Assembly to one file, simplify assembly???

[Creo_fanboy]

Hey guys! I need your help so I can solve my problem (using Creo 3.0)...

I have to do a project for the school I am attending. The goal of this project is to automate a manual mailing machine. The developers of that machine have sent me a STEP-File containing 127 files of a big assembly, subassemblies and parts. So the next step would be to assemble the mailing machine assembly into my project and to constrain it to existing parts.

The traditional way of doing this (at least that's what I was taught) would be to copy all 127 files into my working directory where I already have 100 files or so. Problem: That makes navigating through the working directory kind of uncomfortable and less clear.

I tried converting the STEP file to a part and not to an assembly, but that didn't work out at all because the converted part is wrong.

I've been using a botched solution so far: I opened the mailing machine assembly that was saved in another directory and saved the assembly as a copy in my working directory. That means I only added one asm-file to my working directory. The thing is, every time i start up Creo and open the project, an error occurs with the single asm-file and I have to click on "retrieve missing component" navigate through other directories. It works but it's a little sloppy (isn't it?).

Is there a way to simplify this? Like... to save the whole m-machine assembly as one single part?

Or to have the single asm-file work like a shortcut, what I mean is that I open the single asm-file and Creo automatically retrieves the parts and subassemblies that are stored in the other directory?

I would really appreciate your help!

[Trebla]

 Hi Creo_fanboy,

You could 'save as' your 'mailing machine' as IGES file (*.igs) or as ACIS file (*.sat), and then open it through a part type.

You will have the whole asm in a single part. I hope it helps you.

[StephenW · Accepted solution]

If you want to keep the CAD structure of the machine you were sent but you want to keep all the files in a different folder, you can add a search path to the config.pro so Creo knows to look in that folder for the files. You can find the config settings under File- options - then cofiguration editor

search_path C:\Temp\ (so your folder path would be whereever your files are)

If you have a complicated set of paths, there is the search_path_file option but I don't think that is what you need.

If your goal really is to save the assembly as one file, the easiest way is to do a file - save as - and then choose shrinkwrap as the type. This will create an independent part file of the assembly, just remember, it will not update if they send a new set of files, you will have to re-create the shrinkwrap. There are options for creating the shrinkwrap so review those and make your selections.

[Creo_fanboy]

The shrinkwrap is horrible, looks like Creo built the part on drugs.
Had a bit of trouble finding out that I actually had to add the search_path thingy to the list ^^. Managed to do it and it works really well. Im gonna go with that solution, thanks a lot!