Need Suggestion for Controlling Patterned CSYS on HVAC chilled water coil Header Plate in SolidWorks

General
1

Hi everyone,

I am currently working on creating coordinate systems (CSYS) on a header plate for each flare hole in SolidWorks and facing an issue with controlling the CSYS pattern.

Current Approach

I am creating the header plate as a start part, where:

  • Height and width of the plate are controlled through a Design Table
  • Flare hole count and pattern are also controlled through the Design Table
  • A CSYS is required on every flare hole for downstream assembly automation

The challenge is that whenever the flare hole count increases or decreases, the corresponding CSYS also needs to automatically suppress/unsuppress.

What I Tried

To overcome this, I:

  1. Created a point sketch pattern based on the flare hole pattern
  2. Created CSYS using those sketch points as references
  3. Controlled CSYS suppression/unsuppression through configurations/design table

Problem

Whenever a CSYS gets unsuppressed, the reference point seems to lose position / shift / go missing, causing the coordinate system reference to fail.

My Question

What would be the best practice to robustly control patterned CSYS when the flare hole count changes dynamically?

Has anyone handled:

  • Pattern-driven CSYS creation
  • Suppression/unsuppression linked to changing feature counts
  • Stable references for CSYS in parametric models?

Any suggestions on a better modeling strategy would be really helpful.

Thanks in advance!

2

If you can share, what is the problem you are trying to solve by using a Csys on holes?

3

Hi, thanks for your question.

In my case, the requirement is related to assembly automation.

I have a header plate with multiple flare holes (created using forming tools), and for each hole, I need to create a coordinate system (CSYS). These CSYS are then used as references to mate tubes in the assembly (tube CSYS ā†’ header plate CSYS).

The challenge is that the header plate is fully parametric, where:

  • Height and width are controlled through a design table
  • Number of flare holes is also driven through the design table
  • Multiple configurations exist with different hole counts

So, the CSYS count must dynamically adapt to the number of holes.

What I tried:

To avoid managing a large number of CSYS manually in the design table, I:

  • Created a sketch point pattern driven by the flare hole pattern
  • Created CSYS using those sketch points as references
  • Linked the pattern count to the design table

This way, when the hole count changes, the point pattern (and intended CSYS positions) also updates automatically.

Issue Iā€™m facing:

When the hole count increases or decreases and CSYS get unsuppressed,
the reference point becomes unstable / shifts / loses definition, which causes the CSYS to fail.

Main question:

Is there a recommended or robust way to handle CSYS for patterned features in SolidWorks?

Specifically:

  • Can we pattern CSYS directly in SolidWorks (similar to feature patterning)?
  • Or is there a better modeling strategy to ensure:
    • Stable references
    • Automatic update with pattern count
    • No dependency failure when suppressing/unsuppressing

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