Editing a Part in an Assembly

Most top-down relationships are created while editing a part within an assembly. This is also referred to as in-context editing because you create or edit the feature in the context of the assembly, instead of in isolation, as you traditionally create parts. In-context editing lets you see the part in its correct location in the assembly while you are creating the new feature. Additionally, you can use geometry of the surrounding parts to define the size or shape of the new feature.

Even if you are not using top-down design methods, you can still edit a part in the assembly window for convenience. For example, while working in an assembly, you could edit a component's extrusion to reverse its direction or edit a fillet to add more edges from the same component. These are not considered top-down design because they don't use any of the other parts in the assembly.

When you edit a part in the context of an assembly, you can use colors to indicate which component is being edited. You can also change the transparency of assembly components while editing a part.

To edit a part while in an assembly:

  1. Right-click the part and select Edit Part, or click Edit Component on the Assembly toolbar.
    The title bar shows the name of the part in the assembly that is open for editing as <part_name> in <assembly_name>.sldasm. Note that the message in the status bar indicates that you are now editing the part document even though the entire assembly is visible.
    When you edit a part in the context of an assembly, the referenced configuration in the assembly becomes the active configuration in all open windows (for example, if the part is open in its own window).

    If the part is used in another open assembly document, with the Use component’s in-use or last saved configuration option selected, those instances are also affected.

    For more information, see Specifying Component Configurations in an Assembly.

  2. Make the necessary changes to the part.
  3. To return to editing the assembly, right-click the assembly name in the FeatureManager design tree, or right-click anywhere in the graphics area, and select Edit Assembly:<assembly_name>, or click Edit Component .