Half-assed SSP
Posted: Thu Apr 08, 2021 2:07 pm
I'm still learning SSP method, and have had occasional success perpetuating a similar assembly into varying multiples and contexts. Thanks to others for sharing with and encouraging me in the forum. This is a tale of SSP used dirty, and it still shines through when it's really needed.
The project I'm working on now is a bad SSP, a lazy SSP. It gets the job done in an unusual context. The SSP holds some critical mates, but new parts were added independently of it, and the applied structural part was dimensioned entirely within itself. Today I am mirroring the assembly by exchanging positions and orientation of two vertical SSP planes. All of the things that were defined well to the SSP moved and reoriented automatically, while all of the stuff thrown in with simple assembly mates now had to be repaired or flipped tediously. For the fiercely independent structural weldment part, I created a single reference plane in it to the symmetry plane in the SSP, and used it to mirror bodies and then delete old bodies.
I learned a few things.
The project I'm working on now is a bad SSP, a lazy SSP. It gets the job done in an unusual context. The SSP holds some critical mates, but new parts were added independently of it, and the applied structural part was dimensioned entirely within itself. Today I am mirroring the assembly by exchanging positions and orientation of two vertical SSP planes. All of the things that were defined well to the SSP moved and reoriented automatically, while all of the stuff thrown in with simple assembly mates now had to be repaired or flipped tediously. For the fiercely independent structural weldment part, I created a single reference plane in it to the symmetry plane in the SSP, and used it to mirror bodies and then delete old bodies.
I learned a few things.
- Anyone familiar with weldments knows that the features do not mirror well, but bodies do. I knew that already, but..
- A Mirror Feature (in a part, not assembly) requires a mirror plane/face within the part. It would not allow to use the mirror plane in the SSP. (2018 SP5), but it did allow a Part plane referencing the SSP Plane.
- Even a poorly implemented or bungled SSP is still an SSP. Adapting one thing into a new thing, and then readapting that thing per request - is still way easier.
- Learning from mistakes requires mistakes. I didn't expect to flip it! Now I am more informed how to implement SSP better, next time.
- (EDIT) I always wanted to be able to select multiple mates and flip them simultaneously. Now I know how to. Mating several things parallel to a SSP plane allows me to flip SSP plane and they all follow once SSP is done editing and the assembly is rebuilt.