Inserting a New Subassembly

You can insert a new, empty subassembly at any level of the assembly hierarchy. Then you can add components to it in a number of ways.

Before you begin:

Specify the default behavior for saving new in-context components. You can save them as separate external part files or as virtual components within the assembly file. See Saving New In-Context Components.

To insert a new subassembly:

  1. Do one of the following:
    • In the FeatureManager design tree, right-click either the top-level assembly icon or the icon for an existing subassembly, and select Insert New Subassembly.
    • Click New Assembly (Assembly toolbar) or Insert > Component > New Assembly.

    In the FeatureManager design tree, an empty subassembly is inserted as the last component of the selected assembly. Virtual subassemblies appear with a name in the form [Assemn^assembly_name]. Externally saved subassemblies appear with a name in the form Assemn.

  2. Add components to the subassembly:
    • To move a component that is already in the assembly into the subassembly, see Dragging Components in the FeatureManager Design Tree or Editing Assembly Structure.
    • To add an existing, saved component to the subassembly, right-click the subassembly icon in the FeatureManager design tree, and select Edit Subassembly. Then insert components using any of the methods in Adding Components to an Assembly.
    • To insert a new component into a subassembly, you must edit the subassembly in its own window. You cannot insert a new component into a subassembly while you are editing the top-level assembly. Also, you cannot insert a new component while you are editing the subassembly in the context of a higher-level assembly. Right-click the subassembly icon in the FeatureManager design tree, and select Open Assembly to open the subassembly in its own window. Then add a new component.
To save a virtual component to its own external file, right-click the component and select Save Assembly(in External File). Alternatively, when you save the assembly, you can select to save the subassembly either inside the assembly or to an external file.