Working off of Centerlines in parts and assemblies

[BillB]

Hello again,

Have been using Inventor 2009 Pro for about three weeks now and have done a few tutorials and I guess my question is this. We design various types of machines here at work and my practice in the past has usually been to work off of centerlines and features that maybe on center. What's the proper practice/method for establishing centerlines or whatever (workplanes?) that a person can pick on to measure from, this would be in individual parts AND assemblies. I guess I'm a little bit in the dark on this.

Any suggestions or pointing me in the right direction would be greatly appreciated.

BillB

[JD Mather]

http://home.pct.edu/~jmather/AU2007/...L%20Mather.pdf

[BillB]

Thanks J.D., appreciate the reply,,,, have downloaded it and will study it a.s.a.p.

BillB

[Mike_Taylor]

are you looking wondering about these methods while modeling or creating the drawings? or both?

[BillB]

Hi Mike,
It's while I am modeling a part and/or designing the assemble, such as placing parts or sub-assemblies from a common centerline whether it be horizontal or vertical. Seems like it would be nice to use work planes for this but they don't want to cooperate or I am missing something in this procedure.

Thanks for your reply, take care

BillB

[JD Mather]

Seems like it would be nice to use work planes for this but they don't want to cooperate or I am missing something in this procedure.

Ideal use of work planes. You must be missing something. Can you attach one of your assemblies here?

[BillB]

Hey J.D.,, Good to hear about the Work Planes. I will try to get one of my assemblies posted, it may be the first of next week though, but it would be great to get the right method for part construction and assemblies concerning symmetry.

Thanks again J.D.

BillB

[Mike_Taylor]

Bill,
I Think When At All Possible Stick With The Origin Planes As Much As Possible. They Already Exist, So A Lot Of Time Would Be Saved. Work Planes Are Tricky To Figure Out, But If You Go To The Inventor Help (press 'f1') And Find The 'work Planes (quick Reference)'. It Shows All The Work Planes You Can Make Using Various Paint, Edges, Planes And Other Inputs.

[eribiste]

Hi BillB,

When you start a sketch, do you constrain your objects to the Center Point? This is so helpful when you come to use the default planes and axes for locating additional parts/sketches.

I never do a sketch without taking this step. I also get into much less trouble if I dimension the first object straight away. This makes the sketch behaviour much more predictable when you come to dimension additional curves/lines etc.

[BillB]

Hello J.D., Mike and Eribiste

Thank you all for your replies, have been designing components and assemblies per all your suggestions and things are making a lot more sense now and a lot easier, thanks again for taking the time to help.

BillB