Cable Assembly Techniques (Reference Assembly: CABLE1)

1. "Red" Component: This component was assembled using three (3) constraints- an axis align, a mate offset, and an align "orient". The last constraint allows you to control the orientation with respect to the axis of the hole. In your assembly, this was accomplished by mating or aligning two datum planes that run through the axis of the hole. However, this assumes that an assembly or part datum already exists through the hole. If it does not, an "orient" constraint can be used to control the orientation with respect to the axis. With an "orient", two (2) selected surfaces or planes are made parallel to one another, but not necessarily coincident, or coplanar. Edit the definition of this component to observe this. (You can also use an "align- angle offset" constraint to rotate the component, as well). 2. "White" Component: This component was also placed with an "orient" constraint. In this case, however, an assembly datum plane at an angle of 45 degrees was created before the component was inserted. The "align" orient constraint then forces the datum plane on the "White" component to be parallel to the assembly plane. The component can then be "rotated" by editing the rotation value of the assembly plane. With both of these components, note that the "aligning" planes are parallel to one another but are not coplanar! 3. "Blue" Component: This component was placed using the technique that I described this morning- using "placement" and "move" together. This requires, however, that the component be assembled as "packaged" (non-parametric) or by using Pro Mechanism constraints- pin, slider joints, etc. This is why I did not describe it in greater detail. With this method, you can dynamically spin the model about the axis to any angle that you want. 4. "Grey" Component: This component was place with just two constraints- an axis align and a mate offset. With "assembly assumptions" checked, this is enough to place the component, but Pro/E makes an assumption as to the orientation of the part with respect to the assembly. We noticed this phenomenon this morning when we placed your second assembly in the assembly. I then performed a "copy", "paste special" on this component, specifying a rotation value of 34.3 degrees. I then deleted the original "grey" component. As you can see, there are a number of ways to produce the "reorientation" effect that we discussed this morning. If you look at the "back" view of the assembly, you can see the results of these various operations. Please review this assembly. If you would like me to go over this with you (or other members of you illustrious group), please let me know. Regards, Kevin

cable1.prt.1 (156base1.prt.1 (78 KB) cable1.asm.4 (76 KB) KB)