Detail individual frame members with weld plates.

[davidp1]

Thank you in advance for any help you can give me.

I am trying to detail individual frame members for my welders in a DWG so they can bring one piece at a time and weld the bolt plates on for a bolt together frame. The only way I have found so far is to select the frame member and all of the weld plates then copy and paste into a new assembly. then I can create the drawing view and dimension it. I am sure that there is a better workflow than I used to create the assembly as I am self-taught and have no official training other than you-tube videos and trial and error. I have attached my assembly. DWG 8X3 ITEM 7 is what I am trying to accomplish

[Gabriel_Watson]

If you need new views in a drawing that use separate files, just create more base views after the first (assembly) and pick the other files needed:

[bastienGQQ2F]

Hello,

I would probably divide your main frame assembly in subassemblies and create a drawing for each of them. You can demote frame members to create new subassembly and drag your plates, ribs and so on in the new assembly.

The assembly file you shared isn't usable, you would need to share every part file contained in the assembly for it to work. Best would be to attach a pack & go.

[pcrawley · Accepted solution]

I hate the idea of you having to make copies of data just so you can detail it - that's duplication of data - and since it comes from Frame Generator, you'll be breaking the link back to the original model, so a change to your skeleton/layout will probably fail to show in your drawings.

Creating subassemblies is a great idea (multi-select frame members/end plates in your FG subassembly - right-click and "Demote with Frame Generator").  There are some problems though with FG subassemblies.  The biggest shortcoming is that you can't demote "Reused" components.  If you are using the FG "Endcap" tool to create the bolt plates, they will be reused data - so subassemblies may not be the answer.

Another idea (which I use a lot) is create a View Representation in the parent assembly and make everything invisible except the FG member and the bolt plate in question.  Create a drawing view of the parent assembly, but change the view to only show the View Rep of the two pieces you want to show.

Let me know if you want screenshots... I'm not in front of the PC to do any right now, but can do something later.

[davidp1]

Thank you all for the replies. I have created a Trellis P&G that I am uploading (not sure if I did it correctly). I will try to figure out the View Representation suggestion first because it seems like the fastest way to get something on the floor in the short term.

[k.hendrickx · Accepted solution]

This is indeed best done with either View Representations or Model States.

Just add Views and hide all components that are not relevant to the current step in your production and repeat till you have all your steps and the full assembly.

Then in the drawing keep adding base views and change the view to the corresponding step.

No need for duplicate files or creating unnecessary subassemblies. All can be done with Views or Model states.

[chris · Accepted solution]

An added benefit with the View Rep's is that whatever you attach a balloon to stays with the first/current BOM

[davidp1]

Again, thank you all for helping me with this. I have created a new view of the parent assembly. When I try to edit the view, everything is selected with the option Select to Include. I can select View Included then have the option Select to Exclude, but that would take a long time to select each individual piece to exclude. Am I going about this wrong?

[davidp1]

I think I have it figured out, I selected all and un-checked visibility then was able to just select the items I wanted to include.

[k.hendrickx]

Just create a new view from the representations folder and hide the things you don't want to show (yet).

You could also work backwards from the finished piece and keep copying the last view rep and hide the components one by one while create copies of the previous view rep until you reach the end (which is actually the start of your assembly process).

However, if your structure consists of so many pieces that it's hard to select components, try think about dividing your structure in more manageable pieces. Try to keep it "in sync" with the production process... Your welders also won't be welding a complete building in one go, but instead create segments which then get assembled or welded to other sections. Try to get that same structure in your models to keep things efficient. (try to see if there are sections that are identical and then you'll only need to create one drawing for these and reuse the section again and again).

[chris]

I would recommend finishing your design before crafting your view reps, as all view reps will include anything new added to the assembly from the time the view rep was created. Autodesk really needs to fix that, but I guess they think other things are more important. If I have time later today I'll try to add a video showing that workflow.

[k.hendrickx]

If you lock the views, new components won't be added to that view 😉

[chris]

@k.hendrickx NICE... (when did "lock" get added?), not sure how I missed that