Computer Aided Design(CAD )
Dr. S. M. Saqib, PhD, EIT
saqibsm@uwindsor.ca
Lecture 5
Assembly Modeling
Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering (IMSE) June 03, 2025 Mechanical, Automotive,
Material Engineering (MAME)
LECTURE 5
Outline:
➢ Assembly Modeling
• Top-Down Approach
• Bottom-Up Approach
• Constraints, positioning and Orientation
➢ CAD Project
➢ Tutorial 3
2
Drafting
3
Assembly Modeling
4
Modeling modes
• CAD/CAM systems act as assembly modelers, in addition
to being geometric modelers.
• These systems provide users with different drawing
models:
- Part mode
- Drawing (drafting mode)
- Assembly mode (getting components together)
5
Assembly Modeling
• An assembly is a modeling entity that combines parts
into a hierarchical product structure.
• You can assemble any collection of parts from the
workbench, bins, and libraries.
• An assembly hierarchy is a way to organize the collection
of parts.
• A part contains geometry definition and other attributes
such as color and mass properties.
6
Assembly Modeling
• Assembly modeling raises two modeling issues that
do not exist at the Part Modeling level:
--- Hierarchy (assembly tree)
Individual part and sub-assemblies must be
assembled in the right hierarchy
-Indicative of sequence
--- Mating: Spatial relationship and orientations
between the assembly parts
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Assembly Modeling
An assembly is a collection of
independent parts
• However, it is important to understand the nature
and structure of dependencies between parts in
an assembly, to be able to model assemblies
properly
• For example, in order to determine whether a part
can be moved, and which other parts will move
with it, the assembly model must include:
- Hierarchical relationship; spatial positions
and assembly attachments
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Mating
• For Example:
- The axes of a shaft and a hole may have
to lined up, in which case a concentric
mating condition is required
- Two faces may have to be on a same
plane, in which case a coplanar condition
is used
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Assembly Tree
▪ The most natural way to represent the
hierarchical relationships between the various
parts of an assembly is an “assembly tree”
▪ An assembly is divided into several sub-
assemblies and parts at different levels
▪ Each sub-assembly at (n-1) level is composed of
various parts and/or subassemblies of higher
depth
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Assembly Modeling
Assembly
Sub Prt Sub Sub
Assembly Assembly Assembly
Part
Sub Sub Sub
Assembly Assembly Assembly
Prt Prt Prt Prt
Prt Prt
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MODELING
❑ Modeling is the process of representing abstract
ideas, words and forms, through the orderly use
of simplified text and images.
❑ Engineers use models for thinking, visualization,
communicating, predicting, controlling and
training.
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MODELING---------
❑ Models are classified as either descriptive or
predictive
❑ A descriptive model presents abstract ideas, products
or processes in a recognizable form, such as
engineering drawing or 3-D computer model of a
building or structure
Descriptive model
Cutaway section of a railway station
(Courtesy of Bentley Systems, Inc) 13
MODELING
❑ The drawing or model serves as a means of
communication but can not be used to predict
behavior or performance.
❑ A predictive model is one that can be used to
understand and predict the behavior/performance
of ideas, products, or processes, such as finite
element model of a bridge support…etc.
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MODELING
❑ Sketches, drawings, 3-D
models, tables, and
graphs are common
graphics used to
communicate new
designs in presentations,
such as design review
meeting.
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ASSEMBLY-MODELING
ASSEMBLY
- An assembly is a collection of
pointers to piece parts
and/or subassemblies.
- An assembly is a part file,
which contains components
objects.
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ASSEMBLY-MODELING (cont’d)
There are two basic ways of creating any
assembly models:
• Top-Down Approach
• Bottom-Up Approach
Top-Down Approach
The assembly file part is created, and components are
created in that file. Then individual parts are modeled.
This type of modeling is useful in a new design.
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Top-Down Create component objects first.
Approach
Make a component, the work part.
Create geometry in the component part.
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Top Down Assembly
Approach
• It is a “systems engineering” approach to design a product
• Popular tools often used in the Systems Engineering context
are:
- Quality Function Deployment (QFD)
- IDEF…. etc
• Assembly layout communicates design criteria to subsystem
developers including suppliers
• This control allows distributed design teams to work
concurrently with in a common product platform
• It also allows detailed design to begin, while the assembly
layout is being finalized
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Concurrent Engineering
Real Model
❖ Real models created from clay are used for
spatial, aesthetic, and property analysis.
(Courtesy of 3D Systems, Inc.)
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Concurrent Engineering
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Approach
• Create a sketch in which various entities represent
components (parts/subassemblies)
• Indicate a tentative location for each component,
capturing the overall design intent of the assembly
• Define the component size
• Edit the assembly sketch until layout is finalized
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Approach (cont’d)
• Create the individual parts and save them using
available PDM tools
• Evaluate assembly after parts are fully constructed
• If needed, modify the assembly sketch, and update
the assembly and/or individual parts
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Bottom-UP
Assembly Approach
• It is the most common as it is the
traditional and most logical approach!
- Create the individual parts independently
- Insert them into an assembly/sub
- Use the mating conditions to locate and
orient them in the assembly
• The first part is known as the base
part/host, on top of which other parts are
assembled
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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
re-used.
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Bottom-UP
Approach
These two approaches
can be combined,
when necessary, to
add flexibility to
assembly design
needs
Host or
base part
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Assembly Modeling
• To do proper planning, the following issues should
be considered:
- Identify dependencies between components of
an assembly (size of the bolt relates to that of
the hole)
- Identify the dependencies between features
of each part
• Include symmetry and geometric arrays
• Example: consider the creation of a part that
has a rim with four holes
27
Mating Conditions
• Individual parts of an assembly are usually
created separately using CAD, then merged
(assembled) using an insert command
• Each part has its own Data Base (DB) with its
own MCS
• Typically, the user selects one of the parts as a
base part (host), and merges the others into it
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Mating Conditions (cont’d)
• The most common mating conditions are:
- Coincident, concentric, tangent, coplanar,
parallel faces and perpendicular faces
• A part should be fully constrained to allow the
creation of the correct assembly
• Keep in mind, there are 6 DOFs:
3- translations along the axes of the global CS, and
3- rotations around its axes
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Assembly Modeling
PART INSTANCE
• An “instance” of a part is not a duplicate of the part.
• It is a representation of the part that is stored in the bin. If
you make any changes to the part, all of the instances of the
part will change
• An “instance” in an assembly is not a copy of a part; it is like
a “virtual image” of the part used in the assembly.
• An instance refers back to the part (stored in the bin) for its
geometry definition and other attributes.
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Impeller Assembly
Sub-assembly
Impeller_upper-casing Impeller_lower-casing
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Impeller Assembly
Impeller blade
Shaft and blade
assembled with
casings
Impeller shaft 32
MATING CONDITIONS
• After the component objects are added to the
assembly part file, each 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.
33
MATING CONDITIONS - NX
• These relationships are termed as mating constraints
and are of many types:
• Touch/Align (Between two casings, shaft and impeller circle)
• Angle
• Bond (Between all big components)
• Parallel
• Center (Between impeller and casing)
• Concentric
• Distance
34
MATING CONDITIONS—Solid works
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Impeller Assembly
Some other component objects
Parts are being assembled 36
Impeller Assembly
Exploded view of
Impeller assembly
The assembly is shown
37
Tutorial 3- ASSEMBLY MODELING
Model 1 Model 2
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Top View
Isometric
View
Right side View
Front View
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References
1. www.autodesk.com
2. Parametric Modeling with I-DEAS 12, Randy H. Smith, SDC Publications, Mission,
Kansas, ISBN: 1-58503-273-5.
3. Principles of CAD/CAM/CAE Systems, Kunwoo Lee, Addison-Wesley Longman, Inc, ISBN:
0-201-38036-6.
4. Wikipedia
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