Saving a copy of an assembly with suppressed components

[dbarbour]

We have a modular sub-assembly (called CM1) in our library with many options (assembly/part/feature groups) that may be suppressed or unsuppressed via parameters and PRO/Program. The sub-assembly parts have a CM1_ prefix. I want to be able to copy this sub-assembly multiple times (CM2, CM3, etc) and be able to use different options for each one.

First I copy CM1 from our library into a job folder (so all of the initially suppressed parts come with it). Then I use "Save a Copy" to create CM2, CM3, etc and rename sub components. The problem is that Pro's "Save A Copy" feature doesn't include suppressed parts, so when I try to enable a suppressed option in CM2, it pulls the CM1_ part instead. I can clear my memory, open CM2, and rename the CM1_ parts, but I really would like the process to be automated to reduce errors.

Can anyone see a way to do this? I'm using Wildfire 3.

Thanks

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[MartinHanak]

Hi,

if you are using parameters and PRO/Program then the only solution is to resume all components before applying Save a Copy command.

Other possible solutions:

• PTC Creo Options Modeler
• Toolkit application which will make a copy of modular subassembly (it will copy all components and assemble them together)

MH

[jstone-2 · Accepted solution]

David Barbour wrote:

We have a modular sub-assembly (called CM1) in our library with many options (assembly/part/feature groups) that may be suppressed or unsuppressed via parameters and PRO/Program. The sub-assembly parts have a CM1_ prefix. I want to be able to copy this sub-assembly multiple times (CM2, CM3, etc) and be able to use different options for each one.

First I copy CM1 from our library into a job folder (so all of the initially suppressed parts come with it). Then I use "Save a Copy" to create CM2, CM3, etc and rename sub components. The problem is that Pro's "Save A Copy" feature doesn't include suppressed parts, so when I try to enable a suppressed option in CM2, it pulls the CM1_ part instead. I can clear my memory, open CM2, and rename the CM1_ parts, but I really would like the process to be automated to reduce errors.

Can anyone see a way to do this? I'm using Wildfire 3.

Thanks

Why not create a family table for the sub assembly variations? You can modify CM1 with the parameters, options, and sub components needed for CM2 and use the Pro/program Instantiate command to create a new family table instance. You could use the lookup_inst command to open the desired CM_ sub assembly based on your input values.

[dbarbour]

We would just need a very large family table for it to work, and the programming would get a little complicated.

Some of the options, for ex:

4 different types of doors

3 different locks

Left/right/no support channels

And so on

So there would need to be a different instance for each possible combination, as far as I know.

The options modeler seems like exactly what we need, but management does not want to upgrade.

EDIT: Wait, I think I see what you mean. I'll have to investigate further and see if this would work with our design/export process.

EDIT2: Trying to use the Instantiate button, but it doesn't do anything?

[jstone-2]

If you already know what the design variations are you don't really need to use Pro/program and instantiate. If you don't have input variables in your program already, you could just add instances to the assembly family table and choose which components to include or supress for each. Family tables of assemblies can get quite large though. I'm not sure exactly how many variations you want to create, but yes, there would need to be a different instance for each combination.

If you already have all your optional components in the main subassembly and have just been supressing what you don't need, you might be better off using an interchange assembly. This doesn't require any programming (unless you want to automate it based on input varibles in the main sub assembly) and is pretty easly to set up. For example with the doors, you create a functional interchange assembly and assemble all of the possible doors with default constraints. Use the ref. pairing table to create required reference tags by setting your active component (first door, currently in main sub assy) selecting the main sub assy, and the other components to pair. This links your placement refs. for each component and allows you to swap them easily in the main assy by using Replace By-> interchange. Doesn't take long to setup and you aren't suppressing components. You can also setup pro/program to select which interchange assembly to use if desired.