Workflow for creating heavily derived components?

[Anonymous]

I'm struggling with what is the best workflow for creating a component that is heavilly derived from other components.

Specifically, what I want to create is a plate bracket that is used to hold about a dozen components together.  What I've done so far is model all of the sub components as separate designs. Then, I created a new design for the bracket. The first thing I did in that design was to import all of the components that are being bolted together.

This is where I'm starting to run into difficulty.  What next?   What I've done so far is create a sketch with some of the gross geometry of the bracket that I could use for creating the body of the bracket.  But, I can't quite figure out the best way of positioning all of the components for the purpose of creating bolt holes and the like.   If I position the bodies before I create the bracket in the timeline, I have no guidance regarding some of the gross geometric constraints. (The plate bracket has a fixed size, and a "keep out" zone offset from the edge so it can be used as a mounting flange, which is reflected on the sketch.)   If I position the components after the sketch, they are not available for projecting in the sketch for things like defining bolt hole cutouts.  (Ultimately, this plate will be water-jet cut.)   The positioning of the components is further complicated by the fact that some need to be aligned to the front of the plate, and some to the back, and that is very difficult to do before the plate body is created, since that is needed for alignment.

I also can't figure out how to assemble components according to relative positions - e.g. these componens should be aligned and 10mm appart - if one component is updated and grows, everything needs to slide up.  Is there a way to drive body or component position in 3-d space based on their projection into a sketch, where there seems to be more tools for parametrically defining and constraining geometry?

Can someone suggest a better workflow for this sort of design problem.

Thanks.

    --- Carl

[TrippyLighting]

How about two skecths. One for the gross geometry of the bracket and one for positioning the components ?

[HughesTooling]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I also can't figure out how to assemble components according to relative positions - e.g. these componens should be aligned and 10mm appart - if one component is updated and grows, everything needs to slide up.  Is there a way to drive body or component position in 3-d space based on their projection into a sketch, where there seems to be more tools for parametrically defining and constraining geometry?

Can someone suggest a better workflow for this sort of design problem.

Thanks.

    --- Carl

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Look at positioning using Joins as long as you keep the inserted designs linked any modifications to sizes will update positions.

Help on joints

Mark.