As it happens it seems my assemblies always end up becoming large and disorganized. At the moment I am trying to find a way to split a large assembly which consists of several top level parts and several steps of sub assemblies into new assemblies.
For purpose of discussion lets assume I have one sub assembly and one top level part which are mated together. Is there a way I could first break the sub assembly down into top level parts and then form the top level part and the parts that were previously in the sub assembly into one assembly? Obviously any mates tieing that subassembly to other parts outside of that subassembly would disappear but what about the mates tieing the parts within that sub assembly together? Would they still exist?
Any insight into my problem would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Jeff
You can create a sub assembly from parts in your assembly (drop down--insert--component--sub assembly from selected components).
you can also right click on sub assemblies and click dissolve sub assembly, this should allow you to rearrange your assemblies as you see fit.
when you do this sort of thing solidworks will/should carry your mates through the changes.
A trap to be aware of though is that when you insert your new sub assembly it creates a "virtual assembly" kind of like a virtual part, you just have to be sure to right click in the feature tree and "save as external" (not too sure on exact name in menu but you will see it straight away).