Copying Content Center Family to User Library

[RStancescu]

Hello

I'm trying to copy a family to a new Category I created in my own library. By default, when I do <Copy to> for <Plain Hex Washer> family it adds it to the same location in Hex Head - Flanged. 

Please see attached, I'm trying to copy to Benson Standard Catalog or Inc004 categories that I created. 

I am aware that I can add members in those two categories in my library but only using Publish.. and only for independent members and not a whole family. 

Basically, my aim is to see only my own library when I Place from Content Center.

I dont want users to see the whole Content Center and navigate to folders/subfolders; they need to see only stuff of our own library.

Thank you

radu

[johnsonshiue]

Hi Radu,

I am copying and pasting my email reply to you here, so other users can take a look.

Regarding the behavior you are talking about, I believe you need to change it in Project Settings. Close all files and go to Get Started -> Projects -> Configure Content Center -> uncheck those standard contents that you don’t want to see. Could you try it out?

Many thanks!

[blandb · Accepted solution]

@johnsonshiue  is correct.

Once you have your company library set up, you will need to remove the other libraries from the Configure libraries section of the project. That way no other libraries will be shown.

Hope that helps

[CGBenner]

@RStancescu 

In the Content Center Editor, you can also use Save Copy As on a family in a Standard Library, and save it as either linked or independent to your custom library.

[freesbee]

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@RStancescu wrote:

(...)

Basically, my aim is to see only my own library when I Place from Content Center.

I dont want users to see the whole Content Center and navigate to folders/subfolders; they need to see only stuff of our own library.

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...definitely the best choice: I have been doing it the last 9 years, and never one issue. Also inventor ContentCenter will be faster if you disable non used libraries. Just do as Johnson has suggested: it works!

[RStancescu]

Hi Chris 

Thank you for your reply. 

I also researched and noticed that I cannot move my own categories to a standard category.

In addition, I would like to move my own family that I create from standard content center to my custom category, see attached. We copied (like you suggested) and modified some families and would like to move this family (Hex Head) to one of our category, Benson Standard or Inc004. 

Johnson confirmed all of the above.

Would be nice if we could use more flexibility within our custom library and not be forced to have our own families at the default location.

Stay safe and thank you both for your help!

radu

[freesbee · Accepted solution]

The category a family belongs to depends on how you author the specific family, because some parameters should be properly mapped and they change from one category to another. If you keep modifying Autodesk families you will never have the flexibility you are asking for and you will never learn exactly how content center works. The best strategy in content center matters is to author your families yourself, from the iPart to the family. That way you will learn better how things under the content center hood work, and you will have the full flexibility in case you decide to explore some "exotic adventure".

You will struggle a little bit more for the first 3 days... and you will dominate the content center for the rest of your life 😉

Personally I have authored many families, all of them 100% compatible with the native Autodesk ones, but I never came to the idea of creating custom categories: the next problem that could come up is that my wonderful content center will not be compatible with something already existing out there.

 

[CGBenner · Accepted solution]

@RStancescu 

Once created, a Content Family cannot be moved.  To "move" families requires that you first create the new category/folder in the correct location, and re-publish the parts to that folder.  When I author a component that I want to put in a custom folder, I always choose "Other" as the Type.  Choosing Other allows you to place the component in any custom folder when you publish.  

[RStancescu]

Great idea Massimo!

[RStancescu]

Thank you Chris.

[checkcheck_master]

Hi there,

What is the best way to republish a component including all members?

And what is the best way to add a new Library?

Struggling with AutoDrop from some Content Center components, hence.

Greetings!

[freesbee]

...the "fastest" is to copy one existing family and handle specific fields that get strange content (as all the fields that will be "copy of...", including the filename field)

The "best"... I firmly believe that it is the one I have described in post #7

[checkcheck_master]

Thanks Freesbee for your reaction,

I'l think I miss something regarding copying a family with all members, I got only one member when making a copy.

Wrong button?

[freesbee]

Assuming that you want to take that path:

1. you need to have the original Adsk library active in your project
2. you need to have at least ONE custom library (your library) active in your project

Then locate the family you want to copy, (1) RMB and choose "Save copy as"

this will bring you to the next dialog, where you will be able to define where and how to save your copy of the original family:

in my specific case I have copied the family "SMD_LED_SAMPLE" from the Adsk library "Inventor IDF" to my custom library "Work in Progress".

Doing it this way you should have all members of the original family.

P.S.: make some experiments before doing a productive one, as you probably do not want to have any of the auomatic naming suggestions that the software offers 😉