When to convert bodies to components

[Anonymous]

Hi there,

So far I generally leave my design with bodies for as long as possible before converting to components. I am struggling to determine at what point in the design process it would be best to convert a body to a component.

Are there any drawback to converting to a component too early on?

[TrippyLighting]

Post an image ot a screencast of what you are desinging as that makes a difernc that takes too many words to describe.

For the most part  I'd say that the vast mjority of users the first thing you want to do is create and then activate a component.

[michaelpgeyer]

WSeat - out of curiousity, what is it you're designing? Intersted in how many parts and overall design intent.

[TannerReid]

Hi, WSEast!

It really depends on your CADing preferences and the type of model you're making. I typically will convert to components whenever it becomes necessary to do so, or when it would make it easier.  

Converting to a component makes a body (or multiple bodies, sketches, joints, construction geometry, etc.) be defined by specific origin, which is in tern defined by the origin of either the global space, or the origin of the Component Group (if you have nested components).  This means you can align/move/edit groups of objects (the component) in relation to parts outside of the component.  You can also set components to have joints between various geometries in the joint.  Components can also have multiple "instances" that reference each other.

So, I tend to convert once I have to start treating more than one body as one "part" in an assembly (moving/aligning a component, as opposed to a body), or when I have to start to adding joint functionality.  I also will convert as soon as I have a body or group of bodies that need to be copy-pasted with reference to each other (so that editing one changes all).  You can also save out components as multiple bodies in an STL, or a new file, so you should also convert when you need that functionality.

As you get further along, it'll become more intuitive to know when start converting.  Typically, I do it as early as I can, but not for the sake of converting - always for a specifical functional need.  More often than not, I'll make blank components and move parts into it.

I'd be interested to see when others convert!  Again, it really depends on the engineer and the product.

Hope that helps!
Tanner

[innovatenate]

There's another post (below) that has been discussing this topic. There is a potential pitfall for not planning ahead with respect to parametrics. It's particularly impactful if you use the Save Copy As and create components from your current design to use elsewhere. 

You may skim through this topic for further information.

http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/sketching-sculpting-modeling-and/hazy-on-components-assemblies-bodies-...

I hope that helps! Let me know if you have any questions.

Thanks,

[Anonymous]

When I am Placing multiples of that same part into an assembly I find that my computer handles the components way better than bodies. This is because it's less worried about all the smaller parts within each body.  This morning I am packing an MJF printer with 180 parts.  When selecting the base layer of parts I should only have 30 components but when they are still a body Fusion 360 recognizes them as over 3,000 components.  When it recognizes all the bodies it takes about 5 - 10 minutes per operation.  It is higher performance when only worrying about the 30 base components.

[chrisplyler]

I pretty much always model Components for each distinct, separate part, right from the beginning. Converting Bodies into Components later on is that workflow that has drawbacks.

[smartfxJXSMF]

Hi Tanner, do you have a reference or tutorial for doing what you described here? 

"So, I tend to convert once I have to start treating more than one body as one "part" in an assembly (moving/aligning a component, as opposed to a body), or when I have to start to adding joint functionality.  I also will convert as soon as I have a body or group of bodies that need to be copy-pasted with reference to each other (so that editing one changes all). "

I have a group of bodies where I would like to link them so that one editing changes all. I'm not sure how to group them and do this, whether starting directly as components or by turning the current bodies into components. 

Thanks!

Christina