Examples of Assembly Features

Use assembly features when you need to represent material-removal operations that are done after the components are assembled.

For example:

Welding

A design may specify that a plate and a tube are welded together, and then a hole is drilled through both parts - only after they are assembled - because welding is somewhat inexact. If the holes were pre-drilled, they might not line up after welding. If the designer had put the hole in each part document, instead of as an assembly feature in the assembly document, the hole would have shown up in the drawings for each part and would have been pre-drilled during manufacturing, which defeats the design intent.

Grinding

A grinding operation occurs after welding. Because grinding is not exact, similar to welding, the grinding is done after the parts are assembled. No grinds should appear in the pre-assembled parts.