Assembly Structure Window

The "Assembly structure" window provides functionality for managing the multilevel structure of the assembly model. Information is presented in the form of a tree structure.

 

 

When you select assembly elements, a list of their variables, geometry, and references is displayed. The Open in Context option is available for assembly elements of any level: through the context menu or by double-clicking on the assembly element. All geometry borrowed from other files is displayed on the Reference Elements tab. The create 3D Fragment context menu command is available at any level of the assembly structure. The command allows you to set the basic parameters of the new assembly component, and, if necessary, go directly to its editing in the context of the assembly. Any selected assembly element will be highlighted in the 3D scene.

The top bar of the "Assembly Structure" window allows you to execute commands, customize the display of assembly elements, and perform search.

Icon (Update) updates the assembly structure: displays new items, updates information about item relevance, and so on.

The icon (Filter) opens the filters menu. You can use filters to customize the display of object types.

The icon (Actions) opens the menu of possible actions (see the subsection below for details).

The icon (Group by Links) changes from the structure display to the references display and back.

The search bar allows you to find the desired assembly element by its designation, name or fragment name.

The icon (Options) opens the settings menu, where you can choose to display the desired columns (see subsection below for details) and customize the display of the options panel.

Actions in "Assembly Structure" Window

The following actions are available in the "Assembly Structure" window:

Update Links. The option updates links to the file fragments. If changes have been made and saved in the fragment, the "Assembly Structure" window will show it. An icon  will appear in front of the fragment . The icon indicates that you need to update the reference to the fragment file so that the changes made in the fragment appear in the assembly. After the Update Links command is executed, the icon will change and the assembly will show the changes made in the fragment.

Update Linked Details. If in an assembly, a body or fragment has been saved to a separate file with the ability to update (for more information, see "Save geometry with update possibility"), then you can update the geometry of the saved details, according to the changes in the assembly, using this command:

Create subassembly. The command places the selected fragments in a separate new file with the ability to substitute the created assembly unit into the assembly (for more information, see "Assembly unit creation"). The new fragment file is part of the assembly structure.

Update Reference Element Geometry. The command will update all reference elements in the specified fragment, recalculate the fragment completely, and save it.

Update Geometry of all Reference Elements. The command will update all the reference elements of all the assembly fragments, completely recalculate the fragments and save them.

Update Assembly. The command will consequently save all of the fragments from the fragments of the lower levels to the upper ones. The command is used to consequently update all changes in fragments and save them in all subassemblies.

Refresh Files. The command will update and save files of adaptive fragment and fragments with external variables according to their variations in the assembly.

If there is a fragment in the assembly, which has multiple variations due to geometric parameters or external variables, then when this command is executed, the last of the created variations will be substituted inside the fragment file.

The command is not suitable for creating a detailing if the assembly has fragments with multiple executions, i.e. with different values of geometric parameters and external variables.

Report. Creates a file in the "str" format (you can open it with any program that allows you to open files in the "txt" format) The file contains a full path and external variables of each fragment.

Save All. Saves all the fragments currently open in the system.

Group by Links

The "Assembly Structure" window displays the assembly structure by default: that is, the number of parts and subassemblies (fragments in an assembly) and their nesting level.

An assembly structure may contain many executions of a fragment that has one source file that it references. For example, the assembly shown in the figure consists of 14 fragments, and it took only 6 files to create it. One of the files is the assembly "Housing.grb". The "Link" column displays links between fragments. The figure shows that all screws (except one) in the assembly refer to a single file "Pan Head Cross Recess Screw ISO 7045". You can display an assembly not by its structure, but by its references. I.e. show the number of source files and which parts refer to these files. To do this, click the icon (Group by Links) on the top panel of the "Assembly Structure" window.

The "Assembly Structure" window now shows the source files. Each file contains links of fragments in the assembly to it. Let's open the nested links.

You can return the structure display by pressing the icon again.

Columns

There are 15 columns available in the "Assembly Structure" window. Seven of the columns are displayed by default. The "Object" column is the main one, and always displayed in this window. The figure shows which columns are displayed by default.

Link. The column shows the file referenced by the assembly element.

File Type. The column specifies the file extension. The column is needed to understand whether the assembly element is a T-FLEX CAD document or an external model of other formats ("stp", "igs", etc.).

Link Type. The columns shows type of the link - external or internal. The link is called external when the file is saved separately from the assembly. The link is called internal is when the file is attached to the assembly file.

Full Path. The column displays the full path to the assembly element.

Actuality. The column shows the relevance of an item in the assembly with respect to geometry updates in the source file. Icon - indicates that the link is not current and you need to update the element in the assembly. Icon - indicates that the file is not found.

Object Type. The column shows the type of an object to which the assembly structure element belongs (3D fragment, document parameters, external references, standard elements).

Modified. The icon indicates the presence of changes in the assembly element file.

Mass. The column shows the mass of the detail or subassembly (depending on whether the item is a subassembly or a detail)

Number of Bodies. Specifies the number of fragments and/or bodies within the assembly structure element.

Descriptions. Shows the Descriptions that you specified when creating the assembly element in the fragment or detail dialog box.

Part Number. Shows the Part Number you specified when creating the assembly element in the fragment or deetail dialog box.

Saved. The icon - indicates that there are unsaved changes in the assembly element file.

Visibility in Assembly. Clicking the icon makes the assembly element invisible. Pressing the icon again shows the element in the 3D scene again.

Transparency in Assembly. Clicking the icon makes the assembly element transparent. Repeated click returns the original display of the element in the 3D scene.

Parameters Toolbar

By default, the Parameters Toolbar is located at the bottom of the "Assembly Structure" window. Three tabs are available in the options pane for each assembly item.

Reference Elements. The column shows the number of reference elements in the fragment, the name of the reference elements, the source file for the geometry of the reference elements, and the source file for the parameters of the reference elements.

Geometric Parameters. In this tab, geometric parameters will be shown for the adaptive fragments.

Variables. If the fragment has External Variables, they will be shown in this tab.

 

See also: Top-down Assembly Design, Reference Element, Create Assembly Structure in "Assembly Structure" Window