First 3D sketch - harmonica reeds

[R-man]

I am drawing harmonica reeds, which (see attached part file) are like little diving boards, sloping upward at about 1.5 degrees from XY plane. I used a 2D sketch of the side profile for each reed and exruded it along the x-axis. (The base of each reed and the 'rivet' were drawn and extruded perpendicular to the xy-plane.) There are 4 reeds plates (all different) and 18 reeds on a plate so that is 72 in all.

Now, after a re-design I need to modify the reeds, so I have decided to start over, this time using 3D sketches and sweeping a rectangle along a sloped line to get the 'diving board' effect. It works well but I have 72 to draw! Since all the reeds are identical except for position and length, there must (?) be a way to 'build' one, and then duplicate it in various positions, adjusting the length of each one somehow.

Please tell me that I don't have to draw the same thing over and over again 72 times!

Thanks in advance,

R-man

 

[HaroldL]

R-man,
I would probably create the reeds as configurations. If you have that capability in your version of AD then you could put the reed into an assembly and choose which configuration, which has a different length, you want for each reed location.

 

[jhardy1]

As HaroldL says, "Configurations" would be the best option, if you have that feature available to you.

If not, would it be acceptable to start with all identical reeds, and then use a single "Extrude Cut" to trim them all to length in one go?

Hope this helps!

 

[HaroldL]

From the "Missing External Reference" warning when I call up the Equation Editor, and all the red parameter names in the Equation Editor, it appears that you are using a spreadsheet to drive your design.

Can't you link and/or equation the reed lengths to a parameter so all you would have to do is change that one parameter to modify the reeds?

 

[R-man]

Thanks for the replies! I am always amazed that I get responses 24/7 from this forum.

I only have pro so don't have configurations. And I have been using parameters so I understand how they are used (always can learn more though).

The part (in the attachment) has a row of 18 reeds, created using 2D sketches. The little square 'base' and the rivets are sketched on the ZX plane so it was easy to make 18 copies of each figure and locate them as required on the same sketch. But the 'diving board' part of each reed has its own separate sketch on the XY plane, so I can't create the 18 copies except by creating 18 sketches on 18 different planes, and copying and pasting from one to the next. Since there are actually 4 plates I have 72 reeds to draw. It was a very teduous error prone procedure. When I had to fix something I had to do it 72 times. So even though I could use a paramter to set the length of each reed I still created all 72 individually. I'm sure that I can do better, and ideally only build one reed and then copy it as required.

PLAN A:
My hope is that by using 3D sketching I can make copies of the various figures (square, circles, rectangles, sweep lines) right in the same sketch. And then easily adjust the length and location of each copy. With a 2D sketch an extrusion applies to the whole sketch, but with a 3D sketch a sweep can be applied to each figure independantly- or at least that is how it looks right now.

PLAN B:
The other approach is to fake having configurations! Although there are 72 reeds, there are only 12 different lengths. So maybe I could create one single reed in a part, and then make 12 copies of the part, each with a different length. Then I would insert them as required into one of 4 'sub-assemblies' where I could locate each as required. In the Alibre user manual the term 'sub-assembly' is used all over the place but is never specifically defined or explained, so I am assuming that it is just a regular assembly, inserted just the way a part would be. (?)

I am thinking PLAN B might be where I should put my efforts. Any ideas, thoughts, critiques are welcome. Thanks in advance.

R-man

 

[R-man]

Plan A - not feasible. Based on my misunderstanding of sweep.

Plan B - looking good. The idea of using configurations was the key. Using a different part files as a substitute seems to working.

Thanks. R-man

 

[HaroldL]

R-man,
Lacking configurations, your Plan B is the way I would proceed. In fact, at work we are not allowed to use configurations because of issues within the PDM system. So we create the different sizes of parts as unique part numbers.

You are correct in your assumption that a subassembly is inserted the same as a part. Create the assembly of the reed, rivet, and base. Save it with it's own name/part number then insert it into the next level assembly.

 

[wathavy4]

Harold's solution of using different part would do better than the configuration solution, depending on the situation.

Because, you will see the part which has larger number of configuration would inflate its file size.
It also give you a headache when you changed your configuration of the sub assemblies and saved them unintentionally.
I am least impressed with the feature when there are other options,especially they are easier and simpler.
But it would do the work for your case.

The case you might have a poor result is when you picked the wrong configuration at one or two places and you missed to notice it.
It would give you a typo sort of buggy assembly.
Otherwise, it might give you the solution, I bet.

Just my two yens.... BTW two cents shrunk so much that Japanese cannot live on exporting products from main land any more....oops sorry.

 

[R-man]

Plan B worked out well. I made 12 parts corresponding to each of the 12 different lengths, and then inserted then into into 4 sub-assemblies (thus 'installing' them onto their reed plates). Just in case you are curious I have attached an assembly of the 4 reed plates positioned as they will be in the completed project.

Thanks again.

R-man.