CAD Forum

Hello,
I’ve been doing some work recently with smart components and can’t get my head around why a certain function is not possible. Any explanations would be appreciated.

I am making an assembly of a door and its frame, which can cut a hole through the wall it is positioned against. I have managed to achieve this by setting up an assembly with the door and its components and a mock wall of the same thickness as the actual walls. I had a sketch of the hole shape in the door frame part. I used convert entities to bring this sketch onto the mock wall and then cut the hole. Finally, I created a smart component of the door part, added the frame as another component and the hole as a feature. This then works fine.



What I’m then trying to do is change the dimensions of the frame and have this update to the dimensions of the hole. Why is this not possible, yet if I move the frame, the hole moves with it (after a rebuild)?

Thanks,
Jack

I haven't seen many people take on smart components. And to be honest, I haven't used it in a couple of years at least. It's a really cool functionality if you need it.

Just from your description, you have some parent/child things backwards. You say you used convert entities to bring the door hole shape into the sketch, but then you want to change the sketch size and have the door update. Am I getting that right?

The way you have it, the door drives the hole, but you want the hole to drive the door.

I think the way you have to approach this is to configure the door and the door opening, and then change the door configuration to match with a different size door and hole. I'm kind of guessing here, but that's how I vaguely remember that it works.

I've attached the section from my Mastering SolidWorks book in pdf format that covered this topic (~20 pages)

matt wrote: ↑Wed Jul 14, 2021 11:55 am I haven't seen many people take on smart components. And to be honest, I haven't used it in a couple of years at least. It's a really cool functionality if you need it.

Just from your description, you have some parent/child things backwards. You say you used convert entities to bring the door hole shape into the sketch, but then you want to change the sketch size and have the door update. Am I getting that right?

The way you have it, the door drives the hole, but you want the hole to drive the door.

I think the way you have to approach this is to configure the door and the door opening, and then change the door configuration to match with a different size door and hole. I'm kind of guessing here, but that's how I vaguely remember that it works.

I've attached the section from my Mastering SolidWorks book in pdf format that covered this topic (~20 pages)

I may have to turn you in for violating copyright...

Well, there we go. Page 575, Editing Smart Components. Thanks Matt, great book.

(For anyone else looking for a solution from this post) Actually Matt, that wasn’t what I meant. I wasn’t trying to change the size of the hole and have that change the door size. I was trying to change the door size and have the hole update.

The “Edit in Defining Assembly” option discussed in the book allows you to make changes in the smart component and upload those into the smart component easily, without needing to go into the training assembly. It’s found by right-clicking the Smart Feature folder.

mattpeneguy wrote: ↑Wed Jul 14, 2021 12:29 pm I may have to turn you in for violating copyright...

Come on man, it's "The Bible"!