SolidWorks® 2007 Bible

Chapter 28. Master Model Techniques

IN THIS CHAPTER

• Using Pull functions

• Using Push functions

• Tutorial: Working with master model techniques

The term master model may be used in several different ways. In this book, it is used to refer to a technique where an entire assembly is laid out or has its major faces constructed by a single part, and that part is then placed into other files from which the individual parts are created. Master model techniques are usually used in situations that are beyond the ability of in-context design to deal with, or where in-context design is cumbersome.

You can use in-context techniques with a master model concept, especially when you use the skeleton concepts discussed in Chapter 16. These concepts are used primarily to centralize driving geometry, minimize errors, and prevent circular references.

As an example of a multibody master model technique, a computer mouse is a complex shape, and the shape flows smoothly between parts. This is not conducive to in-context design, but works perfectly as a multibody master model. In-context design works best for replicating the locations of edges and holes, not the flow of a face. The multibody master model technique entails building the entire mouse as a single part, and then splitting it up into bodies that are in turn sent to different part files to have the detail features added.

Master model techniques are a product of four separate features or functions that have some similarities and some differences, and ...