Video

Continuing Part 4 of our series, we are going to show how to share part properties using the derive tool. We could make a derived part using the solid object or the parameters. Another way to do this is to use an Excel file with the parameters. For derived parts, you would use derive technique for minimal uses of the measurement. We will take the particular measurement and use it only once. If we were going to use it many times, we would use the Excel sheet.

So we're going to firstly go into the part and go to "Manage" and the "Insert and Derive" icon. We'll look for the file in our folder and locate the file with the part. Open the file. You'll probably see the actual solid body appear in the part file. We do not need to see this in the part file, we just want to take measurement. So we go into Solid bodies and turn it off.

Next we go into parameters to identify the measurements. You can also click on parameters icon on the top. We remember the d0 being 2" so we will rename d0 to ZAxisBackWidth and press done. Now we will be able to identify it. We click "edit derived part" and it will show the list and we go to "model parameters". Click on the circle and press ok when the dialog box opens. It will now show a green plus icon.

Now we are able to use this parameter in any of the sketches we have. Now we go into the part dimension and select "list parameters" and now zaxisbackwidth will be available to use. Now you will notice that we have not constrained this part yet to the mount yet. We will go into that sketch and modify the dimension to 3 inches. Using the "Global update" will show us the width once it has been widened since we will not be able to see it yet.

Click Here for the Next Part in the Series