I’m currently learning about assemblies and this might be a basic question, but I cannot figure it out. Alreaduy tried to get help from the VC courses, but it didn’t help.
I’ve created a demo layout where the goal is for the worker to pack a quantity of products into a box, (essentially assemble an assembly). So essentially:
Take a box and put it on the workstation
Then, take as many products as there are in the assembly and put them in the same box
Once assembly is complete, take it to the output conveyor
Question 2: if the result should be an assembly, is it right to feed in a product? Using a Feeder or a Feeder Process I didn’t see the possibility of feeding an assembly with just the initial step, for example.
I found I can do this using a Process Node and a Create statement. Is this the right way to feed components in this case? What is the point of the feeder then?
Box_Feeder creates the assembly with only the Box step. It goes to the end of the conveyor but for some reason disappears and doesn’t stop at Box_FromConveyor
Product_Feeder creates the assembly with the Products step. For some reason, this is immediately giving an error: Process Node #2::ProcessExecutor::Product_Feeder::Transport Out error: Lists containing more than one Assembly Instance are not supported.
At processing, the first TransportIn just brings any product in (the box). Then with GetAssembly it defines the first incomplete step - the step after Box in the assembly is Products. Theoretically with the next TransportIn it should take 3x4 products and put them in the box.
I would also suggest the Layout Template (in eCat) “Assembly - Brick Example Layout”, which gives several example with Assembly. –> You could try doing the same as in the box “Product Type to Build Assembly”, where an Assembly is created from products, which will be easier.
Thanks for the suggestions! I checked the “Construct example” in that layout and using the logic there actually got my test running now. However, there are 2 things I don’t like about it.
To get exactly 12 bottles as in the assembly I added a while loop into the process that loops over TransportIn 12 times.
This seems like a workaround. What if the assembly changes from 3x4 to 4x5? If the assembly already contains the step with a pattern of products, can the process somehow use that info directly to fetch the right amount of products in?
The bottles are put in the exact same place in the box. Visually, I would like them to be put in the right pattern immediately.
Is there a good way to achieve that? (apart from creating 12 new frames and somehow assigning each TransportIn to its own frame)
I’m not sure the Construct statement is the best way to go here. And if you don’t use it, it will solve both problems: you won’t need a While loop and the bottles can be directly placed at the correct position.
–> Either use the technique of importing the box as Assembly step and the bottles as products, or everything as a product with the example I suggested before.
For the different pattern, there are also different possibilities: doing one Assembly per pattern, or one Assembly with different parallel steps for each patterns.
