Hello all,

I have been working on fastener patterns for an assembly, non Enovia.  The assy was set up using MDF/MDS/ICM, etc.  For now the mating parts are NOT linked together with an RLM.  It was decided to make the fastener patterns linked to master geometry and make them relational as much as possible. 

I first set up an Excel spreadsheet, not liked to CATIA V5, to determine preliminary fastener dia (based on part stack up grip length) fastener grip length dash number, edge margin, distance to part fillet and minimum fastener spacing.

I set up my relational fastener patterns as an RLM.  I devided up the fastener patterns into logical groups.  The fastener patterns were made using positional sketches linked to master geometry.  Cross sectional positional sketches were used to position fastener patterns from fillet radii. I have separate geometrical sets for ref fastener edge margin circles and unit vectors both of these being non sketch type geometry but linked to the fastener pattern pos sketches.

I tried to limit the use of knowledgeware.  Not all CATIA V5 users have a lot of experience with knowledgeware so the next person working on the fastener model could have problems making changes to the model and understanding how the knowledgeware was used.

The next step will be to bring in solid geometry fasteners and snap them into position to the unit vectors and part surfaces.  I am hesitant to constrain the fasteners to the unit vectors and part surfaces using assembly constraints due to the fact that we may be using Enovia in the near future and from past experience assembly constraints and Enovia don’t mix real well.  This poses a problem since each time the fastener pattern changes all of the fastener solids will have to be manually snapped back into place.

Some concerns I have with this method are:

While easy to modify once finished, creating the initial fastener position model was time consuming.

Use of sketches in an RLM.

How to constrain solid fasteners to the unit vectors and part surfaces and still have it work with Enovia.

Changes to part geometry like part thickness, flange width ,etc. are not automatically updated in the fastener positioning model.

Has anyone out there developed a better/faster way of creating relational fastener spacing methods with minimal usage of Knowledgeware, if so I would like to learn about it.

Thanks,

Bill T.