This blog is Part 6 of a multi-part blog and video series examining the differences of creating a simple bookcase using Top-Down Assembly Modeling and Multi-body Part Design techniques. In this blog, we will examine the methods used to build configurations for the bookcase created using multi-body techniques. Both versions of the book case have three configurations that change the dimensions and number of shelves for 3-shelf, 4-shelf, and 5-shelf units.
Multi-Body Bookcase Configurations
Building configurations of the bookcase with the multi-body method is easier than the assembly method. With the top-down assembly method, it is necessary to have configurations of individual parts as well as in the assembly itself. Whereas, in the multi-body part method, configurations can be easily defined in one convenient table.
In this discussion, the multi-body part design method employs the use of the Weldment Feature in order to take advantage of the benefits of the weldment cut-list that results from using it. While working with parts that use the Weldment Feature there are some settings in Tools-Options-Document Properties that you may want to disable. In the image below, there is a selection in the list called Weldments. Choosing this item from the list will display several check boxes on the right. As can be seen in the image, 
Automatically create cut lists and Automatically update cut lists are checked. (These can be toggled on or off using the contextual menu activated when right clicking a cut list folder on the Feature Manager Design Tree). Right below the cut list options is a check box titled Create derived configurations. When this box is checked, SolidWorks will create a derived configuration called As Welded beneath each new configuration which will have a name As Machined. To prevent these from being created, make sure this box is cleared here. Since the product we are designing is not actually made of metal and will not be welded together, there is no need for As Machined or As welded configuration names.
The image below left is showing the Configurations Manager for the multi-body bookcase. There are 3 basic configurations for each of the desired sizes as well as a folder at the top containing a table. I named the table Config Table when I created it using the Modify Configurations dialogue. In the Top-down assembly version of the bookcase, it was necessary to have configurations at the assembly level and some of the individual components had to have configurations defined in them as well (i.e. side panels). In the multi-body version of the bookcase, all of the configurations can be defined in a single table created using the Modify Configurations dialogue box. The modify Configurations dialogue is a convenient and easy to use method for creating configurations and is accessed from the contextual menu (right click) of dimensions, features, and materials. The images below illustrate the contextual menus when multi-selecting dimensions from the 3D sketch on the left, and right clicking the LPattern from the Feature Manager Tree on the right.
For the multi-body bookcase, multi-select, (hold CTRL key down and select with left mouse button), the Height and Length dimensions from the 3D sketch then right-click and select Configure Dimension from the contextual menu. This opens the Modify Configurations dialogue box as shown below. New configurations can be added by typing over the <Creates a new configuration> cell at the bottom of the first column.
Both the Height and Length dimensions have their own columns with numerical value cells that can be modified for each configuration. As can be seen in the image, all 3 configuration names have been added and the dimensions for the Height and Length values have been defined. At the bottom of the dialogue is an editable text field that says <Enter Name>. This is where the user can enter a name for the table and press the Save Table View icon that appears to the left of the text box. For this example I named the table Config Table. Once saved, the table appears at the top of the ConfigurationManager as can be seen in the image above. Saving the table is a good idea in order to be able to access the table later to add more columns or build more configurations.
Once the table is active, more columns can be added by double clicking features in the Feature Manager Tree, or double clicking a dimension. The complete table for this project is shown below. I started this table by multi-selecting the Height and Length dimension from the 3D sketch. Once the table was active, I then double clicked on the pattern features in the Feature Manager tree for the hole-pattern and the adjustable shelf to add columns for these in the Modify Configurations table. For the pattern features, there is a check box to suppress the feature as well as columns to define instance counts. With this single table the user is able to create all of the configurations for the mutli-body bookcase.
Once the configurations are defined, it is a good idea to save the table for future use. In order to reactivate the table, the designer can simply double click the table from the Configuration Manager or right click the table and choose Show Table from the contextual menu as shown in the image at left.
The result is a very flexible system of shelves that represent the sizes in our office that I now can use in the office model.
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