SolidWorks 2010 Bible

Chapter 14: Assembly Configurations and Display States

Configurations for product variations

In this case, product variations means variations in size or part replacement. Some examples are a

4-foot cabinet and an 8-foot cabinet, or a two-button mouse and a three-button mouse.

As a simple example, Figure 14.11 shows the familiar robotic arm assembly, but with a variation:

one of the arms has been replaced with a subassembly. The subassembly is made of the original

replaced part using configurations, and there are configurations of the subassembly, which is again

being used as a flexible subassembly.

FIGURE 14.11

A part that is replaced by a subassembly

Through the course of this chapter, the robot arm assembly has greatly increased in complexity, but

it has retained the original information that was in the first version. Maintaining valid assembly data

through manually managed configurations is difficult, and all it takes is a simple mistake to wipe out

a lot of assembly configuration data. Appropriately, the next section discusses assembly design tables.

Design tables for assembly configurations

Chapter 10 dealt with part configurations and created a good framework for design tables in gen-

eral. This chapter augments that information with what you need to know to use design tables

effectively in assemblies.