Community
cancel
Showing results for 
Show  only  | Search instead for 
Did you mean: 

Please add "Replace Selected"

Please add "Replace Selected"

I've searched the Idea Station but didn't find something quite like this with replace (although I did find a lot of requests to change the replace functionality)

 

When replacing a component, the only options available are "Replace" and "Replace all".  This can be troublesome when trying to replace only a few items and not all of them e.g. 4 out of 8 dowels.

 

So to illustrate here is an example:

If you want to replace 4 out of 8 dowels you will have to repeat the "Replace" operation 4 times, as "Replace all" would obviously replace all 8.

If there was the option of “Replace selected”, you could have selected the 4 dowels and replaced them in 1 step.

 

This is an efficiency enhancement that would make many designers lives much easier! 

11 Comments
jtylerbc
Mentor

I think that is simply the way "Replace" should work, rather than adding a seperate menu item for a "Replace Selected" option.  I can't tell you the number of times I've been working in an assembly and selected a set of parts I wanted to replace, only to find Replace missing from the menu.

 

It seems so obvious to me that it should work that way, that even after all the years I've been using this program, I can still forget that it doesn't do that. 

guido_66
Advocate

I gave my kudos, but it should work exactly like jtylerbc explains.

karthur1
Mentor

Great Idea!!!

robmatthews
Collaborator

There is a work-around, as you'd expect.

 

Demote all the selected occurrences, open the new assy, replace all, and then promote them all again. Then delete the new assy.

 

This is awkward and can be cumbersome, and should not be necessary.

jdmarais1
Explorer

Productive idea !!!

SteveMDennis
Autodesk

If we just supported multiple selection for "replace" wouldn't that work?

 

i.e. you pre-select the things you want to replace and then choose the existing replace cmd and it replaces them all? That doesn't require a new menu entry or a change to workflow really.

 

Only question I can think of is should we make all pre-selections be of the same document/file or can you replace dissimilar things with one new thing?

 

Would you really need to replace several bolts that are currently different with a new bolt?

kevinb
Advocate

Agreed, multi-select support should be the default.

SteveMDennis
Autodesk
Status changed to: Accepted
 
dan_szymanski
Autodesk
Status changed to: Accepted
Accepted idea [US21209]. Thanks!
mrattray
Advisor

Would this carry over into the save & replace command as well?

 

"Only question I can think of is should we make all pre-selections be of the same document/file or can you replace dissimilar things with one new thing?"

 

It wouldn't be as common of a scenario as replacing only similar items, but if it's not an issue than why not have the option to use it in any context the designer may have use for it in?

 

"Would you really need to replace several bolts that are currently different with a new bolt?"

 

Sometimes, but not often.

dan_szymanski
Autodesk
Status changed to: Implemented

This idea has been implemented within Autodesk Inventor 2016. Special thanks to the author of this Idea and likewise to everyone who cast your Kudo for it.  The Replace command now supports more than a single component selection (no longer limited to a single selection or Select All). Multiple similar or dissimilar component selections can be made before or after the Replace command is invoked.

Can't find what you're looking for? Ask the community or share your knowledge.

Submit Idea  

Autodesk Design & Make Report