Chapter 12. Building Efficient Assemblies

Chapter 4 provides a brief introduction to the basics of assemblies, how to put parts together, the basics of mating, and so on. The basic process for putting assemblies together remains the same for assemblies of any size, but once the assembly passes a certain point — and this point is likely different for each user or application — the assembly will benefit from some sort of organization or management techniques. This chapter introduces you to the tools and techniques that are available to help you manage performance issues as well as general-use issues, efficiency, browse-worthiness, or searchability.

Identifying the Elements of an Assembly

From Chapter 4, you know that an assembly can contain parts and mates. Real-world assemblies can become much more complex. As the number of parts and design requirements for an assembly grows, you may need to add some of the following types of assembly elements. (You may already be familiar with some of these from having worked with part documents.) The assembly elements are listed here, and described in detail either later in this chapter or in other chapters.

  • Assembly equations ...

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