Mirrored Assy, to Configure or not to Configure

brucebartlett

While waiting for a solution auto-create mirrored assemblies, I normally just redo my opposite side with a new assembly but wondering if using a re-configuration of parts may be a better solution.   What have others found?

konstantin_shiriazdanov

For me using assembly configs actually makes it easier to maintain assembly later. Mate connector based mates behave well on mirrored parts so the most of mates not requare any adjustment. I made an FS for making mirror transform of the bodies with optionally mirroring position of it mate connectors so configuring it supression you can achive mirrored configuration of the same body to use in configured assembly.

brucebartlett

@konstantin_shiriazdanov that sounds great,  can you share your FS for this Mirror and MC's.  How do you deal with instances in the mirror which doesn't change?

konstantin_shiriazdanov

I made a hyperllink in "FS" word in my message but here is explicit one - https://cad.onshape.com/documents/dac32e8d473681a47870141f/w/6061a9a3ea3fe56c74a037fb/e/23c26c875a973ff31c02e632

with non mirrored parts you can deal in several ways:

- don't select them in part mirror feature in part studio, mate them in assembly and they most of the time rebuild fine when you change assembly configuration to mirrored because of the OS mates nature which in most cases needs one reference.

- select everything for part mirror in part studio and configure every instance for assembly, and then configure specific properties for only those parts which really need mirror. Mostly reccomend this for assemblies without moving parts.

brucebartlett

Thanks, @konstantin_shiriazdanov Maybe I need an eye test, I did not notice the hyperlink, much the same as I can not see the red failed features in my Onshape feature tree. Fine text looks all the same colour to me. 

MBartlett21

brucebartlett said:

I did not notice the hyperlink

Maybe Onshape could make it so hyperlinks stand out a bit better, such as making them bold or italicising them or something?
@lougallo ?

PS: I did not notice it either 👀

brucebartlett

Hi @konstantin_shiriazdanov I think your system will work well. The problem I am finding is I want to add some off body MC's to your feature but the seem to come out at a different angle to the original. It may be because my mirror face is at a compound angle to the studio planes. 

brucebartlett

@konstantin_shiriazdanov   Got it working by mirroring around the Front plane.  And works a treat in the assy too.  Now to see if it works with the release management. 

brucebartlett

Now I am trying to use this with release management, I was falsely hoping I could release everything and get it to work for L/H and R/H.  Looks like release is going to be a party pooper for me again. @lougallo any ideas about how I can make this work with release? I think my only option now is to use release part suppression and mate suppression which is not as nice a solution configuring the parts from the change configuration. 

Hopefully, when we get Mirrors for assemblies it will be able to handle release parts and assembly mirrors.

konstantin_shiriazdanov

Can you describe a little more what is the specific problem with releasing? I don't have a profound understanding of how release works, but it should be just as releasing any other assembly with two configurations, isn't it?

brucebartlett

konstantin_shiriazdanov said:

Can you describe a little more what is the specific problem with releasing? I don't have a profound understanding of how release works, but it should be just as releasing any other assembly with two configurations, isn't it?

Once you change to a released version with the black triangle it does not allow you to select the Change configuration. I tried a lot of different ways and can't make it work. 

this works before changing to version
 

Once changed to a release the option to select Change configuration is gone

konstantin_shiriazdanov

I actually thought the common workflow for release is to release it on assembly level, having all desired parts swithed to the "workspace" state.This way you would have Left and Right assembly configurations released with Left and Right part configs. But it's interesting that release of the part blocks it's configuration - didn't knew about this.

P.S. Did you released both part configurations from part studio?

brucebartlett

@konstantin_shiriazdanov   No with release I normally start from the bottom up, it's painful but the only to make it work unless you use the Not revision managed property on the part. I do sometimes use a hack workflow where I release the assembly before switching to released parts to capture and release all the sub parts then re-release the assembly, but it means I have rev's building for no reason on the assembly. I just wish release worked as smoothly as many of the other features in Onshape, maybe one day. 

Yes, I did release both configurations and went into the parts studio of the released parts and they still switched around using the configuration so I see no reason this shouldn't work as works for versions.