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Any way to toggle SW to only select assemblies?

Question asked by Joe Dunfee on Feb 20, 2009
Latest reply on Mar 26, 2009 by Mahir Abrahim

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As I am hiding or suppressing things in a large assembly, I would rather only do this operation for root-level assemblies, and not individual parts inside the assembly.

I've looked to see if there were any filters for this, but without success.

Is there any way to do this?

Joe Dunfee

Joe Dunfee Mar 11, 2009 1:08 PM

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Josh, thank you very much for that "selectparent" macro. I created a shortcut "u" (for up) to select up the assemblies. It works wonderfully.

Joe Dunfee

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Don Vanzile Feb 20, 2009 6:00 PM
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Not specifically by single click but you can right-click and select sub-assembly and select the root that pops up.

Don
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- Troy Peterson @ Don Vanzile on Feb 20, 2009 6:15 PM
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  Joe,
  
  A little utilized function is the use of "Tags". It will take a few moments of your time to set a tag for all component that you want to tag. Select the components that you want to have a special identifier on from the FMT. You can multi-select all components, assemblies - parts - sketches whatever. FYI you need to select all instances as this will not propagate to all instances if you only select one.
  Ok next, down in the lower right hand corner is a yellow tag that looks like the Best Buy logo, click this icon. Add a unique descriptor, I.E. like your name. Now go to the top of the FMT right below the tabs is the filter interface box. Start typing your descriptor and you will see that only the parts with this descriptor will now be shown.
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  - Don Vanzile @ Troy Peterson on Feb 20, 2009 6:26 PM
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    Sounds like good macro idea to me. Josh.... anybody....
    
    Don
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Joe Dunfee Feb 20, 2009 6:13 PM
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That brings up another issue. If you do the right-click to select the assembly, you cannot open the assembly from there. You must manually scroll to the highlighted assembly, and right-click there in order to get the option to open it.

But regarding the question I first posted, the reason I would like the option, is so that I can select the sub-assemblies by a crossing window.

Joe Dunfee
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- Josh Brady @ Joe Dunfee on Feb 20, 2009 6:47 PM
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  Joe,
  You might like this little macro I wrote for selecting subassemblies before SW decided to implement the functionality into the program. I still like it better because it's quicker. It won't do the crossing window thing. However, it does preserve the current selection set. When mapped to a shortcut key it makes selecting multiple subassemblies very quick. When you run the macro, it looks at the last thing that was selected. If that thing is part of a subassembly, it de-selects it and selects the subassembly instead. The subassembly becomes the new "last thing selected". You can run the macro again to go up another level, or you can ctrl-select something else and run the macro again.
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  - SelectParent.zip14.0 KB
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  - Lon Buckley @ Josh Brady on Mar 9, 2009 10:11 AM
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    I see here you say that SW implemented the functionality for selecting subassemblies into the program. Where might we find that. We want to be able to open a subassembly for editing and spend too much time trying to find in the tree.
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Josh Brady Feb 20, 2009 6:52 PM
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With regard to your second issue, the reason you have to go find it in the tree is that SolidWorks's "Select Subassembly" adds the subassembly to the selection set. so when you use it, you basically have a subassembly plus some face of a component of that subassembly selected. "Open Assembly" is an invalid command for that combination of selections. If you use my macro, it de-selects that face you first selected, so "Open Assembly" is available from the RMB menu. Of course, you have to RMB on some empty area of the screen since RMB on some other component will change the selection set.
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Josh Brady Mar 9, 2009 10:22 AM
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For SolidWorks built-in functionality, right-click on a part that is in a subassembly and choose "Select Sub Assembly." However, as I said in my previous post, the built-in functionality will add the subassembly to your selection set, so you end up with two things selected: a face and a subassembly. This combination of selections is invalid for most commands, so you have to Ctrl-Click the original face you clicked in order to de-select it have only the subassembly selected. The macro I posted de-selects that face for you.
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- Roy Potter @ Josh Brady on Mar 10, 2009 7:42 PM
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  I've never really found a good use for select sub-assembly.
  
  All the useful things I'd like to do with it get ignored and apply to the part. (The custom properties tab just comes up blank).
  i.e. change the configuration, change the dispaly state, edit sub-assembly, open sub-assembly etc....
  
  So what can I do with RMB 'select sub-assembly' that will enhance my enjoyment of SW and make my life easier? :-) (without the aid of a macro).
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  - Wayne Tiffany @ Roy Potter on Mar 10, 2009 8:36 PM
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    Roy Potter wrote:
    
    I've never really found a good use for select sub-assembly.
    
    All the useful things I'd like to do with it get ignored and apply to the part. (The custom properties tab just comes up blank).
    
    i.e. change the configuration, change the dispaly state, edit sub-assembly, open sub-assembly etc....
    
    So what can I do with RMB 'select sub-assembly' that will enhance my enjoyment of SW and make my life easier? :-) (without the aid of a macro).
    
    Basically almost anything you can do by selecting the sub in the tree can be done out in the graphics area. I suspect that you don't see those options since you haven't deselected the original face that was selected. I didn't make that connection until this thread started. Take another look at it and see if that helps.
    
    WT
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Josh Brady Mar 10, 2009 7:52 PM
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1. What do you have against a macro?
2. Read my last post again, especially the last two sentences.
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- Roy Potter @ Josh Brady on Mar 10, 2009 9:54 PM
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  2. Read my last post again, especially the last two sentences.
  
  Thanks for that.
  That'll teach me to skim read!
  I missed the CTRL-click original face.
  
  1. What do you have against a macro?
  
  I have absolutely nothing against macro's, I've used many over the years in various packages. The ones I have used have been designed to the specific need of a task that very few people outside the company would need.
  But why should you have to write a macro to deselect the last face to bring up the sub-assembly opitions? Should it not be automatic if you 'select sub-assy' SW should immediately give the sub-assembly options?
  I don't understand the logic behind the current functionality.
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  - Josh Brady @ Roy Potter on Mar 10, 2009 10:12 PM
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    Roy Potter wrote:
    
    But why should you have to write a macro to deselect the last face to bring up the sub-assembly opitions? Should it not be automatic if you 'select sub-assy' SW should immediately give the sub-assembly options?
    
    I don't understand the logic behind the current functionality.
    
    I definitely agree with you there. I can't think of a reason you would want to have a face and a subassembly selected at the same time. The built-in function should work that way, but for whatever reason it doesn't. That never bothered me, because I never use it. I wrote the macro before SW added the function, and I like the macro better anyway, so I never used the built-in function. The macro also has the advantage of being able to map it to a keyboard shortcut, so it's faster than RMB and then finding a command in the menu.
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Joe Dunfee Mar 11, 2009 1:08 PM
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Josh, thank you very much for that "selectparent" macro. I created a shortcut "u" (for up) to select up the assemblies. It works wonderfully.

Joe Dunfee
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- Josh Brady @ Joe Dunfee on Mar 11, 2009 1:38 PM
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  Glad you like it, Joe. You might also want to check out "CycleRefFeatures" in the attached zip file. It works just like SelectParent, but instead of selecting the subassembly it cycles through selecting the origin and front/right/top planes of whatever was last selected. I often like to use the origin or one of the 3 main planes for mating. CycleRefFeatures along with SelectParent mapped to a couple of shortcut keys lets me very quickly select whatever reference geometry I want without ever having to go to the feature tree.
  
  The mating macros are also a much quicker way of adding each kind of mate. Just pre-select your entities and run the macro. The reason it's faster is that when you add a mate using SW functionality, it analyzes your selections to determine what types of mates are valid for those items before it lets you pick the type. This takes longer and longer as the assembly grows. This is fine for new users, but advanced users like you and I already know exactly what kind of mate we want before trying to add it. With these two selection macros and the four mating macros I can fly at mating up components without ever having to go to the feature tree.
  
  Another handy thing that the mate macros do is keep the first entity selected after the mate is added. This lets you easily add multiple mates to the same entity without having to reselect it each time.
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  - InsertMateMacros.zip123.2 KB
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Joe Dunfee Mar 26, 2009 3:01 PM
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Thanks Josh for that "CycleRefFeatures" macro. It looks quite useful.

Another person had suggested the Tags feature. I just went through learning about it, and trying it out. However, it doesn't work well on my assembly. Some of the objects that are tagged do not show up when I use the filter. Note that one of the items in question is a sub-sub assembly. Another one is a plane in a certain sub-assembly.

Is this a built-in limitation?
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- Jay Andrews @ Joe Dunfee on Mar 26, 2009 4:12 PM
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  Josh,
  
  Are macros compatible across versions? I suspect you have 2k9 while I'm on 2k8, so I'm a bit leary about blowing up my computer one way or another by using an incompatible macro.
  
  Thanks,
  
  Jay
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Josh Brady Mar 26, 2009 4:33 PM
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For the most part, yes. These macros were written in like 2007 anyway. I don't think either of them has changed in quite a while. The worst thing that could happen from running a macro written in 2009 in an earlier version is that the macro might crash in the middle. There's nothing in these macros that could mess up your system if they should crash in the middle.

It is possible that you may have to edit the references (Tools-.References in the VBA editor) to point to 2008 versions of the type libraries.
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- Jay Andrews @ Josh Brady on Mar 26, 2009 7:45 PM
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  thanks
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Mahir Abrahim Mar 26, 2009 9:06 PM
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Josh,
Thanks for the macros, especially the reference cycling one. I often mate to planes so it will definitely come in handy.
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Any way to toggle SW to only select assemblies?

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