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Instances in SolidWorks?

Posted: Wed Jun 11, 2008 6:40 pm
by edward_goodwin
Hi!

Is it possible to create instances of an object in SolidWorks? From what I understand, only certain Plugins allow you to create Instances, and I am guessing SolidWorks is maybe not one of them?

The problem I am having is creating a compostion of many Intances of the same object scattered at random in a scene. It seems very fiddly to move each individual instance, considering that in Maxwell Studio moving and manipulating Instances takes some time. This is particularly tricky becuase the object has several parts to it. (In Solidworks I could just create a sketch driven pattern of the object)

Posted: Wed Jun 11, 2008 7:31 pm
by JDHill
Hi Edward,

The next version of the plugin gives the option of exporting duplicates of bodies in an assembly as Maxwell instances. So as you were asking, here is an assembly with one part on a feature-driven pattern, giving one mesh and eleven instances:

Image

This works transparently, that is, there is just a new plugin option that turns the feature on and off. You can still override the Material of any of the parts at the component level, and the plugin will place the specified Material on the instance which corresponds to that part during export, just the same as is it is currently done.

Cheers,

JD

Posted: Wed Jun 11, 2008 7:39 pm
by edward_goodwin
Great.
That answers my question....and should make my life a little easier


cheers