Identifying the Elements of an

Assembly

From Chapter 4, you know that an assembly can contain parts and mates.

Real-world assemblies can become much more complex. As the number of

parts and design requirements for an assembly grows, you may need to add

some of the following types of assembly elements. (You may already be

familiar with some of these from having worked with part documents.) The

assembly elements are listed here, and described in detail either later in this

chapter or in other chapters.

l (^) Assembly equations
l Assembly Layout feature
l (^) Assembly layout technique
l Assembly reference geometry (plane, axis, point, coordinate system)