Defining an Assembly of Mechanisms

The assembly function allows you to create macro mechanisms—also referred to as multilevel mechanisms— by using existing mechanisms in the product structure. All the engineering connections included in the assembled mechanisms are accounted for in the macro mechanism; you can add additional engineering connections in the macro mechanism to link assembled mechanisms. You can access the assembly function by using the Mechanism Manager tool. The available mechanisms to be assembled appear under the Assembly tab of the Mechanism Manager.

Before you begin: A product that contains at least two mechanism representations and engineering connections is open.
Related Topics
About the Mechanism Manager
Setting Up a Mechanism

  1. Specify the working context by double-clicking a product reference.

  2. Create a macro mechanism under the product reference. A macro mechanism is a standard mechanism representation for a product that already includes existing mechanism representations. For more information about macro mechanisms, see More about Mechanism Assemblies.

  3. Click Mechanism Manager .

    The Mechanism Manager dialog box appears.

  4. Click the Assembly tab.



    The available mechanisms to be assembled are listed in the Mechanism list. For more information, see About the Mechanism Manager.

  5. Select the mechanisms to include or exclude in the assembly:


    • To include a mechanism, highlight the mechanism in the table and click Include.
    • To exclude a mechanism, highlight the mechanism in the table and click Exclude.
    • To include all available and independent mechanisms in the assemby of mechanisms, click Include All.
      Warning: Only independent mechanisms can be assembled in a macro mechanism. For more information, see More about Mechanism Assemblies.
    • To exclude all available mechanisms from the assembly of mechanisms, click Exclude All.

    To highlight mechanisms, you can select them directly in the table.

    Tip:
    • Right-clicking a mechanism in the table displays a contextual menu that is helpful in configuring the mechanism:
      • Select Include to include the mechanism.

        Note: If the selected mechanism is already assembled, this menu item is disabled.

      • Select Exclude to exclude the mechanism.

        Note: If the selected mechanism is already disassembled, this menu item is disabled.

The assembly of mechanisms is created and identified in the specification tree.