Optimizing Support Bracket Placement in the Deck and Frame Sub-Assembly for Clean Assembly Structure

In this video we're going to add the support brackets to our general assembly. Now the initial thought was to add the brackets directly into the general assembly file,  but after consideration it makes more sense to add them in to the deck and frame sub-assembly. That way we can keep the componentry of our general assembly nice and simple to just sub-assemblies only.

So let's go ahead and open that up. SA004 underscore deck and frame sub-assembly. All right, let's grab some of those brackets.

We'll go to insert components,  start with bracket 001 and place it there. Bracket 002, place it where it wants to go. Bracket 003, all right, and then finally bracket 004.

Okay, excellent. First things first,  why don't we mirror this on the opposite side? Now before I start doing some mirrors,  because we're going to use the mirror function a lot in this particular model,  let's take a look at the planes that we already had before we start creating more. So let's go to view, hide show, and highlight planes.

All right, now it's showing us all the planes and all the components, both parts and assemblies, featured in this sub-assembly. Go ahead and save your work. That way we don't have to create new planes if we don't have to.

All right, so starting off, why don't we begin by mirroring this bracket on the opposite side? Go to mirror component,  pick a mirror plane that will work, grab that bracket, and mirror it on the opposite side. Now let's mirror it so that it lands on this set of surfaces as well. Go to mirror component,  that plane.

Oh, let's go ahead and clear our selections in case we have one already selected. Make sure we select the right component to mirror. All right, there we go.

Let's mirror this bracket as well. Now we've already got a couple mirrors happening,  so let's see if we can utilize those and just update the components involved. All right, so let's add this component to that mirror.

Watch it populate on that side. And then the second mirror we created, we'll go ahead and edit that and highlight these two new components. All right, it's already starting to look pretty good.

Let's see if we can bring some of these brackets over to the beam that's supporting our sub-assembly. I'm going to highlight it to find out which bracket it is. All right, bracket 002.

Control,  drag it out. And then let's start the mating process. We'll mate this surface to this surface.

There we go. We'll mate this surface to this surface. And then let's mate the top surface of the bracket to the top surface of the original version of that bracket since they'll basically be in alignment.

Okay, excellent. Now let's create a mirror plane so we can mirror this on the other side here. We'll create a width plane in the middle of this beam.

Make sure you select the faces. Perfect. With that plane still highlighted,  let's go ahead and mirror the small bracket here.

Great. Now it shows up on the other side. Go ahead and save your work.

All right, I'd like to take this T bracket and bring it in here on the other side as well. So let's hold control and drag it out of the Feature Manager. Mate some surfaces.

There we go. And I want this to live more or less in the center of this area. We can do that with the Advanced Mate, Width Mate.

So let's do that now. Our first two surfaces will be the outside surfaces of the beam itself and then the surfaces of the bracket. Close it up.

And we'll do another Width Mate here as well. Oh, make sure they were in Width Mate. There we go.

And again, we don't have to create a new mirror feature. We already have one that exists. So let's just add to it.

Here we go. Which one will that be? Looks like it'll be this mirror feature here. Edit that feature.

Add this bracket. There we go. There it pops in on the opposite side.

Go ahead and save your work. Let's see what else we could add. Let's add some structure down here at the bottom.

For right now, I'm just going to hit the eyeball to hide these items. And let's bring these small bent brackets down in this area. So I'm going to take bracket 002,  drag one out, mate that surface to this surface of that beam.

And then mate this surface to this surface of that beam. And we'll do a Width Mate again to get it centered just right. All right.

So the first two surfaces of the Width Mate will be these two. And the second two surfaces will be the top and bottom surfaces of the bracket itself. All right.

Let's zoom out and see how it looks. Okay. That looks pretty good.

All right. We'll probably put one on this end too. And I'm imagining that we can just utilize that mirror feature one more time.

So let's find the one that mirrors about that plane. It looks like it's this one here. All right.

Edit the feature. I'm going to add this bracket to that mirror. There we go.

Save your work. And then last but not least, I'm going to create a bracket situation here and here,  and probably one here as well. All right.

I'll be using that same bracket. So that's going to be bracket 002. Grab this surface.

Grab this surface. Mate them together. Tuck that bracket in there.

And we could do another Width Mate, but we know that it's going to align perfectly with the other brackets that we've already stationed there. So let's just create a Surface Mate on those as well. All right.

Now, a couple more in this area. Let's do a mirror to get it to this area here. We'll start by creating a plane in the middle of this surface here on that beam and this inside surface of that beam.

We'll hit the eyeball just to make sure that we can see all our planes. Perfect. Mirror Components.

Grab that plane we just created. Grab this bracket we just laid down. There we go.

Watch it populate in that area. Save your work. And last but not least, let's see if there's a plane that will allow us to mirror it to the other side.

Looks like there isn't, so we'll create one. All right. Here we go.

Reference Geometry. Plane. Click the outside of this beam and the outside of this beam.

With that plane still highlighted, go ahead and select this bracket here. There we go. And we'll just take one last look to make sure everything looks okay.

Oh, you know what? We're going to mirror this on this opposite side as well. But for that,  I think I'm just going to bring another one in and then just made it where it needs to be. Let's align it with the existing bracket.

There we go. Make the top surfaces as well. All right.

Now we have a bracket on both sides. Perfect. Kind of zooming out to make sure everything looks appropriate.

We have the support that we need. There we go. That should be fine for now.

Let's go ahead and save our work. And then go back into our General Assembly. Take a look at the update.

All right. That's looking pretty good. All right.

In the coming videos, we will begin the drawing process of this entire General Assembly.