Making subassy flexible turns entire design explorer red?

[JST]

Is there any particular reason why an assembly that has no errors in it,and has no "anchored" parts should turn the entire list of constraints in the design explorer red when made flexible?

I know that it can happen to a particular part if you have both constraints and "anchor" active.

I have seen that "anchors" or constraints at lower levels can cause unusual behavior.

I have never before seen the "make flexible" cause every single constraint in the entire model to be red.

Is this "intended behavior"?

Unfortunately, customer model, so...........

 

[Southernpedro2017]

Hi All ,

Good to hear that I am not alone in having major issues in the last 2 months with assembly Constraint conflicts.

I am losing so much time trying to constrain Sub-Assemblies into parent assembly.

I need to trial various different combinations of constraints to find a acceptable solution for the software. This is often frustrated when I reopen the Assembly file later to find the constraints fail and go red????.

I have been using Alibre software for 12 years and my technique of building parts and assemblies has not changed.

If anyone has had problems like this and can suggest a possible solution please get typing.

Thanks

Southernpedro

 

[DavidJ]

Remember that making the sub-assembly flexible brings into play all the constraints from the sub-assembly level. If these conflict with or duplicate constraints elsewhere in the assembly, there will be errors generated. Cant be any more specific without seeing the design in question.

 

[JST]

I would not expect that to be turning EVERY constraint red/bad.

I ended up fixing the problem by simply reconstructing the top assembly level. SAME subassemblies, so clearly they were not an issue. I suppose I cannot guarantee that I used exactly the same constraints in the same order, but the same final assembly was built.

This is not a new issue, sometimes an assembly is just screwy or corrupted somehow, and then the more you fix it the worse it gets.

Problem is, the tools available to determine the problem are non-existent.

The software REALLY NEEDS a diagnostic feature to help find the problem constraint.

It MIGHT be the most recent, but might not. There is no means now but a slow slog through all the red constraints, taking notes by hand. Eventually one MAY come up with the problem part, but.........

 

[Southernpedro2017]

Thanks for you response JST.

I normally start by finding latest corrupted constraint and then go to that part to rework the constraints. Not always successful and if the Job is on a tight budget I just anchor it to keep going. Its hard to rebuild complete assemblies if you are working on a fixed price job.

I have another question to all you Alibre users.

Why does the first part you place into a new assembly sometimes and for me most times auto anchor?? I always need to to turn off the anchor and constrain the part using its Ref planes. I cannot find any area in the system options to disable this feature.

Any suggestions

Southernpedro

 

[Lew_Merrick]

Why does the first part you place into a new assembly sometimes and for me most times auto anchor?? I always need to to turn off the anchor and constrain the part using its Ref planes. I cannot find any area in the system options to disable this feature.

I only run into "autoanchor" in Solidworks not Alibre Design. Now, mind you, I am running it under Windows 7 Ultimate.

 

[NateLiquidGravity]

Why does the first part you place into a new assembly sometimes and for me most times auto anchor?? I always need to to turn off the anchor and constrain the part using its Ref planes. I cannot find any area in the system options to disable this feature.

AFAIK It's the unchangeable default in Alibre Design for the first new part added (first as in no other before) to an assembly to be anchored. I'm not sure what Lew is seeing, but I suspect he designs and names everything before he assembles them.

 

[DavidJ]

Personally I've never seen 'auto-anchor' happen in Alibre - I've always had to manually anchor, or constrain. I'll now go and double check ...

 

[idslk]

Hello colleagues,

as nate said:
Only the first complete new part created in the new assembly will be anchored.
If you start your assenbly inserting an existing part, it won't be anchored, as well as every new part after the first.

Regards
Stefan

 

[simonb65]

Personally I've never seen 'auto-anchor' happen in Alibre - I've always had to manually anchor, or constrain. I'll now go and double check ...

I always have to manually anchor the first part to stop subsequent additional part constraints moving it! Not sure where the 'auto anchor' thought has come from, but I've never experienced it!!

 

[idslk]

 

[DavidJ]

OK - the reason I've never seen this auto anchor is because it doesn't happen for inserting existing parts. At least it doesn't on my system.

Having seen IDSLK's post above, I've just tried inserting a 'new' part in an empty new assembly - that does auto-anchor. You learn something every day.

 

[simonb65]

If you do a New Assembly from within a Part workspace, the part you are working on gets added to the New Assembly without being anchored!

 

[idslk]

Hello Simon65,

Do you have a way to create a new assembly out of the part workspace without the getting the requester "insert part"?
If this requester is opened at you also, you only have to hit cancel to get a "clean" new assembly with no part in it. (i do not say it makes sense...)

Regards
Stefan

 

[simonb65]

In Part Workspace ...
Select File->New->New Assembly
It then opens the Assembly Workspace and shows you an Insert Part/Subassembly Dialog.
Select the first part you want to add to the assembly, click Open...
Place the Part on the Assembly and Click to create an instance of that Part.
The inserted Part is NOT ANCHORED!



Inserting a NEW Part into an assembly DOES ANCHOR the new part!

There needs to be consistency when adding the first Part to an assembly. In general, the first part is usually the foundation to which all other parts get constrained to, and so should get anchored (IMHO).

Alibre ... Maybe another candidate for a user selectable option to give the user full control of their preferred workflow/process!

 

[Lew_Merrick]

I'm not sure what Lew is seeing, but I suspect he designs and names everything before he assembles them.

I almost always Create Parts going into an Assembly prior to creating a new Assembly -- but even when I start by creating a New Part within the context of a New Assembly, I have never seen it Anchored rather than needing Constraint.

 

[idslk]

Hello Simon65,

i asked if you have a method without getting the requester "Insert Part/Subassembly".
The rest confirms the post #11.

And yes, i would like to have a user selectable workflow, too.

Regards
Stefan

 

[JST]

I am not seeing the meaning you have for "new part".

I always create the part before putting it in an assembly, and YES it always needs to be constrained. I usually anchor it, because that is less trouble to undo if it needs to be undone for some reason related to higher level assemblies.

However, the need for some sort of help with diagnosis of problems is needed.

Of course, there is ANOTHER related problem with Alibre. If you DO find a problem with an operation done on a part, even if you fix that, it is not fixed as far as the program is concerned, it remains marked as having a problem. The only way to clear a problem operation is to delete the operation (extrude or whatever).

BUT.... nearly 100% of the time, then the sketch is shown with a problem (the problem never was seen before). And even if you find and fix that, the problem marker does not go away. The only way to clear the problem marker seems to be to delete the operation, and then delete the sketch, then redo everything. Only THEN does the problem actually go away. There usually is no description of the problem in any terms that make finding it possible, so it is guesswork, and perhaps whatever the problem is was not actually fixed.

Perhaps if the part is closed and re-opened, then the problem is no longer found. But when I tried that, it seemed that nothing was changed. And, still, the nature of the problem is never disclosed, so it is not possible to understand the issue..

 

[simonb65]

i asked if you have a method without getting the requester "Insert Part/Subassembly".
The rest confirms the post #11.

No!

 

[NateLiquidGravity]

In this case New Part = no other parts exist in the assembly at the time Insert New Part is clicked and the new part is created in the context of the assembly.

Top Down vs Bottom Up design process.