Replacing a part in an assembly

[gld]

When replacing a part in an assembly does the new part retain the old constraints or do new constraints have to be applied?.

 

[NateLiquidGravity]

Depends on if you tell it to and if it can.

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[gld]

Thanks Nate. I did not realize than option was there. I need to take a closer look.

 

[gld]

Still having trouble with constraints,as you can see in the screenshot. Tired to rotate the crank after replacing crankcase. And, yes the box (remove constraints) is unchecked.

I thought the part was automatically replaced in the assembly, after saving, as long as both are open. Am I wrong here.

 

[DavidJ]

Gary, not sure what you men by 'as long as both are open'. Generally not a good idea to have separate instances open as there may be potential to lose changes.

When using Replace Component - maintaining constraints is done on a best efforts basis, it's only likely to work 100% if the replacing part was derived from the replaced part, and hasn't been changed much. If the internal ID numbers for faces/edges are inconsistent then constraints will need to be manually repaired or re-done.

 

[gld]

David

Both file open in separate windows.

Last night I found the answer to my question. I modified a part ,then opened the assembly . The new part was there. Duh, should of known that!

 

[DavidJ]

Be careful if you have the assembly and part open separately - there will be 2 instances of the part loaded in memory. Depending upon how you close/save, it is possible to overwrite and lose changes.

'Edit Here' or 'Edit in separate window' should be used from the assembly, instead of opening a separate instance of the part.

 

[gld]

Be careful if you have the assembly and part open separately - there will be 2 instances of the part loaded in memory. Depending upon how you close/save, it is possible to overwrite and lose changes.

Thanks for the heads up on that.

 

[simonb65]

Be careful if you have the assembly and part open separately - there will be 2 instances of the part loaded in memory. Depending upon how you close/save, it is possible to overwrite and lose changes.

Considering how often this point is raised on the forum and how potentially frustrating a concept to non-technical users, it's a pity that a file locking mechanism hasn't been implemented to prevent just this issue ... just like MS Office does with word, excel, visio, etc documents to make subsequent openings read-only. Would also be useful for multi users working on the same project. Maybe one that could be put on the 'need to consider' dev list.

 

[schenman]

It would be good if the default is not to "Remove Constraint" when replacing parts instead of the opposite. It is easy to forget to uncheck it. Or give a popup warning that constraints will be removed if we proceed without unchecking. Nice to have!