I was trying to work out the best way to get Siemens Solid Edge ST7 to bind a master skeleton of the damn turbofan stations, to all the sub-components, in a top-down relationship. This, as you likely know would make expected changes much easier to populate down-line, and avoid a lot of failures when things no longer line up.
I created a sketch in the master assembly, and then simply used the ‘Copy Sketch’ function.
Copy Sketch
Copy Sketch allows users to copy an existing assembly sketch, and paste it right into any component that exists in the context of that assembly.
- Select the sketch you want to copy
- Pick ‘Copy Sketch’ from the right-click context menu
The ‘Copy Sketch to Target’ dialog will appear.
- Pick the file you want the sketch copied to
A new sketch is created in the file, and a link is added in the Links collection showing the new link in the context of the main assembly. When you pick on either the sketch or link, the other is highlighted, showing exactly how the objects are related. Notice the link icon next to the sketch name in the browser.
The linking is a function of the ‘Link to File’ option that was present at the bottom of the Copy Sketch to Target dialog and allows the two files to stay synchronized. When the parent sketch is edited, the sub-components will update accordingly. In my case it keeps all my stages sized according to my calculations, without having to edit 10+ component files. It is on by default, but can easily be switched off.
You can add a sketch to an existing part at any stage of development, including creating a blank part in the assembly. Just copy the sketch to it, and design the part from the master skeleton right from the start, which is what I did.
