What is the optimal workflow for generating design drawings for wood working?

[jdfreder]

Hi Alibre community,

I'm new to Alibre, and have been having a blast learning how to use it (it reminds me a lot of Fusion360, but with a much better licensing scheme!)

I'm working on a simple "flip top table" design (all the rage on YouTube nowadays). My design will be built using 1/2" plywood and 2x4s. My first though was to design the table top, sans the table legs, in Alibre Atom. It was easy to do with a few sketches:



The next thing I wanted to do was render each feature in my design drawing (see features below)



Unfortunately, I can't seem to figure out how to do this. Here's what my drawing looks like today:



Ideally I'd be able to render each feature independently, to build a cultist so to speak. I suspect I'm just approaching the problem incorrectly, so I'm happy to learn about the correct way to do this - even if it means upgrading my license or investing in 3rd party software...

Best,
Jon

 

[jdfreder]

Okay, I think I've figured out one way to do this. Basically suppress all the other features so that you're left with what should be a single piece of wood. Then save as a file name for that piece. Rinse and repeat for every piece of wood in the project. Lastly, create a design from multiple components, importing each file. Use constraints to glue the components together. A lot of work- but maybe this is the way.

 

[jdfreder]

Just to follow up here, this is what the output looks like:

 

[BobSchaefer]

So, what you're missing is that you've created a part and what you want is an assembly. What you need to do is create each part of the top (The 2x4s the plywood pieces, etc) as individual parts and then put them together in an assembly. That way you can more easily do what you're after. At least this is the way that I do it when modelling my furniture and sets. I may start with a solid like you show, but I eventually get to the point its constructed of the pieces.

Hope this helps you out!

 

[HaroldL]

Ditto what @BobSchaefer said. My approach is similar except I don't start with a solid of the project. My process starts with a rough paper sketch (like I was taught in Technical College) then create each individual part before bringing them into the subassemblies and final assembly. I still end up tweaking the parts to make everything fit together properly.

One thing I found out is that it is important to model your parts with the same size parameters as the material you are building with. Especially important with plywood and stock materials. 3/4" ply is not always .750", I've measured it down to .732" and up to .760".

I was going to mention Global Parameters but, according to the Users Manual, they are only available in Expert. That would be a way to drive all the part parameters from one file - if you had Expert or Alibre made them available in all versions.

Just sayin'.