When an assembly is a component of another assembly, it is referred to as a subassembly. You can nest subassemblies in multiple levels, to reflect the hierarchy of your design.
Creating a Subassembly
There are several ways to create a subassembly:
- You can create an assembly document as a separate operation, then make it a subassembly by inserting it as a component in a higher-level assembly.
- You can insert a new, empty subassembly at any level of the assembly hierarchy while you are editing a top-level assembly, then add components to it in a variety of ways.
- You can form a subassembly by selecting a group of components that are already in the assembly. This creates a subassembly and adds components to it in a single step.
Modifying a Subassembly
As you develop an assembly, you can modify its subassemblies in these ways:
- You can dissolve a subassembly into individual components, thereby moving the components up one level in the assembly hierarchy.
- You can edit the assembly structure by moving components up or down in the hierarchy, or to a different branch of the hierarchy. There are two ways to do this:
- Drag and drop the components to move them from one assembly to another.
- Click . This method can be easier to use when the FeatureManager design tree is very long, and therefore requires a lot of scrolling.
- You can change the order of the components within a level of the hierarchy.
Limitations in Subassembly Editing
Most of the operations available for editing a subassembly on its own are available when editing a subassembly in context. However, there are a few operations that cannot be performed while editing a subassembly in context:
- Creating a new component in context
- Inserting or modifying a weld bead
For these operations, you must open and edit the subassembly in its own window.