Right.. I don't even know where to start but here goes.

I work in a wire display company. Often we produce trays that are made in flat form, then are folded at each end.

On the drawings I need to show the tray in both forms, both folded and in a flat state.

So I need to make 2 configurations, I did this but have have endless problems where suppressed parts show unsupressed if I open the assembly later.

I am now thinking its better to produce 2 assemblies instead of one assembly with 2 configurations.

But before I start doing this and wasting more time, I thought I would ask you guys how you would tackle the problem.

Here are how the trays look.

Flat Form:

Bent Form:

If you notice, the highlighted green wire is the same part, and the only part that changes when the tray is folded.

I have produced this as the same part with 2 configurations, with equations so that if one part is changed in length, the other configuration follows.

Excuse the long post.

So.

I need to be able to use this tray as a universal template, so I can copy it and alter it for different jobs.

Therefore If I change the dimensions between wires, it needs to change and stay the same in both flat and bent states...

Am I better to do this as one assembly with 2 configurations? or to assemblies? (If two assemblies how do I set equations so they both tally dimension wise?

Thanks to anyone who has the time to even begin to consider this challeng

Regards

Trev