Assembly Modeling In an assembly model, components are brought together to define a larger, more complex product representation and

analysis.
Assembly modeling is a tool that allows and facilitates the collaboration among designers, analysis people, manufacturing people, and others, to insure their assembly works together. This enables individuals in different disciplines to work concurrently, resulting in faster and less costly delivery of products to market.
Ken Youssefi Mechanical Engineering Dept.

Assembly Modeling
Constructing an assembly begins with bringing in a base component, selected because of its central role. Each component brought in needs to be oriented and located relative to other components in the assembly.

Geometric relations (constraints) are used between elements of components.

Ken Youssefi

Mechanical Engineering Dept.

Assembly Modeling
Bottom-Up Design (Modeling) this is a logical, traditional, and most common approach. The individual parts a created independently, inserted into the assembly, and located and oriented (using the mating conditions) as required by the design. The bottom-up-approach is the preferred technique if the parts have already been created (off the shelf). It allows the designer to focus on the individual parts. It also makes it easier to maintain the relationships and regeneration behavior of parts than in the top-down approach.

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Mechanical Engineering Dept.

Bottom-Up Design - Example

Base component

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Mechanical Engineering Dept.

Assembly Modeling
Top-Down Design (Modeling) In this approach, the assembly file is created first with an assembly layout sketch. The parts are made in the assembly file or the concept drawing of the parts are inserted and finalized in the assembly file. In other words, the final geometry of the parts have not been defined before bringing them into the assembly file. The approach is ideal for large assemblies. Combination basic geometry for a part is established first, then it is brought into an assembly for further refinements.

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Mechanical Engineering Dept.

Pictorial Shaded Assembly Drawing

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Mechanical Engineering Dept.

Pictorial Shaded Assembly Drawing

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Mechanical Engineering Dept.

Pictorial Shaded Assembly & Subassembly Drawing

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Mechanical Engineering Dept.

Pictorial Shaded Exploded Assembly Drawing

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Mechanical Engineering Dept.

Assembly and Exploded Views

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Mechanical Engineering Dept.

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Flow Lines for Exploded Views

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Mechanical Engineering Dept.

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Exploded view for ordering parts

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Mechanical Engineering Dept.

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Locating & Orienting Parts in the Assembly Mating Conditions

Most common mating conditions are Coincident (Mate), Concentric (Insert), Coplanar (Align), Tangent, Parallel and Perpendicular, and Offset faces.

Coincident (Mate)
The coincident mating condition is applied between to planar faces

An offset option is provided for this command

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Each face is specified by its unit normal vector, n, and a point on the surface, P. The coincident condition is satisfied by forcing n1 and n2 to be opposite of each other, and the two faces touch each other Mechanical Engineering Dept. such that P1 and P2 are coincident 13

Mating Conditions Coplanar (Aligned)

Coplanar (Align)
The coplanar mating condition is applied between to planar faces, and forces them to lie in the same plane.

Ken Youssefi

Each face is specified by its unit normal vector, n, and a point on the surface, P. The coplanar condition is satisfied by forcing n1 and n2 to be in the same direction, and the two points, P1 and P2, are chosen to lie on the twoDept. edge to mate Mechanical Engineering 14

Mating Conditions - Concentric

Concentric (Insert)
The concentric mating condition is applied between two cylindrical faces

The concentric mating condition is achieved by forcing the axes to become collinear. Each axis is defined by two points.
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Mating Conditions Tangent

Tangent The tangent mating condition is applicable between a planar and cylindrical surfaces or two cylindrical surfaces.

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Mechanical Engineering Dept.

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Other Mating Conditions

Parallel Perpendicular Surface intersecting an edge Edge intersecting a point Angles of surfaces/planes to each other Relationship of a geometry to a coordinate system

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Mechanical Engineering Dept.

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Degrees of Freedom
Any component that is unconstrained in space has six degrees of freedom.

Translation movement along X, Y, and Z axis (three degrees of freedom) Rotation rotate about X, Y, and Z axis (three degrees of freedom)

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UC Berkeley

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Degrees of Freedom
Coincident
Two selected surfaces become co-planar and face in opposite directions. This constrains 3 degrees of freedom (two rotations and one translation)

Align (coplanar)
The two selected surfaces (planar) lie in the same plane. Constrains 3 degrees of freedom (two rotations and one translation)
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Degrees of Freedom
Concentric
Two selected cylindrical objects become aligned. Constrains four degrees of freedom (two rotations, two translations)

Parallel
Two planar surfaces are made parallel, not necessarily co-planar, and face the same direction (similar to Align Offset except without the specified distance). Constrains two degrees of freedom (two rotations)
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Creating an Assembly
Part Part

Assembly

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Mechanical Engineering Dept.

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Creating an Assembly Example

The example assembly requires three mates to fully define it. First constrain: Mate between the hollow faces as shown.

Hollow faces

This removes three degrees of freedom.

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Mechanical Engineering Dept.

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Example
Second Constrain: Align the right faces of both components.

Right side faces

One degree of freedom left

Third Constrain: Align the top faces of both components.

top faces
The assembly is fully defined

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Mechanical Engineering Dept.

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Example Switch Plate

Switch plate consists of two components, plate and fasteners.

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Mechanical Engineering Dept.

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Example Switch Plate

First Constrain: Concentric select the cylindrical face of the fastener and the cylindrical face of the switch plate.

Two degrees of freedom remains, the fastener can still move in and out and rotate inside the hole.
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Example Switch Plate

Second Constrain: Coincident the flat circular back face of the fastener and the flat front face of the switch plate.

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Mechanical Engineering Dept.

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Example Switch Plate

Parallel mate could be used to line up the slot on the screw head with the flat top face of the switch plate.

The assembly is fully defined

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Assembly in SW

Select to open an assembly file

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Mechanical Engineering Dept.

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Assembly in SW

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Mechanical Engineering Dept.

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Assembly Toolbar and Ribbon

Move component Rotate component

Mate positions components relative to each other

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Mechanical Engineering Dept.

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Assembly Example

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Mechanical Engineering Dept.

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Assembly in SW

For bottom-up assembly, insert the base component, in this case the Block.

Select the first component to insert into assembly..

Browse to find your component if it is not open.

You can also drag and drop components into the assembly file
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Assembly Mate Command

Mate window Select Mate Insert the plate, click any place on the screen to drop the plate

Select entities

Type of Mates

Specifies distance and angle for Mates

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Mechanical Engineering Dept.

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Assembly Mate Command

Mate window

Select Face 1

Select Coincident

Select Face 2

Options after selecting the Coincident Mate

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Assembly Mate Command

Coincident, two surfaces facing each other Two surfaces parallel to each other

Two surfaces perpendicular to each other

Two surfaces offset at a specified distance

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Mechanical Engineering Dept.

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Assembly Mate Command

Two surfaces at a specified angle Align two surfaces

Undo

Accept
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Assembly Mate Command

Mate and Align planes

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Mechanical Engineering Dept.

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Assembly Mate Command

Select cylindrical surface 2

Use Concentric option to line up cylindrical surfaces

Select cylindrical surface 1

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Mechanical Engineering Dept.

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Summary of the Basic Mates

Coincident - Positions selected faces, edges, and planes (in combination with each other or combined with a single vertex) so they share the same infinite plane. Positions two vertices so they touch Parallel - Places the selected items so they remain a constant distance apart from each other Tangent - Places the selected items tangent to each other (at least one selection must be a cylindrical, conical, or spherical face). Concentric - Places the selections so that they share the same center line
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Summary of the Basic Mates

Lock - Maintains the position and orientation between two components. Distance - Places the selected items with the specified distance between them. Angle - Places the selected items at the specified angle to each other.

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Mechanical Engineering Dept.

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Advanced Mates
Forces two similar entities to be symmetric about a plane or planar face. Constrains a selected point on a component to a path. Establishes a relationship between the translation of one component and the translation of another component. Allows components to move within a range of values for distance and angle mates.
Mechanical Engineering Dept.

Ken Youssefi

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Mechanical Mates
Cam & Follower It allows you to mate a cylinder,
plane, or point to a series of tangent extruded faces, such as you would find on a cam. Hinge Limits the movement between two components to one rotational degree of freedom.

Gear Forces two components to rotate relative

to one another about selected axes. Rack and Pinion. Linear translation of one part (the rack) causes circular rotation in another part (the pinion), and vice versa.

Screw. Constrains two components to be concentric,

and also adds a pitch relationship between the rotation of one component and the translation of the other. Universal Joint. The rotation of one component (the output shaft) about its axis is driven by the rotation of another component (the input shaft) about its axis. 42
Mechanical Engineering Dept.

Ken Youssefi

Exploded View
Select Exploded View option from the Insert menu Select each component and drag to a desired location

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Mechanical Engineering Dept.

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Assembly in SolidWorks
You can use the SmartMates to save time. To create SmartMates while dragging a component: 1. Hold down Alt and drag a component over potential mate partners. 2. The component becomes transparent and the pointer changes when it is over a valid mate partner. 3. Drop the component to apply the mate.
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Moving around in the assembly

Select a component, right click and choose Move with Triad

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Fundamentals of Assembly in Creo 2.0

In pull down menu File, select new and then choose Assembly option.

Select

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Mechanical Engineering Dept.

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Fundamentals of Assembly in Creo 2.0

Browse and select a component to insert

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Mechanical Engineering Dept.

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Select OK to insert the first component

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Mechanical Engineering Dept.

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Insert the second component and select the type of mate

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Mechanical Engineering Dept.

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Select the second surface

Select the first surface

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Mechanical Engineering Dept.

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Select Coincident and the two faces to lineup

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The assembly is not fully constrained yet, parts can slide relative to each other in the x direction

Use the Move option to translate or rotate parts

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Choose Placement and select the two faces to fully constrain the assembly

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Mechanical Engineering Dept.

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Choose constraint type

Mating Components

You may Remove (delete) any constraint by right clicking the constraint, or add a new constraint

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Mechanical Engineering Dept.

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Mechanical Mates
Rigid - Connects two components so that they do not move relatively to each other. Zero degree of freedom

Pin - Connects a component to a referenced axis so that the component rotates with respect to this axis. One degree of freedom (rotation)
Slider - Connects a component to a referenced axis so that the component moves along the axis. One degree of freedom (translation)

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Mechanical Engineering Dept.

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Mechanical Mates
Cylinder - Connects a component so that it moves along and rotates about a specific axis. Two degrees of freedom (rotation and translation about the same axis) Planar - Connects components so that they move in a plane relatively to each other with two degrees of freedom in the plane and one degree of freedom around an axis perpendicular to it (3 degrees of freedom, two translation and one rotation) Ball - Connects a component so that it can rotate in any direction with three degrees of freedom (360 rotation). Bearing - A combination of Ball and Slider connections with four degrees of freedom. There are three degrees of freedom (for 360 rotation) 56 and movement along a referenced axis
Mechanical Engineering Dept.

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To explode the assembly, select View and choose Exploded View

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Mechanical Engineering Dept.

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Toggle back to the assembly view

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Modifying exploded View

Select Edit Position and move a component

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Flow Line
Select Create offset line in Edit Position option

Select the references to create the flow line Flow line

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Assembly in NX
Open a new file and call it an Assembly Or select Assemblies from the Start menu

Mate Component

Position Component

Add Existing Component

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Make Work Part

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Assembly in NX

Add Existing Component

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Assembly in NX

Mate Component

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Assembly in NX
Handles

Reposition Component
Point to point

Rotate about a point Translate

Rotate about points

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Rotate about a line

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Assembly in NX5
Use the Make Work Part option to activate a part to modify.

Make Work Part

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Mechanical Engineering Dept.

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Example
Select Add Existing Component select the file containing the first component in the assembly

Select Absolute for positioning and choose a point on the screen.

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Example
Note that Mate option is automatically selected

Select Add Existing Component again select the file containing the second component in the assembly

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Mechanical Engineering Dept.

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Example

Then select the top face to mate the two surfaces

Select the bottom face

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Mechanical Engineering Dept.

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Example

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Example

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Add the third component (bolt) and Mate the bottom of the bolt head with the top surface of the base

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Mechanical Engineering Dept.

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Select Mate Component option select Center select the bolt cylinder surface and the hole surface

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Mechanical Engineering Dept.

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Exploded Views
Select Exploded Views from the Assemblies menu

Choose Create Explosion option

Name the explosion and select OK

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Mechanical Engineering Dept.

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After creating an explosion, select Assemblies and choose Auto-explode Components

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Mechanical Engineering Dept.

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Select components and specify the distance

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Mechanical Engineering Dept.

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The Exploded View

This option may not produce a perfect exploded view the first time; it is intended to give you a good start towards a perfect explosion. After using AutoExplode Components, you can follow up and refine your explosion by choosing Edit Explosion and editing the parameters with the Explode Component dialog.
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Select Assemblies choose Edit Explosion select the object to be moved Drag the object to the new position or move it according to a specific distance

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Mechanical Engineering Dept.

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