Replacing the CAD model of a part while maintaining references in all assemblies

[Bob_Johnson]

My company uses a common part on all of our assemblies. Recently, we received new, more detailed CAD of the part from the part supplier. The new CAD maintains all of the key dimensions of the old part, however it is much more detailed. 

Is there a way to update my part to the new more detailed geometry while maintaining all the original references in my assemblies? In this way I would not have to create a new part for the new CAD, and use the replace function in every assembly we have (because we have a lot).

Thanks,

[DavidBigelow]

This really depends on a lot.  IF it is a Creo Part and the IDs are the same for the surface / references between the different models... You have a few options -- Pro/PROGRAM edit converting each of these to variables and using a parameter to replace them with the new model name (should) work.

IF they are not (completely different models)... you might need an interchange assembly as an intermediate step to define the mapping for assembly references and the somehow find and replace -- or to the Pro/PROGRAM trick above.

I am sure there are many other options...  but those come to mind as a more automated fix.

Dave

[sully7]

I definitely agree that Interchange assemblies are one really good solution here - they are a great way of "pre-defining" how two unrelated models can be replaced, while still keeping all the references lined up.

Two good youtube videos that might help here: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLe2aXdVK6o

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MK7Z1n7ocmU

Hope this helps!

James Sullivan

[ArnaudVandeVeer]

if its only a 1:1 replace, when replacing by an Unrelated Component, you can build an "internal interchange list" with Edit Ref Table and avoid making an extra interchange assembly

[DavidBigelow]

THAT is pretty slick!

[Bob_Johnson]

Thanks for the videos, I haven't seen interchange assemblies before. This is very close, but I don't know if it is quite what I am looking for.

I believe that after creating an interchange assembly, one would still need to still go into every assembly containing the part and swap out the old part for the new one. I was wondering if there was almost a part level interchange feature, where one could import new geometry into the part file, create a reference table (to preserve all references in assemblies), and finally delete the old geometry.

In this way all of the references are maintained in assemblies, and importantly I wouldn't need to go through all of my assemblies to interchange the parts. 

[pausob · Accepted solution]

If you are dealing with a vendor model that is essentially an import feature in your part, then one hack I can think of is:

- in your common part, add an extruded cut - which cuts through all geometry.

- this leaves an "empty" model 

- import the new, more detailed geometry

Well, that's about it.  The new common model has the high-fidelity geometry, but it should just work in whatever assembly it was used in because the references will remain - to the existing cut-away geometry.

I'm not sure - I don't think I'd do this, but the alternative seems painful.

[Bob_Johnson]

I think this is close to what I am looking for. In a perfect world it would be nice to delete the old geometry features, but if Creo doesn't have something cleaner this might be necessary. 

[gmontgomery-2]

Worth mentioning that if the simplified model was a defeatured version of complete model it may work as is, depending on how it was referenced in your existing assemblies e.g. default datums etc are likely unchanged. If so the new model would work in place of the old, providing the new version is named to match the old. Probably you tried that already.

Barring that I would maybe investigate to determine what the referenced entities (component side) are in your current usages. Even if the old and new models are unrelated you might be able to coax the new model into being interchangable with the old if the component references (default datums etc) are consistent across using assemblies and the referenced component entities can be made to match e.g. default datums fairly early in the model tree.