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Note

Working with the length of the fasteners is not a clean operation in Smart Components. The length is dependent on the thickness of the plate, which is not controlled by the Smart Fastener, nor can the Smart Fastener account for it, except through mates. (Remember that auto-sizing is driven only by a diameter.) Later in this chapter, you will see how the washers and nuts are put in place on the underside of the plate, but the screw length cannot be automatically calculated (unless the actual screw had an in-context relation to the nut).

8. Place washers and nuts on the screws on the backside of the plate.

9. When the shaft diameter changes, the hole in the clamp changes to match (within the ranges that you will establish). As the clamp becomes bigger, bigger screws are needed to secure the clamp and the holes grow farther apart. Bigger screws mean additional configurations for the screw, washer, and nut parts. Remember that the configurations do not necessarily exist. You should not count on a Smart Component working if this means that Toolbox has to create new configurations.

In this example, the Toolbox parts are pre-populated with all the configurations needed for the range of sizes involved with this Smart Component. When you make your own Smart Components, you will have to do the same thing if you intend to use auto-sizing with Toolbox parts. The difficulty here is that the configurations include the diameter size of the screw as well as the length, which is unknown until you place the part.

All you have to do in this step is make sure that the configurations are available and that the screws are placed properly.

Up to this step, you have just assembled the parts as if this were the only time you were going to do it. The automation of the process comes next. Figure 15.23 shows the training assembly to this point. The shaft and plate are shown in wireframe because they are external to the Smart Component.

FIGURE 15.23

The training assembly up to Step 9

10. Click the Make Smart Component tool on the assembly toolbar. This is the point in the previous example where the Make Smart Component command was used, and it is no different here.

11. Activate the Smart Component selection box and pick the clamp part. Figure 15.24 shows the filled-in Smart Component PropertyManager.

In the Components selection box, select the six screw instances, the two washers, and the two nuts.

In the Features selection box, select the in-context feature or features that are associated with the Smart Component.

FIGURE 15.24

The Smart Component PropertyManager

12. The configurator table is simply a table that enables you to select which component configurations are to be used with which Smart Component configuration. It looks and works very much like an assembly design table, but it is not Excel-based, and every cell must be set explicitly rather than using techniques for mass population or assigning properties to a range of configurations, as you can do with a real design table.

Each cell has a drop-down list of all the available configurations for that component. If you have four instances of a single component, then you have to set each instance of each component. Figure 15.25 shows the configurator table for this example.

Note

If the configurator table were to ever be as easy to use as, for example, an Excel design table, then Smart Component complexity could increase significantly. The configurator table could even ideally be created from an assembly design table. Instead of a single component with its associated hardware and mounting features, think of larger-scale subassembly attachments. This sort of work is possible now, but it is difficult to apply to more than a handful of parts.

FIGURE 15.25

The configurator table for the Clamp Smart component

13. Click OK. You are now done creating the auto-sizing Smart Component!

Managing files with Smart Components

You may expect that with the training assembly, there is an extra burden of