Lab Manual

For

CAD/CAM using Pro/Engineer

Wildfire 5.0

Lecture 6- Assembly Modeling

Prepared by:
Nabeel Nisar, SE
 Table of Contents

1. ASSEMBLY MODELING ................................................................................................................... 3

2. PLACEMENT CONSTRAINT TYPES ............................................................................................... 4
3. MOVING COMPONENTS ................................................................................................................ 11
4. PACKAGED COMPONENTS ........................................................................................................... 11
5. EXPLODED ASSEMBLIES .............................................................................................................. 13
6. ASSEMBLY TUTORIAL .................................................................................................................. 15
7. MECHANISM CONNECTIONS ....................................................................................................... 25

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1. ASSEMBLY MODELING
Pro/ENGINEER is considered a design and engineering tool. The various modules of Pro/ENGINEER
provide designers, engineers, and manufacturers with the tools necessary to take a design from the
conceptual stage through the final manufacturing process. One of the most powerful tools of
Pro/ENGINEER is its Assembly module. Within this application, existing components can be grouped as
part of an assembly or as part of a subassembly. In addition, Pro/ENGINEER is capable of completing a
design from the top down by allowing parts to be modeled with Assembly mode.

DEFINITIONS
Assembly A collection of components that forms a complete design or a major end item.
Bottom-up design The placing of existing components within an assembly.
Constraint The explicit relationship defined between components of an assembly.
Component A part or subassembly.
Package A component that has not been fully constrained within an assembly.
Parametric assembly An assembly with parts constrained to other parts.
Subassembly A collection of parts and/or smaller subassemblies that forms a subcomponent of a
complete design or major end item.
Top-down design The designing of components within an assembly.

INTRODUCTION TO ASSEMBLY MODE

Pro/ENGINEER's Assembly mode is used to group components to meet the requirements of a design.
Components can consist of existing parts and subassemblies or components can be created directly within
Assembly mode. Placing existing components to form an assembly is referred to as bottom-up assembly
design, while creating parts within Assembly mode is a tool used within top-down assembly design. Parts
in Assembly mode maintain their associativity with their separate part files. Within Part mode, if a
dimension value is modified; the part instance in Assembly mode is modified. Correspondingly, if an
instance of a part is modified in Assembly mode, the component in Part mode is modified. In addition,
when a part is created within Assembly mode by using top-down assembly design, a new part file is
created that can be modified separately within Part mode. When a component is placed into an assembly,
the component's separate part or assembly file is placed into memory and remains there until the parent
assembly is erased from memory.

PLACING COMPONENTS
Pro/ENGINEER has two options for defining components within an assembly. First, existing parts and
subassemblies can be placed directly into an assembly model, a process loosely referred to as bottom-up
assembly design. The I n s e r t » Component» Assemble and the Add Component icon are used to locate
and open components. When a component is opened, its associated object file is opened into
Pro/ENGINEER's memory (but not into a separate window). When an assembly is saved, objects within
the assembly are saved to their separate object files. Individual components cannot be erased from
memory as long as an associated assembly object is open. Pro/ENGINEER also provides top-down
assembly tools for defining components directly within the assembly environment.
A component can be placed into an assembly at any point during the assembly creation process, including
as the first element of an assembly. When placed as the first component and before the creation of any
assembly features, the object is placed without any defined constraints. When the object is placed after a
component or after an assembly feature, Pro/ ENGINEER will launch the Component Placement dialog
box (Figure 1). This dialog box has two tabs. The Place tab is used to establish constraints and
mechanism connections. Constraints and connections define the relationship between components of an
assembly. The Move tab is used to adjust the placement of a component during the placement process.

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 CONSTRAINT TAB MOVE TAB

Fig 1

2. PLACEMENT CONSTRAINT TYPES

The Automatic placement constraint is selected by default when a new component is introduced into an
assembly for placement. After you select a valid pair of references from the assembly and from the
component, the system automatically selects a constraint type appropriate to the specified pair of
references.
Automatic selection of a constraint type eliminates the need to select one manually from the list of
constraint types and increases workflow efficiency. However, in some cases of ambiguity, you may want
to change the automatic selection to another type of constraint. You can also change the constraint type
before selecting any references, thereby restricting the allowed reference types.
The following placement constraints are available from the Constraint Type list in the Component
Placement dialog box:

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 Mate
Align
Insert
Coord Sys
Tangent
Pnt On Line
Pnt On Srf
Edge On Srf

Guidelines for Using Placement Constraints

A placement constraint specifies the relative position of a pair of references. You should follow these
general principles while placing constraints:
When you use Mate and Align, the two references must be of the same type (for example, plane-to-plane,
revolved-to-revolved, point-to-point, axis-to-axis). The term revolved surface refers to a surface created by
revolving a section, or by extruding an arc/circle. You can use only the following surfaces in a placement
constraint: plane, cylinder, cone, torus, sphere.
When you use Mate and Align and enter an offset value, the system displays the offset direction. To offset
in the opposite direction, make the offset value negative.
The system adds constraints one at a time. For example, it is not possible to use a single Align option to
align two different holes in one part with two different holes in another part. You must define two
different alignment constraints.

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Use placement constraints in combinations to completely specify both placement and orientation. For
example, you can constrain one pair of surfaces to mate, another pair to insert, and a third pair to orient.
An Angle offset constraint can only be used after a constraint aligning axes or edges is created.

Mate
Use the Mate constraint to position two surfaces or datum planes with their normals pointing at each
other. If datum planes are mated, their yellow sides face each other. If datum planes are mated with an
offset value, an arrow appears in the assembly reference pointing in the direction where the offset is
positive. If they are mated "coincident" or with an offset value of zero, the planes are coincident with the
normals facing each other.

1. Mate

Mate With an Offset Value

Use the Mate constraint to make two planar surfaces parallel and facing each other. The offset value
determines the distance between the two surfaces.

1. Mate
2. Mate offset
3. Offset

Align
Use the Align constraint to make two planes coplanar (coincident and facing the same direction), two
axes coaxial, or two points coincident. You can align revolved surfaces or edges. The yellow sides face
the same direction instead of facing each other as when mated. The distance between the planes depends
on whether they are aligned coincident or with an offset. The offset value is in the positive direction
displayed by the arrow that appears on the assembly reference.
If two datum planes are mate-oriented, then their normals face each other so they can be offset at a value
that is not fixed. They can be positioned in any location as long as their normals face each other. Align-
orient works the same way, except that the normals face the same direction. When using align-mate or
align-orient, you must specify additional constraints in order to rigidly position the component.
When multiple axis or point align constraints are used to assemble the component, the align constraints
can have two behaviors, forced and unforced. For example, if two sets of axes are aligned, the axes of the
first are made coaxial, but by default the axes of the second align are only constrained to be coplanar with
themselves and with the axes of the first align. However, the Forced option, next to the Constraint Type
list in the dialog box, can be used for the second align constraint. When Forced is selected, the axes of
the second align are required to be coaxial as well. With Forced selected, the second align constraint is
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listed as Align (Forced) instead of just Align in the constraints list. If the two axes for an Align (Forced)
are not coaxial, the constraint is considered invalid. Similar behavior occurs for point aligns. Any axis-to-
axis or point-to-point align that does not have a Forced check box next to the constraint dropdown list is
automatically required to be coaxial or cospatial. All plane and surface aligns are always required to be
coplanar and never have the Forced option available.

1. Align (plane)
2. Align (axis)
You can also align two datum points, vertices, or curve ends. Selections on both parts must be of the
same type, that is, if you select a point on one part, you can select only a point on the other part.

Align With an Offset Value

Use the Align constraint to align two planar surfaces at an offset: parallel and facing the same direction.

1. Align
2. Mate
3. Align offset
4. Offset

Insert
Use the Insert constraint to insert one revolved surface into another revolved surface, making their
respective axes coaxial. This constraint is useful when axes are unavailable or inconvenient for selection.

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1. Insert
2. Mate

Orient
Use the Orient constraint to orient two planar surfaces to be parallel facing the same direction; it does
not specify the offset.

1. Orient
2. Insert
3. Mate

Coord Sys
Use the Coord Sys constraint to place a component in an assembly by aligning its coordinate system with
a coordinate system in the assembly (you can use both assembly and part coordinate systems). You can
select the coordinate systems by name from namelist menus, pick them, or create them "on the fly." The
components will be assembled by aligning the corresponding axes of the selected coordinate systems.

1. Coord sys
2. Coordinate system in assembly (belongs to part)

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Tangent
Use the Tangent constraint to control the contact of two surfaces at their point of tangency. Keep in mind
that this placement constraint functions like Mate because it mates surfaces; it does not align them. An
example of the use of this constraint is the contact surface or point between a cam and its actuator.

1. Tangent
2. Align
3. Conical surface

Pnt On Line
Use the Pnt On Line constraint to control the contact of an edge, axis, or datum curve with a point.

Pnt On Srf
Use the Pnt On Srf constraint to control the contact of a surface with a point. In the example shown in
the following figure, the system constrained the bottom surface of the shaft to a datum point in the hole in
the block to control the depth of the shaft in the hole. You can use part or assembly datum points, surface
features, or datum planes, or part solid surfaces for references.

Edge On Srf
Use the constraint to control the contact of a surface with a planar edge. The following figure presents an
example of a gate and pivot. The system constrained a linear edge on the pivot to a planar surface on the
gate. You can use datum planes, planar part or assembly surface features, or any planar part solid
surfaces.

Default
Use the Default constraint to align the default system-created coordinate system of the component to the
default system-created coordinate system of the assembly. The system places the component at the
assembly origin.

Fix
Use the Fix constraint to fix the current location of the component that was moved or packaged.

Angle with an Offset Value

Use the Angle Offset constraint with an align or mate constraint to fix the rotation about the aligned axes
or edges. The Angle constraint is available only after a constraint aligning axes or edges is created.

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Pnt On Line
1. Point on Line 2. Edge

Pnt On Srf 1. Point on surface

Edge On Srf 1. Align edge with surface

Default 1. Part coordinate 2. Assembly coordinate

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3. MOVING COMPONENTS

When a component is placed into a scene, its default location might overlap existing components (making
it hard to visualize) or it might be out of position for the type of constraints to apply. The Move tab
allows a partially constrained component to be moved on the workscreen. The component can be moved
only within the degrees of freedom allowed by existing constraints.
There are three motion types available: Translate, Rotate, and Adjust. The Translate option will move the
component within the motion reference, while the Rotate option rotates the component around the
selected motion reference. The Adjust option works similarly to available constraint options. This option
allows the moving component to be mated and aligned with existing components.

When a motion type is selected, the relative motion is based on the motion reference selected. The
following references are available:
• View Plane The motion will be relative to the current screen orientation.
• Sel Plane The motion will be relative to a selected plane.
• Entity/Edge The motion will be relative to a selected axis, edge, or curve.
• Plane Normal The motion will be perpendicular to a selected plane.
• 2 Points Two selected vertices on the workscreen are used to created the relative motion.
• Csys The motion will be relative to the X-axis of a selected coordinate system.

4. PACKAGED COMPONENTS
When a part or subassembly is placed with constraints using the Assemble option, it is considered a
parametric assembly. Components of a parametric assembly have to be fully constrained. If a component
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is only partially constrained, it is considered a packaged component. Pro/ENGINEER provides the option
of placing a component directly into a model as a package with the Package option. A packaged
component is considered nonparametric. When you use the
Insert» Component » Package » Add » Open option, a component is placed and repositioned with the
Move dialog box.

PLACING A PARAMETRIC COMPONENT

Perform the following steps to place a parametric component:
STEP 1: Select the Add Component icon on the toolbar.
STEP 2 : Use the Open dialog box to open a part or assembly.
STEP 3 : Use constraint types available under the Component Placement dialog box to fully constrain
the component.
A parametric assembly should be fully constrained. The Placement Status box on the dialog box tells the
current constraint status of the component. The Move Tab is available for the translation and rotation of
the component along existing degrees of freedom. A partially constrained component can be placed as a
packaged assembly.
STEP 4 : Select OK on the dialog box to finish the placement process.

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5. EXPLODED ASSEMBLIES

When components are added to an assembly, they are placed in their functional orientation and located.
Often, this state of viewing an assembly can be confusing and less descriptive. Within the technical
language of engineering graphics, assembly drawings are used to display the location of assembled
components. To make the assembly drawing legible, the assembly can be exploded to separate
components. Figure shown below is an illustration of an exploded and an unexploded assembly. The
View » Explode option is used to explode a view, while the View Manager dialog box is used to create
and set explode states.

CREATING AN EXPLODED STATE

Perform the following steps to create an exploded state for an assembly:
STEP 1 : Select VIEW » VIEW MANAGER on the menu bar.
STEP 2 : Select the Explode tab on the View Manager dialog box.
STEP 3: Select the NEW option and enter a name for the exploded state.
STEP 4: Select EDIT » REDEFINE on the dialog box.
STEP 5 : Select POSITION on the Modify Explode menu.
STEP 6 : On the Explode Position dialog box, select TRANSLATE as the Motion type.
STEP 7: On the Explode Position dialog box, select a Motion Reference.
The setting of an explode state's components is similar to the movement of packaged components.
Pro/ENGINEER provides the following translation options:
• View Plane The motion will be relative to the current screen orientation. When this type is selected, any
selected components movement will be parallel to the workscreen.
• Sel Plane When this type is selected, the motion will be parallel to a selected plane. Planar surfaces and
datum planes can be selected.
• Entity/Edge When this type is selected, the motion will be along the path of a selected axis, edge, or
curve. The type is useful for confining the movement of a component along one axis.
• Plane Normal When this type is selected, the motion will be perpendicular to a selected plane.
• 2 Points When this type is selected, two selected points on the workscreen are used to created the
relative motion. This type is useful for confining the movement of a component along one axis.
• Csys The motion will be relative to the X-axis of a selected coordinate system.
STEP 8 : On the workscreen, select an entity or plane relevant to the motion reference.
Your selection on the assembly model is based on the motion reference selected in Step 7. With the
exception of the View Plane reference, you will select an entity, point, plane, or axis on the workscreen

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relevant to the current reference. As an example, if you select the Entity/Edge motion reference, you will
select either an axis, edge, or curve. The selected motion reference will remain current until it is changed.
STEP 9: On the workscreen, select and move a component.
STEP 1 0 : Continuing moving components on the workscreen or change motion types.
Continue moving components on the workscreen until the explode state is complete. You can change
motion types to optimize the state.
STEP l 1: Select OK on the dialog box when the explode state is complete.
STEP 12: Select the DONE/RETURN option on the Modify Explode menu.
STEP 13: Close the View Manager Dialog box.
STEP 1 4 : Use VIEW » EXPLODE to explode and unexplode the view.

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6. ASSEMBLY TUTORIAL

This tutorial will explore Pro/ENGINEER's basic bottom-up assembly modeling capabilities. The final
product of this tutorial is shown in Figure1. Within this tutorial, the following topics will be covered:

• Creating components for an assembly.

• Placing components into an assembly.
• Creating an exploded assembly.

Fig 1

CREATING COMPONENTS FOR AN ASSEMBLY

During bottom-up assembly design, parts for an assembly are created with normal part modeling tools
and techniques. As with any parametric model, the intent of the design needs to be considered. In
addition, how components of an assembly will be parametrically linked is another important
consideration. Often, extra datums will have to be added to a component to simulate the correct function
of the design.
The first segment of this tutorial will require the modeling of the six parts that make up the assembly.
Notice in Figure 1 that the actual assembly consists of 11 parts. Two of the parts are used multiple times.
Within Pro/ENGINEER, a component can be placed multiple times into an assembly. Figure 2 shows the
parts used in this tutorial. Use Part mode to model each part. The dimensions shown in each illustration
represent the design intent. Incorporate this intent into each part.

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MODELING POINTERS

Notice the similarities between Part One and Part Five (Figure 2). The only difference between
the two parts is the absence of three cut features in Part Five. If Part One is created first, you can
use the New File Options dialog box to create Part Five as a copy of Part One. After creating the
copy, delete the cut features. The New File Options dialog box is accessible by deselecting the
Use Default Template on the New dialog box.
Create the six 0.50-in-diameter holes in Part One and Part Five as a patterned hole. Within the
assembly, Part Three will be inserted into each hole. The Reference Pattern option can be used to
pattern the first instance of Part Three to place the remaining five. This saves time in the
component placement process and also meets the design intent for this assembly.

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Fig 2

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PLACING COMPONENTS INTO AN ASSEMBLY

This segment of the tutorial will place the parts into the assembly. Part One will be placed first
followed by Part Five, Part Two, Part Three, then Part Four.

STEP 1: Use the New option to create a new Assembly object named main_assembly (Use the
Default Template file).
STEP 2: Select the ADD COMPONENT option on the toolbar.
Two options are available for adding components to an assembly file: Add Component and
Create Component. The Add Component option is available for adding existing part and
assembly models. The Create Component option allows components to be created directly
within the assembly environment.
STEP 3: Use the Open dialog box to open the Part One component.
After opening the part, Pro/ENGINEER will launch the Component placement dialog box. This
dialog box is used to constrain components within the context of the assembly. The Part_One
component will be constrained to the set of default datum planes.
STEP 4: Select the Assemble at Default Location icon on the Component Placement dialog box.

STEP 5: Select OK on the Component Placement dialog box.

STEP 6: Select the ADD COMPONENT option on the toolbar.
STEP 7: Use the Open dialog box to open the Part Five component.
STEP 8: Ensure that AUTOMATIC is selected as the Constraint type on the
Component Placement dialog box.

Fig 3
STEP 9: Select the two Mate surfaces shown in Figure 3
STEP 10: Under the Constraints section of the dialog box, change the previously created
constraint from an aligned constraint to a MATE constraint.
STEP 11: Select the NEW CONSTRAINT icon on the dialog box.

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STEP 12: With Automatic as the constraint type, pick the two Align surfaces shown in Figure 3.
STEP 13: If necessary, enter 0.00 as the offset value.
Aligned and Mated surfaces can have an offset value. When two surfaces are offset, they will
remain parallel but will be separated by the user specified offset value.
STEP 1 4 : Change this constraint type to ALIGN and COINCIDENT as the offset (see Figure
3).
STEP 1 5 : Select the NEW CONSTRAINT icon on the dialog box
STEP 1 6 : With Automatic as the constraint type, pick the two Align axes shown in Figure 3.
STEP I 7 : Ensure that ALIGN and COINCIDENT are entered as the constraint type and offset.
STEP 1 8 : When the component is fully constrained, select OK on the dialog box.
STEP 1 9 : Use the ADD COMPONENT option to open Part Two
STEP 2 0 : Use the ALIGN constraint and the ORIENTED Offset option to orient the slot
surface shown in Figure 4.

Fig 4

Orient the bottom surface of the key slot on Part Two with the bottom of Part One. This
constraint combination will orient the surfaces in the same direction. You must manually set the
Oriented option as shown in the figure.

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STEP 2 1 : Select the NEW CONSTRAINT icon.
STEP 2 2 : MATE the back of the head of Part Two with the front surface of the boss feature on
Part One (use a 0.00 or COINCIDENT offset value).
STEP 23: Select the NEW CONSTRAINT icon.
STEP 24: Using the INSERT constraint type pick the surface of the shaft of Part Two then the
surface of the hole feature on Part One.
STEP 2 5 : When your part is fully constrained, select the OK option.
STEP 2 6 : Use the same constraint types from the first instance of Part_Two to place the second
instance of the part
STEP 2 7 : Use the ADD COMPONENT option to open Part Three (Figure 5).
Place the constraint types in the following order:
• Mate Mate the back of the head of Part Three with the top surface of Part Five.
• Insert Insert the surface of the shaft of Part Three into the surface of one on the six hole
features on Part Five.
• Allow the assumption shown in the Placement Status menu . When two revolved features are
constrained together, Pro/ENGINEER will assume the constraint around the axis of revolution.

Fig 5

STEP 2 8 : Pick part Part_Three on the model tree and select the PATTERN command on the
pop-up menu
STEP 2 9 : On the Pattern dashboard, select REFERENCE as the pattern type.

STEP 3 0 : Use the ADD COMPONENT option to open Part_Four

(Figures 6 and 7).
Place the constraint types in the following order:
• Mate Mate the bottom of Part Four with the bottom of the cut slot.
• Mate Mate the back of Part Four with the side of the cut slot.
• Align-Offset Use the Align constraint and the Offset suboption to offset the end of Part Four
from the side of Part One.

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 Fig 6

Fig 7

STEP 3 1 : Save your assembly file.

Your complete assembly should appear as shown in Figure 8. Observe the components on your
Model Tree. Modify, feature creation, and feature manipulation options can be accessed by
right-mouse button picking the component on the model tree.

Fig 8

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CREATING AN EXPLODED ASSEMBLY

This segment of the tutorial will create the explode state shown in Figure 8. Within any one
assembly object, multiple explode states can be created.

STEP 1: Select VIEW » ORIENTATION » DEFAULT ORIENTATION

STEP 2: Select VIEW » VIEW MANAGER on the menu bar.
STEP 3: Select the EXPLODE tab on the View Manager dialog box.
STEP 4: Select the NEW option then enter EXPLODE1 as the name for the explode state.
STEP 5: Select EDIT » REDEFINE on the View Manager dialog box, then select POSITION on
the Modify Explode menu.
STEP 6: On the Explode Position dialog box, select ENTITY/EDGE as the
Motion Reference (Figure 9).
STEP 7: Select the entity edge shown in Figure 9 or a similar parallel edge.
STEP 8: Select TRANSLATE as the Motion Type (Figure 9).

Fig 9
STEP 9: Select and move the component as shown.
STEP 1 0 : On the Explode Position dialog box, select the Motion Reference pick icon then pick
the entity edge shown in Figure 10.
This step will define a motion reference. You must first reselect the reference through the Pick
icon located on the dialog box. As a note, the Entity/Edge selection works with edges and axes.
Within this step, you could also pick one of the six vertical axes available within the model.
STEP 1 1 : Move the two components shown in Figure 10.

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 Fig 10

STEP 1 2 : Individually, move each instance of Part Three to the locations shown (Figure 11).
Once an entity motion type has been selected on the Motion Preference menu, this type remains
current until changed. In this case, the previous entity edge selected remains current.

Fig 11
STEP 1 3 : Define the edge shown in Figure 12 as the motion reference and move the two
components shown.
STEP 1 4 : Select OK to exit the Explode Position dialog box.
STEP 1 5 : Select DONE/RETURN to exit the Model Explode menu, then select Close the View
Manager dialog box.
STEP 1 6 : Select VIEW » EXPLODE » UNEXPLODE on the menu bar.
STEP 1 7 : Save your assembly object file.

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Fig 12

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7. MECHANISM CONNECTIONS
 Define the movement of a component in an assembly
 Contains constraints that define a type of connection, with or without a motion axis
 Connections define a particular type of motion.
 After you decide which connection allows the type of motion you want, select it from the
list and appropriate constraints appear

Rigid Connection
 Connects two components so that they do not move relatively to each other. They are
constrained with any valid set of constraints.
 Components so connected become a single body. Rigid connection set constraints are
similar to a user-defined constraint set

Pin Connection
 Connects a component to a referenced axis so that the component rotates or moves along
this axis with one degree of freedom.
 Select an axis, edge, curve, or surface as an axis reference. Select a datum point, vertex,
or surface as a translation reference.
 A Pin connection set has two constraints: axis alignment and planar mate or align or a
point alignment

Slider Connection
 Connects a component to a referenced axis so that the component moves along the axis
with one degree of freedom.
 Select edges or aligning axes as alignment references. Choose surfaces as rotation
references.
 A Slider connection set has two constraints: axis alignment and planar mate/align to
restrict rotation along the axis.

Planar Connection
 Connects components so that they move in a plane relatively to each other with two
degrees of freedom in the plane and one degree of freedom around an axis perpendicular
to it.
 Select Mate or Align surface references.
 A Planar connection set has a single planar mate or align constraint.
 The mate or align constraint may be flipped or offset.

Ball Connection
 Connects a component so that it can rotate in any direction with three degrees of freedom
(360° rotation).
 Select points, vertex, or curve ends for alignment references.
 A Ball connection set has one point-to-point alignment constraint.

Additional Connections
 Weld
 Bearing
 General
 6DOF
 Slot

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