CHAPTER 6 – ASSEMBLY MODELING

Every day, we see many examples of components that are assembled together into one model such
as bicycles, cars, and computers. All of these products were created by designing and
manufacturing individual parts and then fitting them together. The designers who create them have
to carefully plan each part so that they all fit together perfectly in order to perform the desired
function.

In this chapter, you will learn two kinds of approaches used in Assembly modeling. We will
practice assembly modeling using the impeller assembly as an example. Some parts of this
assembly have already been modeled in earlier chapters.

NX 12 Assembly is a part file that contains the individual parts. They are added to the part file in
such a way that the parts are virtually in the assembly and linked to the original part. This
eliminates the need for creating separate memory space for the individual parts in the computer.
All the parts are selectable and can be used in the design process for information and mating to
insure a perfect fit as intended by the designers. The following figure shows how components are
added to make an assembly.

6.1 TERMINOLOGY

Assembly

An assembly is a collection of pointers to piece parts and/or subassemblies. An assembly is a part

file, which contains component objects.

Component Object

A component object is a non-geometric pointer to the part file that contains the component
geometry. Component object stores information such as the Layer, Color, Reference set, position
data for component relative to assembly and path of the component part on file system.

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Component Part

A component part is a part file pointed to by

a component object within an assembly. The
actual geometry is stored in the component
part and is referenced, not copied by the
assembly.

Component Occurrences

An occurrence of a component is a pointer to geometry in the component file. Use component

occurrences to create one or more references to a component without creating additional geometry.

Reference Set

A reference set is a named collection of objects in a component part or subassembly that you can
use to simplify the representation of the component part in higher level assemblies.

6.2 ASSEMBLING APPROACHES

There are two basic ways of creating any assembly model.

 Top-Down Approach

 Bottom-Up Approach

6.2.1 Top-Down Approach

In this approach, the assembly part file is created
first and components are created in that file. Then
individual parts are modeled. This type of
modeling is useful in a new design.

6.2.2 Bottom-Up Approach

The component parts are created first in the
traditional way and then added to the assembly
part file. This technique is particularly useful,
when part files already exist from the previous
designs, and can be reused.

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6.2.3 Mixing and Matching
You can combine these two approaches, when
necessary, to add flexibility to your assembly
design needs.

6.3 ASSEMBLY AND CONSTRAINT

NAVIGATORS

The Assembly Navigator and Constraint Navigator

are located on top of the Part Navigator in the
Resource Bar on the left of the screen. These
navigators show you various things that form the
assembly, including part hierarchy, the part name,
information regarding the part such as whether the
part is read only, count of objects, and the constraint status.

6.4 MATING CONSTRAINTS

After the Component Objects are added to the assembly part file, each Component Object is mated
with the existing objects. By assigning the mating conditions on components of an assembly, you
establish positional relationships, or constraints, among those components. These relationships are
termed Mating Constraints. A mating condition is made up of one or more mating constraints.
There are different mating constraints as explained below:

Touch/Align: Planar objects selected to align will be coplanar but the normals to the planes
will point in the same direction. Centerlines of cylindrical objects will be in line with each
other.

Concentric: Constrains circular or elliptical edges of two components so the centers are
coincident and the planes of the edges are coplanar.

Distance: This establishes a +/- distance (offset) value between two objects

Parallel: Objects selected will be parallel to each other.

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 Perpendicular: Objects selected will be perpendicular to each other.

Bond: Creates a weld and welds components together to move as a single object.

Center: Objects will be centered between other objects, i.e. locating a cylinder along a slot
and centering the cylinder in the slot.

Angle: This fixes a constant angle between the two object entities chosen on the components
to be assembled.

6.5 EXAMPLE

We will assemble the impeller component objects. You have modeled all the components in
previous chapters. Now we have to insert them into the assembly environment and apply
constraints to locate them relative to each other. Once the assembling is completed, we can create
an exploded view and prepare the drafting.

Before starting the assembly modeling, make three through-holes on each side of the Impeller-
lower-casing and Impeller-upper-casing (a total number of 6 holes for each casing) for the Hexa-
bolt. Diameter of the holes should be 0.25 and their location should be similar to the figure below.
Make sure to create the holes in the same places for both lower and upper casing, so that when
they are assembled they match.

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6.5.1 Starting an Assembly
 Create a new file

 Choose Assembly under the Model tab

 Set the Units to Inches

 Name it as Impeller_assembly.prt

OR, if you are in the Modeling Application and want to start assembling,

 Turn on Assemblies option in Application tab and a new Assemblies tab shows up

OR

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  Click File →Assemblies as shown below

 The Home menu bar will now display tools for assembly

In the Components option,

 Add option adds new component objects whose part files are already created.

 Create New lets you create new component geometries inside the assembly file when you
are using Top-Down approach of assembly.

The Assembly Constraints allows you to create assembly constraints and Move Components allows
you to reposition the components wherever you want them in the assembly.

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6.5.2 Adding Components and Constraints
 Choose Add

The dialogue box shown on the right side will pop up. You
can select the part files from those existing (should be already
shown in Loaded Parts tab) or you can load the part files
using the Open file options in the dialog box. This will load
the selected part file into the Loaded Parts dialog box.

 Click on the Open icon and select the file

Impeller_upper-casing.prt

 Click OK in the part name dialog box

Then we need to set a location to place the coordinate system

of the first component. In the Location group box, keep the
default Snap for the Assembly Location option.

 Click Select Object

Now you should be able to see the part in a transparent mode,

as shown in the figure on the right side.

 Click the Point Dialog icon and create the

coordinates of [0, 0, 0]

 Click OK to exit the Point Dialog

Note: Feel free to play with the Cycle Orientation options to set different orientations.

In the Placement group box, we can define where and how we place this component. In this case,
we will leave the options as default.

 Click OK to exit the Add Component Dialog

Then, you will see a pop-up dialog appears as shown in the figure below.

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  Click Yes to create a Fix constraint to this part.

Now what you have should like the figure below.

Let’s move on to add the second component, the lower casing.

 Click on Add in the assembly section

 Select the file Impeller_lower-casing.prt from the Loded Parts or Open

 In the Location group box change the option to Absolute – Work Part to place the new
part at the absolute origin of the current work part

 In the Placement group box, first toggle the Move radio button and move the lower casing
away from the upper casing to have enough space for selecting the mating surfaces. What
you will have should like the figure below.

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  Then, toggle the Constrain radio button.

Now let’s mate the upper and the lower casings.

You can access all the constraints in the drop-
down menu in the Constraint Type box.

Here you can see the different Mating Types,

which were explained above in the previous
section.

 Make sure the Touch Align icon is

selected in the Type dialog box

 First, select the face that the arrow is

pointing to as shown below in the figure on the left.

 Click on the face of the upper casing in the screen as shown in the figure on the right.

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You may have to adjust the view in order to select the faces. After you choose these two faces, the
Touch Align constraint will be automatically added.

Let’s add another Touch Align constraint.

 Click on the Flange of the upper casing

 Click on the Flange of the lower casing, you may need to inverse the direction of constraint

by click on the Inverse icon

Note: If it is difficult for you to select the faces because of the position of the parts, you can move
them by toggling the Move in the Placement group box and manipulate its handler.

Let’s add another Touch Align constraint.

 Make sure you are still using Touch Align

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  Click on the flat face of the upper casing as shown and then the corresponding face on the
lower casing

The two assembled components will be seen as shown in the figure below.

The lower casing is constrained with respect to the upper casing. Now let us add the impeller.

 Choose Assemblies →Component →Add to add a component to the current assembly

 Open the file Impeller_impeller.prt

 Click OK on the dialog box

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  Choose Absolute – Work Part for Assembly Location

 Toggle the Constrain button

 Click on the Distance icon in the Constraint Type box

 Select the two faces, first on the impeller and then on the casing, as shown in the figure
below

 In the Distance box in the Placement group, enter the value of 3

 Press Enter to preview the current assembly

The preview may show the impeller oriented in the direction opposite to the one we want.

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  To change the orientation of the part or the distance direction, in the Placement window,

click on the Cycle Last Constraint button in the Geometry to Constrain box, as
shown below

Check the assembly status from its preview, you may have to click on the button for several
times to get the desired result. Now the impeller will be oriented in the right direction.

We will now add the shaft using the Center constraint.

 Click on Assemblies →Components →Add

 Open the file Impeller_shaft.prt

 Click OK on the dialog box

 Choose the Touch Align icon in the Constraint

Type box

 Choose the Infer Center/Axis option in the

Geometry to Constrain box

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  Select the two surfaces, first on the shaft and then on the impeller as shown in the figures
below

 Stay in the Touch Align constraint

 Choose the Prefer Touch option in the Geometry to Constrain box

 First, select the face on the shaft and then select the bottom face of the hole in the impeller
as shown

The assembly will now look like the figure below.

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 Click on Assemblies →Components →Add

 Open the file Impeller_hexa-bolt.prt

 Choose the Touch Align constraint. Use the Infer Center/Axis option in the Geometry
to Constrain box

 First, select the outer cylindrical threading on the bolt and then select the inner surface of
the hole on the upper casing as show in the figures below.

 Again in the Touch Align constraint change the Geometry to Constrain option to Prefer
Touch

 Select the flat face on the bolt and the face on the rib of the upper casing as shown

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  Click OK

The assembly is shown below.

 Repeat the same procedure to add bolts and nuts to all the holes in the assembly.

This completes the assembly of the impeller.

Note: There is a simpler way to assemble the bolt and nut set. Instead of adding the three parts
individually, you can assemble these components separately in another file. This will be a sub-
assembly. You can insert this subassembly and mate it with the main assembly.

The Final Assembly will look as the shown below. Save the Model.

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6.5.3 Exploded View
In this section, we are going to create an Exploded View of the assembly to show a separated part-
by-part picture of the components that make the assembly. In today’s industrial practice, these
kind of views are very helpful on the assembly shop floor to get a good idea of which item fixes
where. The user should understand that exploding an assembly does not mean relocation of the
components, but only viewing the models in the form of disassembly. You can Unexplode the view
at any time you want to regain the original assembly view. Let us explode the Impeller Assembly.

 Choose Menu →Assemblies →Exploded Views →New Explosion

This will pop up a dialog box asking for the name of

the Explosion view to be created. You can leave name
as the default name and choose OK

Now the NX environment is in Exploded View

environment though you do not find any difference. When we start exploding an assembly, we
should decide upon a component to keep that component as the reference. This component should
not be moved from its original position. In the case of the impeller assembly, the impeller will be
the right option as it is central to the entire assembly. Now let us start exploding the components.

 Right click on the upper casing and choose Edit Explosion

The Edit Explosion window will pop up along with coordinate handles on the component.

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  Click on the Z axis; hold the mouse and drag upwards until the reading in the Distance
shows -20 (substitute +20 if you have designed in opposite direction)

 Click OK

 Right click on the lower casing and choose Edit Explosion

Again, this will pop up a dialog window for Edit

Explosion and a coordinate system on the component.

 Click on the Z-axis; hold the mouse and drag

downwards until the reading in the Distance
shows 20 as shown in the figure on the right
side.

 Right click on the shaft and choose Edit

Explosion

 This time click on the X-axis; hold the button

and drag to the right side until the reading in the
distance shows -25 as shown in the following
figure

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 Choose OK

 Select all the six hexagonal bolts in the assembly by clicking on them

 Right click on one of them and choose Edit Explosion

 This time click on the Z-axis; hold the button and drag upwards until the reading in the
Distance shows 25 as shown in the following figure. This will move all the six bolts
together to the same distance.

 Choose OK

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  Likewise, move the six washers and the six hexagonal nuts downwards to -30 and -35,
respectively.

This is the Exploded view of the assembly. You can rotate and see how it looks like.

If you want to go back to the original unexploded view,

 Click Exploded Views in the ribbon → choose (No Explosion) from the drop-down menu

as shown below

Or, you can Unexplode any component in the assembly,

 Right click on the component and choose Unexplode.

If you want to unexplode all the components,

 Choose Assemblies → Exploded Views → Unexplode Component

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  Select all the components and choose OK

6.6 EXERCISES

6.6.1 Arbor Press

In the previous sections of this tutorial, we have modeled various parts, some of which are
components of the arbor press shown below. Assemble the arbor press using the components that
you have modeled in addition to ones that are provided to you, which you have not modeled before.
The complete list of parts of the arbor press assembly is provided below. All these parts are
provided in a folder that can be accessed along with this tutorial in the same internet address
(https://web.mst.edu/~mleu/).

 Allen Bolt
 Allen Nut
 Base
 Circle base
 End clip
 Handle
 Hexagonal Bolt
 L-bar
 Pin
 Pinion
 Pinion handle
 Plate
 Rack
 Sleeve

6.6.2 Butterfly Valve

Butterfly valve is one of the most commonly used devices for controlling flow. The Butterfly valve
consists of a rotating disk positioned in the pipe. The disc is attached to the shaft that is connected
to an actuator on the outside of the valve. Rotating the actuator turns the disc either parallel or
perpendicular to the flow. When the valve is closed, the disc is turned so that it completely blocks
off the passageway. When the valve is fully open, the disc is rotated a quarter turn so that it allows
an almost unrestricted passage of the fluid. The valve may also be opened incrementally to regulate
flow.

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In this exercise, you will model and assemble the Butterfly valve consisting of 9 different parts for
a total of 12 components. The names, drawings and dimensions of the different part items, as well
as how the various components fit together, are provided. The parts for which the drawings are not
given are to be designed or selected, for example, the round head machine screw. All dimensions
are in inches.

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6.6.3 Jackscrew
A jackscrew is a type of jack that is operated by turning a leadscrew. In this
exercise, you are asked to model, assemble and prepare drawings of parts. All
dimensions should be in millimeters. Create individual drafts for each
component. Draft the final assembly and make a table, listing out individual
components. The Assembly draft should have an exploded view.

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