part origin moved

[tomae]

I have been working on an assembly and over time my part (assembly) has apparently moved away from the origin (my terminology may not be correct here).  When i brought a new part into the assembly it comes in out in space somewhere away from my part.  How do I get my part to be back at the original location?  See attached image of the end of my part out away from the point where new parts appear...

[Phil.E]

Hi,

A couple of different things may have happened, and the solution sort of depends on what that is.

Bodies: bodies are containers for 3D shapes. They live inside components and can move around inside components.

Components: are containers for bodies, sketches, canvas, joints, etc. and have their own origin.

If your design has only bodies, then the top level of the browser is your only component and the origin you refer to belongs to it.

So either your body was moved (this requires a Move command) in relation to it's component owner origin. Did you move the body deliberately?

Or your component was moved in relation to the top level origin. This can be done with Move, or by dragging, or by jointing it to something. This creates a Snapshot which is a historical capture of a component position for modeling purposes. Did you accept the snapshot?

If the answer to the last question is Yes, then find the snapshot in the timeline and delete it. Be careful, if you have dependencies based on that position you may get model failures. Look for new red and yellow warnings in the timeline.

If you think the body moved relative to the origin, or just want to move the component, use the Move command and pick Point to Point as your move style.

 The white puck shape is the icon for Body selection. You can also move sketches with this tool.

Pick a point on the object to move. Again, be sure you want to move either body or component first.

Pick the origin.

Thanks,

[tomae]

Thanks, that is very helpful!  My design is made up of a dozen or so components.  I had many many snapshots in my design (on the order of 25 of them).  I didn't really understand why it was telling me something moved and would always just accept rather than continue or figure out what it was trying to tell me.  I just went through my design and removed all the snapshots.  I am removing all my joints and going back and redoing all of them as well.  It is much cleaner now.

A few related questions...

I have a power supply that is made up of a body that I drew/extruded and two components (I think they are components, they have the link icon in them) that I brought in from outside cad (they are a couple Phoenix Connectors terminal blocks).  Do I use Modify -> Align to get these connectors in the right position in relation to the body (then perhaps an Assemble - Rigid Group) or do I use Assemble -> Joints as if the power supply is a (sub)assembly (which it is)?  What is the best practice here?

When I am setting up joints between components of my design, do I activate the top level design component or do I activate one of the two comonents that the joint is directly between?

Thanks again,

-Tom

[Phil.E · Accepted solution]

Q: "Do I use Modify -> Align to get these connectors in the right position in relation to the body (then perhaps an Assemble - Rigid Group) or do I use Assemble -> Joints as if the power supply is a (sub)assembly (which it is)? "

A: If you use Align or Move you need to ensure you are moving the component, not the body inside the component, and next would come Rigid Group.

Note: Use Rigid Group when you do not need to edit the motion or position of the components. If something needs to move, you'll have to roll back time prior to Rigid Group that glues them together.

A favorite workflow of mine is to apply a Joint Origin to any standard electronic component. Place the JO where the component needs to attach to a circuit board. Next, when you are modeling the circuit board, place a Joint Origin in the corresponding place where the inserted component will attach to the circuit board. After inserting the component, use a Rigid Joint to attach one JO to the other JO.

In this way, you have a set of library components that are always ready to insert and always ready to assemble. The Joint Origins (JO) are all parametrically editable. So when you need to edit a component location, simply edit the Joint Origin location on the circuit board, the inserted component will follow it now.

Q: "When I am setting up joints between components of my design, do I activate the top level design component or do I activate one of the two comonents that the joint is directly between?"

A: The Joint will go to the lowest level common to both components anyway. This might be the top level, or a sub-assembly both components are inside of.

Thanks,