{"id":3985,"date":"2014-07-20T17:00:07","date_gmt":"2014-07-20T21:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.solidworks.com\/tech\/?p=3985"},"modified":"2023-09-20T20:06:58","modified_gmt":"2023-09-21T00:06:58","slug":"benefits-of-using-derived-configurations-in-solidworks-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.solidworks.com\/tech\/2014\/07\/benefits-of-using-derived-configurations-in-solidworks-2.html","title":{"rendered":"Benefits of using Derived Configurations in SOLIDWORKS"},"content":{"rendered":"

Configurations allow you to create multiple variations of a part\/assembly model within a single file.\u00a0They provide a convenient way to develop and manage families of models with different dimensions, components, or other parameters.\u00a0Another underused area of configurations is\u00a0derived configurations. The advantage of derived configurations is the bi-directional relationship they have with their parent configuration.<\/p>\n

To highlight their use, let\u2019s have a look at an example inspired by the Tour de France, held right here in Cambridge, of a bicycle wheel using derived configurations.<\/p>\n

\"01\"<\/a><\/p>\n

In this assembly example, some of the components are modelled using in-context relationships. This will help us show not only the suppression of certain components\/features, but it will also enable the software to update the geometry to rebuild other components automatically. In the case of the bicycle wheel, the spokes and tyre are constructed with relationships to\u00a0the spindle and rim. This means that the overall wheel diameter can be changed and they will update automatically.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"02<\/a><\/p>\n

The first step to create our configurations and derived configurations is to think about how to display the variations that we want. The most common diameter bicycle wheel is a 700C, this will form the basis of\u00a0our first configuration with a second at 650.\u00a0At the\u00a0\u2018rims\u2019\u00a0part level, the two sizes have also been created in their own configurations, this enables us to specify which part level configuration we can use in our assembly level configurations through the ‘rims’\u00a0component properties.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"05<\/a><\/p>\n

Now that we have our parent configurations, 750C and 650; we can proceed with adding derived (child) configurations for each. To add these, make sure the parent configuration is highlighted first; that way when you right mouse button click in the configuration manager and add, all the parameters in the derived configurations are linked by default to the highlighted\u00a0parent configuration. This means if you change a parameter in the parent configuration, the change automatically propagates to the derived unless otherwise stated.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"06<\/a><\/p>\n

In all these derived configurations we want the size of the \u2018rim\u2019 to follow their parent. This has already been done for us when we created each derived configuration. If we right mouse button click on the \u2018rim\u2019 component and select \u2018configure component\u2019, we can see each derived configuration has inherited their parents \u2018rim\u2019 configuration highlighted in YELLOW. In each of the derived configurations, the yellow colour represents that the \u2018rim\u2019 configuration is not specifically linked to its parent configuration which remains WHITE. We will adjust this for another component later in the blog.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"10<\/a><\/p>\n

Adding another column for the \u2018spindle\u2019 by double clicking on the component from the feature tree, it is here we can choose which of the \u2018spindle\u2019 configurations to use for each of the derived configurations. Using the drop down arrow in the \u2018no disc rotor mount\u2019 configuration, the\u00a0\u2018no disc rotor mount\u2019 configuration for the \u2018spindle\u2019\u00a0is\u00a0selected which inherently keeps the cell colour yellow.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"11<\/a><\/p>\n

Now because the two top level parent configurations both have a \u2018disc rotor\u2019, we need to add that component and all the toolbox components to our \u2018configure table\u2019 for suppression in all the derived configurations. The derived configurations need not follow their parent\u00a0which keeps their cell yellow when checked.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"12\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"13<\/a><\/p>\n

Now sometimes you may want components to be different between the top level parent configurations but to be the same for each derived configuration. We can achieve this by first activating the parent configuration \u2018650\u2019. In the feature tree, right mouse button clicking on the \u2018tyre\u2019 to open its component properties. We want the tyre to use the parts \u2018slick\u2019 configuration for this \u2018650\u2019 parent configuration.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"14<\/a><\/p>\n

To have the same\u00a0‘slick’ configuration in each of the derived configurations like that of their parent \u2018650\u2019, we need to complete the same process for all the derived configurations,\u00a0but use the \u2018link to parent configuration\u2019 option.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"15<\/a><\/p>\n

When opening the \u2018configure table\u2019 and adding the \u2018tyre\u2019 component, it can be seen that each of the derived configurations under the parent \u2018650\u2019 are white, this indicates that they are now following their parent configuration. Having saved the \u2018configure table\u2019, we can now easily change all the \u2018650\u2019 derived configurations from using either\u00a0the \u2018slick\u2019 or \u2018grip\u2019 configuration by the drop down arrow in the parent configuration cell.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Summary\"<\/a><\/p>\n

In the configurations example above, if we wanted to make a change to specific configurations, we would have to change each configuration. So, for an example, if we need to change a dimension within any configuration starting with \u2018650\u2019; we would have to alter three configurations, or use the \u2018specify configuration\u2019 option. In the derived configurations example above, a change to the top level \u2018650\u2019 configuration would automatically populate downwards to the tabulated configurations unless otherwise stated.<\/p>\n

The process of creating derived configurations can\u00a0take some thought and be lengthy, however in our example, it shows how derived configurations\u00a0can be an advantage to us. Derived configurations have allowed us to create parent-child relationships\u00a0within the individual \u2018650\u2019 or \u2018700C\u2019 configurations. This enabled\u00a0the\u00a0‘rim’\u00a0configurations \u2018650\u2019 or \u2018700C\u2019 to flow from the\u00a0parent configuration to\u00a0its\u00a0derived configurations. Yes this could have been achieved by creating multiple configurations for each variation like above,\u00a0but derived configurations allow us to\u00a0control the ‘tyres’ configurations for each\u00a0‘650’ or\u00a0‘700C’ parent. The \u2018tyre\u2019\u00a0component in the derived configurations could then be linked to\u00a0their\u00a0parent. If we had created configurations for each, we would’ve had to change the ‘tyre’ in each configuration manually resulting in timely design changes. The control over our derived configurations has further additional benefits because of the override of any configurable parameter so that it is no longer linked to\u00a0its parent configuration. The ability to change a dimension, configuration or suppress a component like the ‘disc rotor’\u00a0in each of the derived configurations enabled us to create the different variations for each of the main ‘650’ or ‘750C’ wheel diameters.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Configurations allow you to create multiple variations of a part\/assembly model within a single file.\u00a0They provide a convenient way to develop and manage families of models with different dimensions, components, or other parameters.\u00a0Another underused area of configurations is\u00a0derived configurations. The<\/p>\n... Continued<\/a>","protected":false},"author":168,"featured_media":3980,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,21,35,36],"tags":[520],"class_list":["post-3985","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-design","category-solidworks","category-tips-tricks","category-usability","tag-derived-configurations"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.solidworks.com\/tech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3985","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.solidworks.com\/tech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.solidworks.com\/tech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.solidworks.com\/tech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/168"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.solidworks.com\/tech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3985"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.solidworks.com\/tech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3985\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4045,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.solidworks.com\/tech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3985\/revisions\/4045"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.solidworks.com\/tech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3980"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.solidworks.com\/tech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3985"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.solidworks.com\/tech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3985"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.solidworks.com\/tech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3985"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}