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Using Assembly Reference Geometry to Edit Part In-place

H-L-Smith

Senior Member
I've constructed a reference axis in an assembly. It passes through an assembly part that I want to edit in place. I've placed a (assembly) point on the top surface of the part where the axis passes through it (pierce point). I want to use the above reference geometry constructs to edit the part in-place in the assembly.

However, when I enter "part edit" mode, I can no longer access the assembly axis or pierce point on the surface of the part. I've fiddled with everything I can think of to make the assembly reference geometry appear while editing the part, but have not succeeded.

Does anyone know how to make that happen? If not, can you think of a clever work-around that would allow me to transfer the axis and point to the part itself prior to editing it in-place.

Thanks,

Small-Axis-Point Problem.jpg
 

idslk

Alibre Super User
Hello H-L-Smith,

i had the same problem and also no success with transfering reference geometry from an assembly to an part.
I can't see how you constructed your Axis, but maybe you can project the geometrie used to contruct the axis in assembly to a "sketch" in your part an reconstruct the axis there...that's not really sophisticated but i've used that already by myself. At least there should be a standard solution for that...

Regards
Stefan
 

H-L-Smith

Senior Member
Thanks for the response, Stefan. The problem is making the axis and point visible from within the "in-context" edit of the part file. I can't find anyway to make that happen. Hence, I can't select it for a "project to sketch" operation. It would be a nice feature to have - the assembly-level reference geometry visible and selectable.
 

NateLiquidGravity

Alibre Super User
You would need to recreate the axis while editing the part in-place using the geometry of the other parts. I agree it's not ideal. Would be nice to just "see"it.
 

H-L-Smith

Senior Member
You would need to recreate the axis while editing the part in-place using the geometry of the other parts. I agree it's not ideal. Would be nice to just "see"it.
Thanks for the response, Nate. Unfortunately, the axis is constructed from the relationship between different parts in the assembly (not visible in my screen shot) and their reference geometry. Like the axis in question, those geometries are not available during the in-context edit. So, it gets a bit circular.

I did figure out a way to get an approximation to the pierce point, so that allowed me to go forward. However, I will be changing the configurations of the assembly parts looking for an optimal solution. It would have been nice to have the pierce point move automatically with those changes. I'll just have to approximate its location after each change now.
 

idslk

Alibre Super User
Hello H-L-Smith,

here a workaround:

the part in an assembly:
upload_2019-5-21_18-34-30.png

with constructed axes and point:
upload_2019-5-21_18-36-48.png

with inserted and constrained "cube dummy part" to the assembly (you can see the reference geometrie of the assembly):
upload_2019-5-21_18-37-57.png

and now in "edit in place" mode (you can see the reference geometrie of the part and the (from assembly mode) positioned cube with no ref.- geo.) :
upload_2019-5-21_18-39-11.png

now you can use the corner (and the faces) of the dummy cube for your reference...
After the job is done you can hide or delete the cube (depends on how you used the cube geometrie...)

Regards
Stefan
 
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