Fellow SWX users,

When is a good time to use derived configuration?  I tried it on a part and
found not only the child inherit properties from the parent, the parent also
picks up all the changes I made in the child.

It was a drill template I was working on, dash 1 is without bushing, dash 2
with.  So I figured it is a good candidate for derived config.  Originally,
I made dash 1 the parent, dash 2 the derived config.  Since I was lazy, I
created the bushings as solidbody inside the part file as suppose to an
assy.  And I found the bushings also showed up in the parent config.  The
only way I found to make them different was to add the bushing in the
parent, then suppress them in the child.  Is that the way it is supposed to
be?  Did I miss some toggle settings somewhere?

Thanks in advance,

Stephen Chai

Derived configs are handy when you want the derived configuration be linked 
to changes in the parent config, except for specific items. To make a 
change in the derived configuration, make sure you make the change "in this 
configuration" only. For example, in a component's properties, you can 
usually suppress the component in 3 ways: all configs, this config, and 
specify configs. In a derived configuration, there is a 4th option, "linked 
to parent config". Change it to "this configuration" to make the change you 
want.

no answer as to when they should be used but ...

regular and derived config have the same options (properties).

there is an option to have features and mates suppressed for newly inserted
items,
regular configs have this switch on by default.
derived configs have this switch off by default.


derived configs are just an alterante way to organize your data.

You are correct derived configurations are bi-directional back to the main
configuration.  To help answer the question as to when are they good to use:
I believe that this was created for sheetmetal bent & flat states.  As if
you were to add a cut to the flat state configuration (derived) then you
WOULD want it to push back to the main configuration & visa versa.
Solidworks will create a derived configuration of a sheetmetal part
automatically when you insert the flat pattern view into a drawing (you do
not have to make that configuration yourself.)  However users can create
them manually (as you know) in non sheetmeal parts, however you will have to
break the bi-directional link in the properties of each feature.  I believe
Dale Dunne has explain in detail how to do that.

I hope that helps further explain how & why for ya

Steve Tietz


"Stephen Chai" <schai@california.com> wrote in message
news:41388735$1@hughey...
> Fellow SWX users,
>
> When is a good time to use derived configuration?  I tried it on a part
and
> found not only the child inherit properties from the parent, the parent
also
> picks up all the changes I made in the child.
>
> It was a drill template I was working on, dash 1 is without bushing, dash
2
> with.  So I figured it is a good candidate for derived config.
Originally,
> I made dash 1 the parent, dash 2 the derived config.  Since I was lazy, I
> created the bushings as solidbody inside the part file as suppose to an
> assy.  And I found the bushings also showed up in the parent config.  The
> only way I found to make them different was to add the bushing in the
> parent, then suppress them in the child.  Is that the way it is supposed
to
> be?  Did I miss some toggle settings somewhere?
>
> Thanks in advance,
>
> Stephen Chai
>
>

To give you an example . . . imagine you have a couple of major
configurations of an Assembly, based on differences between several
Parts.  And imagine you want to illustrate the differences in an
ISOMETRIC cutaway in a Drawing for your production people.  And you know
that using the cutaway options in Drawing mode is very useful for
orthographic views, but not quite so much for isometric views.  You want
to show some Parts cut partially away, and maybe even differently
depending on the Part, and you want to do it for both major
configurations of the Assembly.  So . . . you make a derived
configuration for each major configuration in the Assembly to show the
cutaways.

Now, you can use Extruded Cuts in the derived configurations that are
resolved only in the derived configuration (but suppressed in the parent
configuration).  Maybe, however, you want to show some particulars that
require you to actually make cuts at the Part level, and the Parts
themselves in question have configurations.  At the Part level you can
make derived configurations of each of the configurations used in the
Assembly, and in those derived configurations you've got cuts . . .
maybe even different cuts per different configuration.

You've basically just used the derived configurations to organize purely
illustrative items that are not actually used in production.  The reason
for doing so is to prevent someone from looking at the SolidWorks files
and seeing multitudinous configurations and having to wonder whether
some of those illustrative configuations are applicable to production. 
Yes, you could probably accomplish the same by naming them carefully,
but the derived configuration helps you in your organization.

'Sporky'

Stephen Chai wrote:
> 
> Fellow SWX users,
> 
> When is a good time to use derived configuration?  I tried it on a part and
> found not only the child inherit properties from the parent, the parent also
> picks up all the changes I made in the child.
> 
> It was a drill template I was working on, dash 1 is without bushing, dash 2
> with.  So I figured it is a good candidate for derived config.  Originally,
> I made dash 1 the parent, dash 2 the derived config.  Since I was lazy, I
> created the bushings as solidbody inside the part file as suppose to an
> assy.  And I found the bushings also showed up in the parent config.  The
> only way I found to make them different was to add the bushing in the
> parent, then suppress them in the child.  Is that the way it is supposed to
> be?  Did I miss some toggle settings somewhere?
> 
> Thanks in advance,
> 
> Stephen Chai

Here's a simple derived assembly configuration example.  To do an assembly
drawing of specific parts including added assembly features, you cannot
suppress critical parts because the assembly features will not appear for
the drawing.  But you can hide the majority of unnecessary items in a parent
configuration.  Then in the derived (child) configurations hide specific
additional items required to create final part drawings including assembly
features.  This saves the time of hiding the same components if these were
not derived configurations.  And if you forgot to hide a major item the
first time, hide it in the parent configuration and it's hidden in all the
derived configurations.

Tony


"Stephen Chai" <schai@california.com> wrote in message
news:41388735$1@hughey...
> Fellow SWX users,
>
> When is a good time to use derived configuration?  I tried it on a part
and
> found not only the child inherit properties from the parent, the parent
also
> picks up all the changes I made in the child.
>
> It was a drill template I was working on, dash 1 is without bushing, dash
2
> with.  So I figured it is a good candidate for derived config.
Originally,
> I made dash 1 the parent, dash 2 the derived config.  Since I was lazy, I
> created the bushings as solidbody inside the part file as suppose to an
> assy.  And I found the bushings also showed up in the parent config.  The
> only way I found to make them different was to add the bushing in the
> parent, then suppress them in the child.  Is that the way it is supposed
to
> be?  Did I miss some toggle settings somewhere?
>
> Thanks in advance,
>
> Stephen Chai
>
>