So, which file is the top assy??

[jaapkramer]

Hi,

maybe a beginner question... I get Pro/E assemblies from different parties regularly, so I've got a growing number of directories with a large amount of .prt and .asm-files in it.

How do I know what asm file is the top assy? In most cases, the sender tells me, or the name is obvious, but I've had cases where it's hard to find out afterwards, especially when we need to re-use an assy we received some years ago.

Is there a smart way of finding the right file, without trial and error??
Thanks!
Regards,

Jaap

This thread is inactive and closed by the PTC Community Management Team. If you would like to provide a reply and re-open this thread, please notify the moderator and reference the thread. You may also use "Start a topic" button to ask a new question. Please be sure to include what version of the PTC product you are using so another community member knowledgeable about your version may be able to assist.

[RodGiles]

Dear Jaap,

If you don't have a PDM system, there's no way of telling. When I get large assemblies from vendors and I don't know which is the top level assembly, I use the viewer in Pro/E to quickly scan all the assemblies. Another clue is to look for parts that have 'skel' in the name and see if you can match up to an assembly name. If your supplier is doing top-down design, then there may only be one or two major assemblies that have skeletons in them.

Once you have found the top level assembly, print out a BOM (Info>BOM>file) and keep it with the model to help yourself and other users.

Regards,

Rod

P.S. In a former job I tried to persuade Neopost of the benefits of PDM around 8 years ago, but without success!
Rod Giles
Senior Design Engineer
Polaris Britain Ltd.

[RonWard]

There is a program called "findmymother" on this mcadcentral thread which may help.

http://www.mcadcentral.com/proe/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=33605&KW=findmymother&PN=0&TPN=1

I have not tried it, but others say that it works.

[jaapkramer]

Hi,

ah, yes, hadn't thought of that... I knew Findmymother, but hadn't linked it to my problem 🙂

Just tried it, by picking a random part, and finding it's parent. I repeated the process until no parent was found anymore, and this was indeed the top assy.

Nice tool!

Thanks all for the reactions,
kind regards, Jaap