More on Family Tables

[ptc-3889175]

Hi all,

I started creating family tables for parts with multiple variations. (I'm using WF 3.0 BTW) I was successful in creating the tables and manipulating the softwar to reflect the required part information when listed on a BOM. Long story short, I really like family tables.

Question: I placed the parts with family tables in a "library" directory for ease of access, but, when I want to pull an instance of a part into an assembly, I run into issues.

1. I open said part "generic" instance, a window pop-up askes me which instance I'd like to open.

2. I select the instance I want and open it.

3. I then return to the file menu and select "back-up" which is supposed to back up (or save) the instance to what ever my working directory is.

4. I then return to my assembly and click "Add Component" to import the part. - this is where I run into trouble... PRO E has backed up the entire family to my working directory.... Sure my part is there, but that's an aweful lot of harddrive space used up.

Is there any way to just pull one instance of a family part and make it it's own original part?

Thanks!

-John

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[Dale_Rosema]

It doesn't look like it can be done. Here is a link to a discussion about this:

http://communities.ptc.com/message/201659#201659

BTW, why not just set up the directory where the family part is stored into your search directory and you should be able to access it. You can always just store the drawings for the part in the separate directory.

Thanks, Dale

[VladimirPalffy]

Hi John,

You can set configuration option: search_path and set your path to standard directories

for example:

search_path D:\users\4kside\Library\Screw

search_path D:\users\4kside\Library\Bolt

search_path D:\users\4kside\Library\Nut

Note: configuration option search_path specifies list of directories to search for object/file retrieval.

Regards,

Vladimir

[VladimirPalffy]

... or ...

If you need to create separate file from Instance model of family table member, you can open instance model and select: File>Save a Copy... and set new name for your part/model.

Regards,

Vladimir