Is it possible to select parts in an assembly and convert them to a sub-assembly without affecting the original assembly. What i mean is that if i have an assembly with parts a,b,c,d,d,f,g in it and i want to make parts a,c,f into a sub-assembly, but yet keep them in the original main assembly. Either make an external assembly file or a new sub-assembly in the main assembly. SO the main assembly would now have parts a,b,c,d,e,f,g and sub assembly hh which contains parts a,c,f.
Thanks
You can Save-As a new assy, then delete the parts not needed.
ok thanks. Thats too bad we cant do that.
You want to create a sub-assembly in the main assembly, but leave the Parts stand-alone in the main assembly in addition to the sub-assembly? So you'd have duplicate components stacked on top of each other? If that's right, why would you want that?
i didnt care if the sub assembly stayed in the original one. I just wanted the parts to stay. I am working on the concept for a cart and i wanted to grab the caster, mounting plate and the hardware with a selection set. Then save it as an assembly so i can easily drop it into a new assembly for a different concept. But i didn't want to save it as an assembly in the original file and have the mates and such blow up on me.
This is doable. You can either create a virtual sub in the main. Or you can create a sub assembly and insert it into your main. In the tree drag and drop your parts you want into the sub you have created. You will need to re-establish mates, depending on how it was designed will dictate how the mates are going to be needed. We do this on a pretty regular basis, the main thing with it is you take your sub assembly and make sure there are no mates defining it in the assembly prior to moving the parts into it. Once this is done you want this assembly to have only 3 of the existing mates relative to your main assembly. All other mates should be relative in your new assembly. Then you have to open your new assembly and establish 3 main mates relative to the 3 main planes and origin point. Now your sub will be constrained within itself and within your main assembly. The first time I did this it took a little while to see how this worked and getting it right so everything stays constrained is the trick. If your caster bolts and plates have a lot of relative mates to the rest of your assembly you will want to look at what you are mating to and why. The main goal to derive a new sub assembly is that most of the parts in it are mated to each other with as few external mates as possible. Sorry if this was confusing I a mused to showing in Solidworks how to do this and not writing it out.
You can dissolve a newly created sub-assembly later on.
ok thank for all the advice guys. it still looks like the easiest route is to save the main assembly as a new assembly. Then delete the parts i dont need.
The way I do this is to select the parts you want to restructure-copy, do the form-new-subassembly-here command (saving the new subassembly out as a new file), save that new file, and then reload your main assembly (without saving the change). Reloading it will pop those parts back to where they (since the restructure change wasn't saved to the main assembly) will but not affect the new subassembly file (because it's been saved externally). Then you just place the new subassembly into the main assembly file overtop of the individual parts. Voila!
The answer is NO. SW moves selected parts into created sub-assembly.