You can form a subassembly from components that are already in the assembly, thereby moving the components down one level in the assembly hierarchy.
Before creating a new subassembly, you can specify the default behavior for saving it, either as a separate external assembly file or as a virtual component within the parent assembly file. Click and select or clear Save new components to external files.
Recommendation: Position and mate at least one of the components before you begin, then select that component first.
To form a new assembly from existing components:
- Ctrl + select the components (individual parts or subassemblies) that you want to group into a subassembly. All the components must be at the same level within a single parent assembly.
- Do one of the following:
- Right-click one of the selected components, and select Form New Subassembly.
- Click .
Depending on your Assemblies option setting, one of the following occurs:
- The new subassembly is saved as a virtual component within the parent assembly.
- The Save As dialog box appears, so you can save the new subassembly in its own assembly document. Browse to a different folder if needed, enter a File name, and click Save.
A new subassembly is inserted at the level where the selected components were located, and the components are moved into the new subassembly.
Example
In this example, assembly A contains components P1 and P2.
P1 and P2 are selected to form a new subassembly, S1.
Instead of referencing the individual component documents P1 and P2, assembly A now references the subassembly document S1.
Any mates that exist between components P1 and P2 move from the Mates folder of assembly A to the Mates folder of subassembly S1.