Design Tables in Assemblies

This guide presents an example of how design tables can be used at assembly
level to control the position of the wings and tails. The example below shows the
most basic use of design tables and many resources are available online for
additional techniques and uses.
Starting with 3 separate parts used to represent the wing, tail and fuselage an
assembly model is created.

Using the mate tool a distance mate can be applied between the front of the
fuselage and the wing/tail as shown in the diagrams below.

After the mates have been applied, by opening the mates section, clicking on
each mate individually and then the dimension arrows which appear in the
graphics window, it is possible to see the properties of the dimension. Under the
Primary Value section in the properties tab it is possible to name each dimension,
making it easier to reference each specific dimension later. In the example below
the dimension between the start of the fuselage to the wing and tail was named
Wing Location and Tail Location respectively.

After all the key mates are made and dimensions labelled it is then possible to
create a design table following insert tab > Tables > Design Table...

Accepting the Auto-create option for the design table allows SolidWorks to
compile the previously named dimensions for use with the design tables. After
clicking the green arrow a choice of all the named dimensions are then given. For
this example select all named dimensions (Wing Location and Tail Location).

In the design table, the values in the cells below the named dimensions are
referenced in the assembly for the distances of the mates. The design table
works much like excel and it is possible to write algebraic equations using any
input dimension you have previously named. For this example only the wing
location and tail location dimensions were defined. A simple relation is shown
below, where the tail distance is twice the distance of the wing from the front of
the fuselage.

By then clicking on the graphics window of SolidWorks the assembly then

updates. To access the design table again, click the configurations tab,
expand the tables section, right click the required table and click edit table
as shown in the diagram below.

This short example shows a simple design table that can be used to define the
wing and tail locations. With the use of more specific dimensions and by using
the equations for aircraft Aerodynamic Centre and CG location an adaptive
assembly can be created where the changes to wing and tail position display real
time updates to the aircraft static margin which can be calculated through the
design table. There are a variety of different mates and ways to define the
location of the individual parts that make up your assembly and as such students
can be creative with how they achieve this.