Working with assemblies

QY CAD has separate environments for creating parts, constructing assemblies, producing drawings, and for producing sheet metal parts. Each environment is purpose-specific and self-contained to make the associated commands more accessible. For example, all the commands needed to create a drawing are in the Draft environment. Because all the environments are tightly integrated, it is easy to quickly move among them to complete a design.

The purpose of the Assembly environment is to create and manage large, complex assemblies containing many parts and subassemblies (where subassemblies are simply previously created assemblies). This environment contains commands for fitting parts together using natural assembly techniques such as mate and align.

Because many parts are designed in the context of an assembly, the Assembly environment is tightly integrated with the Parts environment, visualization tools, data management tools, and part-to-part relationship management tools. The Assembly environment manages assembly data from the earliest phases of project planning, through revision cycles, manufacturing, project maintenance, and archival.

The Assembly environment is used for:

Building assemblies

Building assemblies consists of putting together parts and other assemblies by identifying the relationships between the individual parts and components.

Modifying assemblies

When parts and subassemblies are modified, the changes are reflected in the assemblies where they are placed. For example, if the flange thickness of a part is increased, the other parts in the assembly adjust their positions accordingly. A part in an assembly can be replaced with a different part.

Displaying assemblies

Sometimes it is easier to work in an assembly if the parts and subassemblies that are not actively being working on are hidden. Alternate views of an assembly can be configured and saved to view separate combinations of parts and subassemblies for later use. Different colors can be applied to different parts to visualize user-defined characteristics or relationships to make an assembly easier to understand or more interesting when used in presentations.

Managing assemblies

During the life cycle of a project, parts and subassemblies can be preserved for record keeping. The integrated data management tools are used to manage the release statuses of parts, subassemblies, and the entire project. When formal revisions are required, selective components or entire projects can be copied, renamed, or moved.

Verifying assemblies

Interference analysis calculations can be performed between parts and sets of parts in an assembly. The physical properties of parts and assemblies, such as mass, center of gravity, and other physical characteristics, also can determined.

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