Boolean unite configurations

[Rudy]

So I need to create an enclosure with two configurations: one is the upper half, the other is the lower half. They are almost identical except for some minor variations so it would be a good idea to make use of the "Configurations" feature. There is also a Boolean unite feature required on both of the configurations that is almost the same. Lets call this the "Hinge", but there is also an inner and outer configuration of that. Is it possible to just use a single feature to the part that allows the upper configuration of the enclosure to use the Boolean unite feature of the Hinge part, configured as inner within the Boolean unite feature, and for the lower enclosure configuration to use the Boolean unit feature of the Hinge part, configured as outer within the Boolean unite feature?
Not sure if this can be done with one single Boolean unite feature, or if another Boolean unite feature needs to be added so that the upper and lower half of the enclosure variations can have the two different Hinge configurations set up properly with one or the other suppressed.

 

[HaroldL]

It is possible to have configurations in the part that you are going to use as the Tool for the Boolean Unite. Just activate the desired configuration BEFORE committing the Boolean Unite. I haven't tried this yet but I would think that you could set up the configurations so that each one would use a different config in the Boolean Unite part.

Here's an example of a v26 assembly using one part with two configurations. Hopefully it will help in your situation and that you have v26.

 

[Rudy]

Thanks for the response Harold. Unfortunately that isn't quite what I was attempting to do. In your example there are no Boolean Unite operations on the enclosure portions as you have the hinge as an Extrusion feature. I realize this will work, but I want to use a Boolean Unite function instead where the hinge has two different configurations and the upper and lower portions of the enclosure also have variations. I think the only way around this is to either have two separate parts for the top and bottom, or to have a separate Boolean Unite feature for each variation of the part (hinge in this instance) that is used in the Boolean Unite function. It would be nice to simply do a copy and paste with the Boolean Unite function in the Design Explorer sidebar and then edit the features.

 

[HaroldL]

Okay @Rudy, I think this one is what you want to do.

There is one part with two configs and one hinge part with two configs. The Boolean Unite for each config has a hinge with its own config active so you end up with two unique configurations in one part.

 

[Rudy]

Yes, that was what I was attempting to achieve but it seems that it is necessary to have two Boolean Unite operations instead of just one. I was hoping that Design Boolean<15> and Design Boolean<16> operations could be realized in a single operation by selecting either of the different variants of the Hinge Config part, which would be dependent on the configuration of the Multi Config Example part.
So it seems that the configuration feature will not support the alteration of part properties within the Boolean function, but will only support the suppression of features in order to allow for variants. This then seems to require a different operation for each variant with undesired operations suppressed.
That took a bit of effort to get that out of my brain and onto this posting...

 

[HaroldL]

Configurations can be a bit challenging to set up and get the desired result. You can select a configuration of a part when adding it to the Boolean but once the config is selected and the Boolean committed the only way to change the part config would be to edit the Boolean.

Here's the Help section on Design Booleans in case you want to read up on them.

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