CAD Forum

Figured I'd post my guide for creating Skeleton Sketch Part large assemblies here, since they are getting rid of the SW forum.

Thanks for starting this Matt -

Thanks for starting this thread, Matt.

I am in the process of implementing an SSP procedure in partnership with a very interesting company that is creating a significant piece of art to be installed in the Battersea Park in New York City. Can't wait to see in it place and tell my son that I had a small contribution in producing it.

What is interesting in this SSP process is that no information between parts is transferred via assemblies. There will be no external references transmitted through assemblies.

We made great use of the:
- Sketch colors
- Sketch Names
- Selection Sets
- Favorite Folder(s)
- Hide/Show Tree Feature (macros)
- Insert into New Part (macro) - to avoid the bad issues created by the Save Bodies feature
- Rename bodies based on cut-list property (macro)
- Extruded surfaces driven by one sketch and one feature as replacement for reference planes

The result is a very complex assembly made of complex parts that can be modified in seconds, without impacting their friends.
Also there are zero mates in all assemblies.

I am happy to report that my client accepted a proposal for a joint submission of a 3DXW22 presentation. I will provide more details when I get the green light to share more.

Nice @Alin!
Would they be willing to share their files? I'd definitely like to take a look at what they did.
Also, just wanted to throw this out there that I've been using planes wherever possible instead of sketch entities to drive things.

Not sure about sharing files, but we will see what else can be shared in the presentation.

On the other topic, planes are great, but managing them is important. The Extrude-Surface feature can create a zillion of "planes" in seconds and all can be managed from one sketch. Try that, also, instead of planes.

Alin wrote: ↑Fri Mar 19, 2021 3:01 pm Not sure about sharing files, but we will see what else can be shared in the presentation.

On the other topic, planes are great, but managing them is important. The Extrude-Surface feature can create a zillion of "planes" in seconds and all can be managed from one sketch. Try that, also, instead of planes.

So, these would all be sketched lines on the front and right planes that would be extruded surfaces, instead?

mattpeneguy wrote: ↑Fri Mar 19, 2021 3:29 pm
So, these would all be sketched lines on the front and right planes that would be extruded surfaces, instead?

Yes. Give that a try. And for extra kicks, color the defining sketch(es) and promote it (them) to the Favorites folder of the part and of any assemblies containing the part.

Now, with one click in the Favorites you get access to all dimensions governing all those planes. Pretty crazy, eh?

Want more? Turn all those surface bodies to transparent and now they look like planes.

Make sure to understand line directions if you use sketch entities. It is an important part of it IMO.

A line drawn from bottom to top is not the same as a line drawn from top to bottom, even if they have the same length and are parallel. Thin extrusions is an example of how it differs. One will generate the thin extrusion on the left side, the other will generate it on the right side.

We use the skeleton to facilitate our project management, but also to ease the workload for engineers and make sure that whatever engineers are looking at is the same geometry as what we're working with.

Alin wrote: ↑Fri Mar 19, 2021 2:24 pm Thanks for starting this thread, Matt.

I am in the process of implementing an SSP procedure in partnership with a very interesting company that is creating a significant piece of art to be installed in the Battersea Park in New York City. Can't wait to see in it place and tell my son that I had a small contribution in producing it.

What is interesting in this SSP process is that no information between parts is transferred via assemblies. There will be no external references transmitted through assemblies.

We made great use of the:
- Sketch colors
- Sketch Names
- Selection Sets
- Favorite Folder(s)
- Hide/Show Tree Feature (macros)
- Insert into New Part (macro) - to avoid the bad issues created by the Save Bodies feature
- Rename bodies based on cut-list property (macro)
- Extruded surfaces driven by one sketch and one feature as replacement for reference planes

The result is a very complex assembly made of complex parts that can be modified in seconds, without impacting their friends.
Also there are zero mates in all assemblies.

I am happy to report that my client accepted a proposal for a joint submission of a 3DXW22 presentation. I will provide more details when I get the green light to share more.

@Alin - Can't wait to see this, I know if someone could take the SSP process to the next level it would definitely be you, you're not looking to poke holes into any process, but to use it as a stepping stone to create a "Better Process" - a "Better Software", there are no "Limits" - I'm truly psyched...

any chance to get the pdf for this again?
We want to implement this, but avoid common mistakes. Man, I miss the old forum....

@Alin is there a video already up for this/do you have a course already ready?

berg_lauritz wrote: ↑Mon Jun 07, 2021 11:50 am any chance to get the pdf for this again?
We want to implement this, but avoid common mistakes. Man, I miss the old forum....

@Alin is there a video already up for this/do you have a course already ready?

Even better, I've attached a guide one of my coworkers made for a bridge that will never be built.

Alin wrote: ↑Fri Mar 19, 2021 3:01 pm Not sure about sharing files, but we will see what else can be shared in the presentation.

On the other topic, planes are great, but managing them is important. The Extrude-Surface feature can create a zillion of "planes" in seconds and all can be managed from one sketch. Try that, also, instead of planes.

I try to avoid surfaces as much as possible, they tend to make things a lot more "intensive" and when it comes time to create sections in drawings, you always gotta check to not show surfaces or else they show up.

I can understand the use behind it though, but I guess I'd have to have some sort of "DeleteSurface", but then that would delete the purpose of having them most likely.

@mattpeneguy

Wow! That is incredibly helpful! Thank you!

I would like to share my experience.

First, I used the skeleton sketches in a part, this part is the first part in the top assembly. That part has only sketches and planes, no features. All other parts have relations with this part. I named it SSP.SLDPRT.

I wanted to distribute parts into subassemblies, but this led to a loss of relations.
Also Solidworks doesn't allow you to replace relations.

I found one way. I moved the parts to the subassembly, but left a copy of it in the top assembly. I put this part in a folder and suppressed it. I unsuppressed it when it was necessary to update a part in the subassembly.

The specifics of the operation of PLM Windchill was the next problem. I could not "check in" individual parts and subassemblies, only all together. This was due to the relations created in the top assembly between SSP.SLDPRT and other parts. Because the relations were created in the top assembly. Windchill wanted the assembly to be check in too. And this, in turn, required that all included parts were also check in.

It was TERRIBLE!

So the next time I tried to do it differently. I used SSP.SLDPRT and inserted it into every part.
This allows you to check in files without problems. You only need to check in the part and the SSP.SLDPRT. Also, the parts can be moved around the subassemblies without any problems.

May be ​some problems may appear later, but so far I have not found them.

@Alin did the presentation happen and is there somewhere we can watch it?

@mattpeneguy your coworker put an impressive amount of work into creating that document it is through and professional.