Assemblies (topic)

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Report Writer: MemberMaterial.Material.SubMaterial.UsedInAnAssembly
Parametric module: UsedInAnAssembly
Advanced Selection: UsedInAnAssembly

# Selects all materials in assemblies in sequence 1.
mt.UsedInAnAssembly == True
and mt.Sequence == "1"

  • An assembly may consist of one or several pieces of material and always includes a reference point for defining the assembly's placement when it is later added to a member or as a miscellaneous member. The materials included in an assembly can have different submaterial piecemarks and can be touching or not touching. Welds and bolts can also be parts of an assembly, so long as that assembly includes at least one material.
  • Although you can add bolts to an assembly, if the assembly is going to be added to a main material of a non-miscellaneous member, it is generally better to just let Process and Create Solids match the holes in the assembly to the main material of the beam, column, brace, girt or purlin, then automatically generate bolts through those matching holes.
  • The general work flow for the creation and application of an assembly is to create the assembly in Modeling using Model > Assembly > Save , then apply it to a member using Model > Assembly > Add . To add an assembly as a member, you can Model > Member > Add > Miscellaneous > Assembly ( ) .
  • You can modify an assembly in the Assembly Editor . To do this from Modeling , just Model > Assembly > Edit and select the assembly that you want from the list. Once you are in the Assembly Editor , you can, for example, Model > Hole > Add a hole to a material in the assembly or Model > Material > Add material to the assembly (that is, to the assembly member ). You can then File > Save to save, under the same file name, the changes you made to that assembly.
  • Model > Assembly Save and Model > Assembly Add operations should be performed on members displayed in one of the three solid forms .
  • You can Model > Assembly > Save and Model > Assembly > Add in Member Isolation mode.
  • The EXPT of a member is an excellent reference point to define when you Save Assembly . You should use the same reference point when Add Assembly .
  • Depending on the assembly, the member that you Model > Assembly > Add an assembly to should be the same type of member (section size, framing situation, etc.) that the assembly was Saved from. Also, remember that you should add the assembly using the precise reference point that you originally set when, for example, you did the Model > Assembly > Save to save the assembly.
  • When saving and adding a particular assembly, you want to be in a similar plan view . or elevation view . You do not want to be in an isometric view . If you Navigate > Snap to Surface on a member before you Model > Assembly > Save an assembly, you should Model > Assembly > Add the assembly while accessing a similar surface view. By accessing a similar view, you will make it easier to rotate the assembly into place. In fact, if the view and the reference point you select when adding the assembly exactly match the view and reference point used for saving the assembly, you probably won't have to rotate the assembly at all.
  • Note when you do an Model > Assembly > Add operation that the rotation of assemblies is normally done with reference to screen axes . If you do not want to rotate the assembly, simply press the " OK " button on the Rotate Material window.
  • When you use Add Assembly to add an assembly to a member, you can optionally add that same assembly to all like members or to all like members with the same mark.
  • Assemblies can be deleted from your current Job (but not from members to which they have been applied) using the Delete Job Items utility. They can be copied into your current Job using the Copy Project Items utility. They can be renamed using the Modify Drawing Names utility.
  • To remove assemblies from the members to which they have been applied, use Erase Material or Delete .
  • After adding an assembly, you may want to use Match Holes to generate matching holes in the material you have added the assembly to. If you added the assembly to the main material of a beam, column, brace, girt or purlin, match holes and generate bolts is done automatically during Process and Create Solids . To get holes in the main material of a miscellaneous member, you need to manually Match Holes .
  • Model > Assembly > Save is not the only way to create a new assembly. You can also create a new assembly in the Assembly Editor , for example, by doing a Model > Assembly > Edit to open the assembly, then doing a Model > Material > Add operation to add a material to the assembly, then doing File > Save As ... to save the assembly under a new name.