FLEXIBLE COMPONENTS IN FAMILY TABLE

[cspinelli]

Hello,

i have a question for all of you: i have an assembly WIRE_ASSY.ASM with 3 parts, 2 generics of a connector and a flexible wire. i want to make a family table of the assembly WIRE_ASSY.ASM in which the different instances have instances of the connector and the wire with external diameter, internal diameter and lenght flexible based on the dimensions of the connector. but when i create a new instance of WIRE_ASSY.ASM it saves me also the previous instances. with Windchill the instances need to be checked-out.

do you have a suggestion?

thanks

[JonathanHodgson]

Others may chime in with better ideas, but where I work the guideline is not to use family tables within Windchill, for this reason.

[dschenken · Accepted solution]

Family tables work much like sheets in an spreadsheet workbook. They are all one piece and it makes little sense to think of being able to save one sheet independently of the others; there is only one file.

I think you can force Windchill to not require all the instances to be checked out, but I think the ones that aren't checked out will point to the old version of the generic, which would make a mess.

There doesn't seem to be an advantage to using family tables for this particular application. Family tables are quite valuable when the members are best managed as a group or are indivisible. For example, a series of fasteners will remain a group and a flat pattern is indivisible from the formed part.

[cspinelli]

thanks, but which is the best way to do that in your opinion?