Duplicating Assemblies with Copy Geometry features

Without editing each external copy geom feature I haven't found a way to change what they reference. One trick I have used to get around this is to copy the whole assemby off to another disk. Then Rename the parts that ext. coy geom point to while they are in session. Then you can do a save as for the rest of the parts that you want to give new identities to. After all of that you can save the new assembly back to your database. It can be tedious if the ext. copy geom points to a lot of different parts. That's one reason I always try to keep my copy geom features pointing to skeletons.

One way I've gotten around the problem (after doing the duplicate or save as on everything including the skeleton) is in each of the files that have copy geom references back to the original skeleton I will add a new copy geom reference (which has to be created inside the top level asm) to each of those files, after that I will open each of the files, move the new copy geom feature right under the first one (or the old incorrect one if that's easier to think of it as) in the model tree and then redefine whatever's connected to the old one onto the new one. After that you can delete the old copy geom feature and be on your merry way. It's really not that time consuming unless you have a huge list of files to recreate that copy geom for.

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I have always found it easier to use the file/rename functionality with the RENAME IN SESSION option checked rather than the file/save a copy functionality for this very reason. You can very easily control all the references and only rename those items which you want to duplicate while keeping common items common. Once you have everything renamed that you want to rename then just save the top level drawing or assembly and you have you new version without touching any existing objects on disk.

I have posted this about a thousand times in various user group boards, etc. but I seem to be about the only one who does it. It really is easy and painless.

You are NOT the only one who does it this way - Renaming In-Session Objects RULES...!

In Reply to David Gallup:

I have always found it easier to use the file/rename functionality with the RENAME IN SESSION option checked rather than the file/save a copy functionality for this very reason. You can very easily control all the references and only rename those items which you want to duplicate while keeping common items common. Once you have everything renamed that you want to rename then just save the top level drawing or assembly and you have you new version without touching any existing objects on disk.

I have posted this about a thousand times in various user group boards, etc. but I seem to be about the only one who does it. It really is easy and painless.