Understanding setup structure

The setup structure describes the assembly structure containing operations to be performed. This structure contains the tooling, resources, parts, and workpieces and their position in the work process. Many times with a large product assembly, operations may share most of the elements of the setup. In this case it is convenient to define the setup structure at the process level and have all child operations inherit that definition.

The following figure shows an example of the operation's setup as it inherits the process setup and all the elements that make up the setup structure. The setup structure mainly consists of the following:

• Operation's specific resources

• Factory resources linked to plant occurrences

• Consumed parts linked to the product occurrences

• Workpiece

• Inherited process setup structure.

Parts to operations processes

A process structure can be created to describe the flow of processes. Each process may be a container for all operations performed in one work area. In this case, all the common work area elements from the factory and the common tooling can be defined at the process level and any specific tooling and consumed item can be defined at the operation level.

The operation setup structure inherits the elements in its loaded parent process. You must ensure that the components of the process setup structure and the operation structure are positioned correctly. Because an operation can be shared across many processes, the inheriting setup is shown only if the operation is shown in the context of its parent process. If only the operation is loaded, the process setup is not shown.

Operation setup may include additional toolings that are specific for performing the operation, consumed parts, and workpieces. When dealing with large assemblies, not all parts of the workpiece are of interest to the operation. In this case, you can define a subset of the workpiece that is of interest for details planning. This subset is another occurrence group that is assigned to the operation. Keep in mind the following:

• The operation setup includes its parent process setup.

• You can allocate consumed items from any of the manufacturing views.

• You can allocate an occurrence group as an MEWorkpiece.

• You can allocate any occurrence group as MEWorkpiece subsets. This subset is loaded into a workpiece planner session.