create external component from an internal one

[jean-michel_legoff]

Still in the assembly context, it's often convenient to create internal componenets in a large assembly.

But sometimes you may want to change your mind or want to edit one specific componenet as a single part without the Assembly context.
But it looks like it's not possible even if you export a componenet you cant export and link it with the assembly.
I guess that the opposite is possible I mean import an external componenet and break the link in order to create an internal one.

Is it by Design?

[jeff_strater]

Yes.  Or, more accurately, it was a conscious decision to not implement this, primarily because:  It is very hard.  We even had a name for it:  Externalize Component.  However, as we dug into it, we realized that, while this is easy for simple cases, it is very complex for more complex cases.  If you've ever even played with Save Component As, you might have run into cases where it does not work correctly, almost always because of external references.  If you project an edge from one component into the sketch of another, then Save Copy As needs to figure out what to do with that reference.

Externalize, if it is ever implemented would consist of 3 steps:

1. Save Component As (pretty much as it exists, today, but more bulletproof)
2. get rid of ALL the features in the active design that created the local component.  This part is REALLY hard, because, also, of cross-component references.  Deleting those features will cause a lot of downstream errors, including Projected Geometry, other references to the geometry of that component (say, a workplane in a different component). All those errors would have to be fixed.
3. Replace all instances of the local component with instances of the external component.  Again, this is hard.  All the references (things like Joints) would have to be repaired to point to the new external component.

So, I guess I would not expect to see this any time soon...

[jean-michel_legoff]

Hi,

i understand that it is probably not easy,

but I was believing that it could be possible to generate an assembly context in the externalized part to store references from the actual assembly, and relink references taken on that component in the features which use this part as reference.

on the other hand, if in some cases some references need to be lost, a warning can be sent  to validate if yes or no you continue the process externalization process.

by the way, a tool which can help reviewing all the references taken or used by a feature could help in many case. And not only the one which help retrieving lost one. Sometimes to simplify a model, you may want to relink some references but you can’t get easy access until you lose it

[TrippyLighting]

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@jean-michel_legoff wrote:

...

by the way, a tool which can help reviewing all the references taken or used by a feature could help in many case. 

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I could not agree more!