Is there a quick way to copy an assembly into a new project?

[sathersc23]

Hey all,

Short story:

I am trying to figure out a quick way to effectively do a pack-and-go to a single path, but break the project link.

Long story:

We use a 3rd party FEA software for simulation, but still want to Vault the files for design history. Right now I have to rebuild all of the assembly files and copy all of the sub components manually under my FEA project folder to prevent myself from modifying released files when I go through and do things like split faces and defeature for FEA purposes. 

I would love to just load a pack and go, kill the project file so it doesn't reference my groups WIP files in the process, without having to rebuild the structure to use the pack-and-go files I have already copied "out of the project".

Any ideas?

Thanks,

[cbenner]

Have you tried Vault Copy Design?  You can copy as much of the design as you want or need, and put it wherever you want.

[sathersc23]

Chris,

I've found copy design relatively cumbersome when trying to move assemblies with hundered of parts (of course I want unique copies of them all too). Granted I am not running FEA on hundereds of parts, but even copying 5-10 parts to a new location for a model can be cumbersome using that tool.

Unless of course you do not have to re-enter the information line by line like I am.

[cbenner]

Copy Design allows you to do a Find/Replace on both file names and the destination path.  This can speed things up considerably.  You may notice as well, at the bottom, there is a method for adding a prefix or suffix to file names... this could also speed things up quite a bit.  I won't argue, the bigger the assembly the longer it takes.... but it's a heck of a lot faster than re-creating your assembly just for the FEA.

To do the find/replace...right click in a field and select replace.  Then just type in the old string, and a replacement string.  Always double check everything before hitting OK.  I've been bit more than once by missing something in large assemblies.

[sathersc23]

I tried it again. I'll skip the copy/replace. The functionality is just as tedious for what I am doing.

Thanks for the effort! 🙂