Best Practice for Modelling a Piano/MIDI Keyboard?

[1155175229]

I am modelling a broken midi keyboard so that I can derive a new design from it. The keys mostly share the same features, the top narrow parts of the white keys are common, as shown in the photo below, and all black keys are the same:

However, the spacing between the keys are not uniform, and every white keys have a different shape at the bottom, which makes basic patterning impossible. Ideally I would like to only model a single white and a single black key, and have the rest of the keys reference them AND have them respect the spacing defined in the sketch. Is there a good way to do so?

[etfrench]

Hmmm.  It looks like the white keys are in sets of 3 and the black are mirror images of each other.(The bottom keys fooled me😥 ) Just pattern the set of 5.  Each key should consist of two components, the top section and the bottom section.

p.s. Use joints to connect the bottom and top of each key.

[davebYYPCU]

If making one piece keys you have 8 individuals, granted some (3 - no profiles) are mirrors, 

I simplified that sketch to only whats needed to get there. 

One pattern for the bottom sections, then equals constraints.

Might help....

[TrippyLighting]

A "truly" best practice would be to use a feature set called "Configurations" that won't be available until at least late next year.

This is basically the same question asked in this thread.

Until then you'll have to resort to some form of workaround.

[1155175229]

I think I will take inspiration from both @etfrench and @davebYYPCU 's answers. I will design 1 white key (top & bottom separately) and 1 black keys, then take some driven dimensions in my sketch and use them as parameters when copying the bodies. If I put the copying actions at the end of the timeline, then all changes will reflect in the duplicated bodies as well

[1155175229]

I believe I have found a good workaround that satisfy all my requirements, and I hope this can help others in the future. I designed a white key (both parts), a black key and the hinge mechanism in the keybed_base file, then I derived the sketches and bodies into the keybed_assembly file (pretty much like the bottom-up approach in solidworks & alike). In the new file I made copies of the derived bodies because I cannot edit derived entities directly, then made multiple rectangular patterns using the parameters in the derived sketch.