SolidWorks 2011 Parts Bible - Matt Lombard [160]
Caution
Changing sketch planes indiscriminately can have serious consequences for your model. “Face/Plane Normals” sometimes point in different directions and can cause a sketch to flip, rotate, or mirror when you change it from one plane to another. One strange result is that changing it back to the original location can cause the sketch to flip again, but in a different way so that it does not go back to its original location/orientation. As a result, every time you change the configuration, the sketch could appear in a new and unexpected location or orientation.
Controlling configurations of inserted parts
Inserted parts have a long history in SolidWorks. They have had several names in the past, and some sources (including SolidWorks documentation such as training documents and even help files) still use some of these legacy names out of habit or precedence. For example, you will sometimes hear inserted parts called derived or base parts. Both of these terms are obsolete.
Cross-Reference
Inserted parts are discussed in detail in the SolidWorks 2011 Assemblies Bible (Wiley, 2011), which describes master model techniques.
Inserted parts use one part as the starting point for another part. The inserted part sits as a feature in the FeatureManager of the child part. You can insert just the body geometry itself, or you can bring forward reference geometry, sketch data and all features, and break the link to the original part if you wish to.
The role of configurations with inserted parts is that the configuration of the inserted part can be controlled from the child component. For example, you may have designed an engine block for an automobile. This engine block is a casting, and using configurations, you have both the six-cylinder and the eight-cylinder blocks in a single-part file. This model represents the “as-cast” engine block. The next step is to make the block with all the secondary machining operations, such as facing mating surfaces, boring cylinders, drilling and tapping holes for threaded connections, and so on. As a result, the as-cast part is inserted into the as-machined part, and the configuration is selected before you add the cut features. As the name suggests, you add inserted parts by choosing Insert⇒Part from the menu.
The interface for assigning the configuration is shown in Figure 11.22. Simply right-click the inserted part feature and select List External References. It would seem to make more sense if the configuration could be selected when the part is first inserted, but it does not work this way; you have to select the configuration after the part is inserted.
FIGURE 11.22
Assigning the configuration of an inserted part
Using Library features
Library features can have configurations, and they carry those configurations with them into the part in which they are placed. Unfortunately, part configs cannot reference different library feature configs.
Cross-Reference
Chapter 13 discusses library features.
Configurations for library features are created in exactly the same ways that configurations are created for other parts. The technique for saving the configs to the library feature is discussed in Chapter 13.
Identifying unconfigurable items
As important as it is to know what you can do, it is equally important to know what you cannot do. The following is a list of items that are not configurable. Although this list is not complete, it contains many of the more relevant items that cannot be configured:
• Library feature configs
• Blocks
• Extrude direction or From Offset dimension or direction
• Most of the values in features such as Deform, Freeform, and Twist
While Library Features can be configured, once you drop