Recommended practice for modifying library enclosure

Flyingsparks

Hi,

I am trying to design an enclosure for a project using an off the shelf enclosure. I will use this enclosure range frequently, so I have already modeled it as a library component with some basic configurations. As this enclosure is already made of a number of parts, I have a parts studio and an assembly of the unmodified case.
Now I need to design the extra machining for the front and rear panels in my actual design. What is the best practice to do this? I think derive may be the appropriate method, but this only applies to each part. How do I use this within the case assembly?
Thanks in advance.

michael_bromley

One option is to create a part studio in context of the assembly.  Then us the transform-> copy in place for the parts that you would like to modify.  This essentially is deriving that part into the part studio.  You are free to make changes to it at that point.

Flyingsparks

Thanks for that. I think I am still missing the next step. How do I now incorporate my changed parts into an assembly based on the library assembly?

michael_bromley

It seems that each modified variation would be a different part number of the top level assembly is that correct?

The first thought that comes to mind is that I would have the library "assembly" enclosure modeled in the as assembled state in a part studio.  Then when you want to use a modified version of it you would insert the whole part studio into an assembly studio.  This brings all the parts in situated as they are assembled so you can use a group constraint.  Create your in-context part studio, copy in place, make your changes and insert the changed parts back into your enclosure assembly.  They will be inserted at the correct location so you can add them to the group constraint.  You can then suppress or delete the original parts and release this assembly as a new part number.

The one flaw is that if you update your in-context part studio after deleting or suppressing the original parts you will break the in-context link for the copy in place.

Cris_Bowers

If you don't need to reference the individual components in an assembly you could use a boolean operation in the derived part studio to combine all the parts. Then do all your edits after that. Create different configurations with different features as needed.