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Assembly the correct route?

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darksupernova

New member
[Solved]Assembly the correct route?

Dear 3d Cad Forums,

New member here, so firstly - Hello!

I'm very new to CATIA and was hoping someone would be able to either help me or point me in the right direction. I have been searching online, and whilst tutorials on YouTube and other websites are useful, I'm still getting stuck.

This is my assembly.


picture hosting

It currently consists of three sketches, the main body and the front and back components. The component highlighted in orange is the front component. I am trying to contrain it relative to the main body of the device. However I don't know how to constrain, 'fill in' where there is a gap and finally join all components together deleting the overlapping material. There are also several other places where I need to remove or add small amounts of material to correctly model this.

Can anybody help or tell me where I might find the answer?

Many thanks,

Max

UPDATE

Thank you for your help MrCaita. I have now fully modelled the turbo as one part - once I got the hang of it, it was much easier this way.
 
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Hi,
Thank you for your prompt reply. Currently I am making three separate parts and trying to join them together. However the component I'm trying to model is one casted inner turbo housing, so the finished product will need to be one part.

Thanks,

Max
 
which ntstgun

Hi Mr Catia,

Thank you for your prompt reply. The assembly above has been built as three separate parts as this was the only way I knew to constrain each part.

The three different parts above are modelling the inner housing of a turbo. In reality the part is casted and therefore these three parts will need to be joined together.

I'm sorry if I'm being confusing, its partly because I'm confused!

Max
 
Thanks for explaining and providing more detail.

OK, you have a good start to this design and I think the best way to proceed is something called "contextual design" which is designing all three mating parts together within an assembly.

First, all the parts should have the same origin point. The Turbo Housing has it's origin on the bottom center - that looks like a good reference to use. So, modify both bracket parts to have their sketches positioned based on the origin (and reference planes) of the Turbo Housing. (You can either modify the sketches of the brackets, or delete the brackets and make new ones - whichever is easier)

Second, the parts need to be positioned (constrained) within the assembly. If all the parts are using the same origin, this will be easy. I see from the screen shot, the 3 primary planes are all scattered around - I think it would be easiest to delete the assembly, make a new CATProduct and re-insert all 3 parts into the new assembly. As soon as the parts are inserted, use a FIX constraint to lock each part at it's default position. Hopefully all 3 sets of primary planes will be directly on top of each other. You might want to change the color of each part in the assembly, to help identify each part.

Third, with the new assembly open, double-click on the Bracket to make it the active model and to switch to the Part Design workbench. (pay attention to the part with the blue background in the tree - that's the active model). Working on the left Bracket, extend the length of the Bracket so it goes at least to the center plane of the Turbo Housing. To trim the Bracket, add a Groove feature by using the sketch in the Turbo Housing and rotating about the Y-axis. (the Bracket should now provide an exact fit with the Turbo Housing) This will create a link between the Turbo Housing and the Bracket, since the sketch is copied and used by the Bracket. If you modify the sketch in the Turbo Housing, the Bracket will change automatically (or when you Update it)

Repeat the process for other parts:
1. open the assembly
2. make one part active (blue background)
3. use features in one part to define features in the active part

Last; since we are linking the parts together (by sharing sketches and other features), we are creating a contextual assembly of parts. It is very important to be careful when saving/renaming/moving this "family" of contextual parts: so you should ALWAYS use the FILE + SAVE MANAGEMENT to save/rename/move any of these parts.

There are a few more details, but that should get you started with your design. Let me know if you have any questions or problems.
 
Thank you so very much for your long and detailed answer - I could not have hoped for a more descriptive answer.

I'll get started with this, hopefully it will be enough to keep me going!

Thank you again!

Max
 
Hi MrCatia,

I'm just trying to follow your guide but getting a bit stuck. The problem is that I have very little knowledge of how to do anything in CATIA. Can you recommend any resources I could use to boost my understanding of the program up to a suitable level that I could achieve what we're looking at?

Thanks,

Max
 
Oh, I thought you had some knowledge of CATIA already.

Before you tackle a set of parts like this, I strongly suggest you take a class from your university. Or see if there is a CATIA reseller close to you that teaches CATIA clases.

Short of that, try learning CATIA with much simplier parts first.
 
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Unfortunately due to the company I'm working with, I have to use CATIA to model this for my dissertation. I need to find an online resource or set of tutorials to help me with this during the weekend.

I really do appreciate your help, but one way or another I need to get this to work!
 
Can you modify both Brackets, making them longer so they extend to the center of the Turbo Housing?

And can you attach another picture of your assembly, but with the 3 parts expanded so I can see how you've created them so far.
 
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MrCatia,

Thank you for your reply again.
I have adjusted both brackets to extend into the the turbo housing itelf.

The problem I am having at the moment is that when I add the parts into the assembly I have to move them to where I want them which ruins the reference point.

However, I have managed to find some tutorials at university so I will go through thee first to see if I can solve my problem with the help you have given so far.

I'll let you know how I get on,

Thanks,

Max
 
Mr Catia,

I am managing to make some progress, however I have a problem that I cant seem to find a cure to on google.

I have created a sketch and then padded it. Now I want to add another pad but only to a small region of that pad. So I have made another sketch but when I create lines I cannot get them to ping to points on the original sketch. Basically I want to constrain against the first sketch - is this possible?

Thanks,

Max

EDIT

Dont worry got it working!
 
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Right, I have managed to get it all correctly contrained. Ignore my previous post as I found a work-around for it (copied the background sketch and made all the lines construction lines - probably not correct but it worked).

The problem I'm having, which is the same as the OP, is that I cant remove the material as shown in the image below:



Also, that hole needs to continue into the inner turbo housing body, how do I do both of these operations?

Thanks,

Max

EDIT

I've found a way to do it all in the same part! I just needed to create some new planes and redraw everything. Luckily it all worked out! Thanks for your ongoing help MrCatia!
 
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