Saving Virtual Components to External Files

You can save a virtual component to an external file.

You can rename the component before saving by right-clicking it and selecting Rename Part or Rename Assembly.

To save a virtual component:

  1. Do one of the following:
    • Close an assembly that contains unsaved virtual parts or assemblies.
    • Right-click a virtual component and select Save Part(in External File) or Save Assembly(in External File).
  2. If you are saving a virtual assembly to an external file, select one of the following in the dialog box:
    Option Description
    Save only the subassembly to an external file Saves the subassembly to an external assembly file, but keeps its child components as virtual components within the external file.
    Save the subassembly and any virtual child components to an external file Saves the subassembly to an external assembly file and saves its child components to external part or assembly files.
  3. Set the following options in the Save As dialog box:
    Option Description
    File Name Lists the name of the virtual component.
    Path Lists the path to the file location. Select an item in File Name, and then use these buttons to change the path:

    Same As Assembly

    Sets the location of the component file to be the same as the location of the assembly file.

    Specify Path

    Opens the Select Folder dialog box, so you can browse to the location where you want to store the file.

    Internal To Assembly

    Changes Path back to <save internal to assembly>.

  4. Click OK.
    The component is saved to the specified folder. Because it is no longer a virtual component, square brackets no longer appear around the component name in the FeatureManager design tree.