AssemblymodellingFromWikipedia,thefreeencyclopediaJumptonavigationJumptosearchThisarticledoesnotciteanysources.Pleasehelpimprovethisarticlebyaddingcitationstoreliablesources.Unsourcedmaterialmaybechallengedandremoved.Findsources: "Assemblymodelling" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(December2009)(Learnhowandwhentoremovethistemplatemessage)Anassembly.Assemblymodelingisatechnologyandmethodusedbycomputer-aideddesignandproductvisualizationcomputersoftwaresystemstohandlemultiplefilesthatrepresentcomponentswithinaproduct.Thecomponentswithinanassemblyarerepresentedassolidorsurfacemodels.Thedesignergenerallyhasaccesstomodelsthatothersareworkingonconcurrently.Forexample,severalpeoplemaybedesigningonemachinethathasmanyparts.Newpartsareaddedtoanassemblymodelastheyarecreated.Eachdesignerhasaccesstotheassemblymodel,whileaworkinprogress,andwhileworkingintheirownparts.Thedesignevolutionisvisibletoeveryoneinvolved.Dependingonthesystem,itmightbenecessaryfortheuserstoacquirethelatestversionssavedofeachindividualcomponentstoupdatetheassembly.Theindividualdatafilesdescribingthe3Dgeometryofindividualcomponentsareassembledtogetherthroughanumberofsub-assemblylevelstocreateanassemblydescribingthewholeproduct.AllCADandCPDsystemssupportthisformofbottom-upconstruction.Somesystems,viaassociativecopyingofgeometrybetweencomponentsalsoallowtop-downmethodofdesign.Componentscanbepositionedwithintheproductassemblyusingabsolutecoordinateplacementmethodsorbymeansofmatingconditions.Matingconditionsaredefinitionsoftherelativepositionofcomponentsbetweeneachother;forexamplealignmentofaxisoftwoholesordistanceoftwofacesfromoneanother.ThefinalpositionofallcomponentsbasedontheserelationshipsiscalculatedusingageometryconstraintenginebuiltintotheCADorvisualizationpackage.TheimportanceofassemblymodelinginachievingthefullbenefitsofPLMhasledtoongoingadvancesinthistechnology.TheseincludetheuseoflightweightdatastructuressuchasJTthatallowvisualizationofandinteractionwithlargeamountsofproductdata,directinterfa