Legacy - Defining the Stacking

When instantiating locator patches, the final step consists of defining the stacking, that is the group of parts fixed by the locator patch. One part must already be defined in the stacking. During this step, all the parts are visualized in shading mode.

  1. To select stacking options from the context toolbar, click Spot Fastener Stacking .
    OptionDescription
    Invert Direction

    Inverts the direction of the selected fasteners.

    Direction Coordinates

    Changes the direction coordinates of the selected fasteners.

    Position Coordinates

    Changes the position coordinates of the selected fasteners.

    Automatic Stacking

    Automatically selects the parts that will define the stacking. You need to specify the size of the selection area you want to use.

    Note: When dealing with spot, assembly and flexible fasteners, you can include or exclude fastener components from the computation performed by the Automatic Stacking capability. To do so, select or clear Take fastener components into account in the computation. For more information, see General.

    Cylindrical Mode

    Defines a cylindrical selection area with two manipulators. All the parts located between these manipulators will be selected as the fastened parts.

    Note: Negative values assigned to limits are not supported by the stacking assistant.

    Spherical Mode

    Defines a spherical selection area. All the parts intersected by this sphere will be selected as the fastened parts.

    Remove Fasteners

    Removes the selected fasteners.

  2. To specify the stacking, do one of the following:
    • Select the parts in the work area.
    • Select one or more parts that are already linked in the Stacks of selected points frame to add them to the Stacks of selected fasteners frame.
      Note: You can add a part to enrich the existing stacking or remove a linked part. You can also click to merge two stackings or to create a new engineering connection (MCX) for the fastener instances set in your selection scope.
    • Click Automatic Stacking to let the app select the parts.
  3. Optional: To reorder the stacking, click the up and down arrows.

    Provided that the piloting part was set as Automatic, you can modify it using the reorder capability: if the parts are reordered so that another part becomes first in the list, the latter becomes the piloting part. However, if the piloting part was set as Manual, the reorder capability only changes the location of the piloting part in the list.

    Tip: A hem icon in the Stacks of Selected Fasteners dialog box informs about the stacking parts. It contains:
    • An image showing the type of stacking:
      • Flat stacking: No part is duplicated, all stacking parts are distinct.
      • Folded stacking: At least one part is duplicated.
    • Text: nT where n indicates the number of parts in the stacking (up to five parts).

      >5T: The stacking includes more than five parts.

  4. Click anywhere in the 3D area to validate the stacking.
  5. Click anywhere in the 3D area.
    The fasteners are instantiated from the reference fastener with a locator patch projected onto the piloting part.

    Important: Now that you have instantiated the locator patch, do not create additional constraints on the fastener.