How come I can not create or drag "Planes, axis, work points" into browser folders?

[chris]

Just wondering why I can not create or drag Planes, Axis's or Work Points into a browser folder to keep the model tree organized?

I sure would be nice if ADesk added a little more functionality into Work Features. Having the functionality to change their colors, group them and the ability to display text or iProperty data on them. If the work feature is selected or hovered over it could display it's browser name or offset value.

On a side note, it would be nice if the :General note" display could display a series of data lines that would change based on whatever part/assembly file was selected.

[pcrawley]

Part browser - or assembly browser?

If it's the part browser, then "organisation" is automatically hierarchical and there's not much you can do about it.

If it's the assembly browser... good question.  Post it on the ideas forum and I'll vote for it!

[johnsonshiue]

Hi Chris,

It is still currently a limitation. It has been discussed internally and externally before. Unfortunately, we don't have a good solution at the moment.

Many thanks!

[chris]

That stinks... because to place all my structural columns in space requires 30+ work planes and 20+ axis's, so my entire browser in full off work features  😞

I can add the current selection to a folder group, but I can't add anymore , reorder or remove any (other than delete) 

[pcrawley]

If you don't like them there, don't put them at the assembly level - put them in a part file.

(But I do agree, it would be a nice feature at the assembly level.)

[chris]

@pcrawley  They have to be at the assembly level, as those planes, axis's and points are what the added parts/assemblies are constraining to.

[pcrawley]

I don't mean this to sound confrontational, but how is that any different to constraining to a plane/axis/point in a part file?  If your "Grids" part is grounded, then constraining to its work features isn't any different to constraining to assembly-level work features.

 We always sketch (or import or link from DWG) gridlines in a part file - then either extrude them as surfaces or create them as workplanes depending on the size (height) of the project.  The "grid" model gets placed into the assembly, and all other components are then constrained to it. The advantage is that you aren't then "constrained" (no pun intended) to using one assembly file that contains all the grid geometry.  You can create many assembly files, place in your grid part, and add things to it knowing they are correctly positioned in relation to the grid.  Pulling the scheme together is then super easy because everything has the correct origin.

I'd post a screenshot of a recent project which had a particularly cool "Grid part" - but I offloaded it to cloud storage last week.  If haven't caused offense by my opening question and you're interested, I'll drag the model down and post a screenshot later. 

[chris]

@pcrawley LOL, that's exactly how I've always handled it, but when I did my meeting the other day  and they saw an "extra" "file" in the assembly they asked me to remove it and to only have finished geo in the Top Level assembly. I mentioned to them that it's BOM status was set to "ref" and that the part would not be visible, but they didn't like it

[Mario.VanWiechen]

I work for people like that too, so frustrating

I would use the "skeleton file" too

[chris]

@Mario.VanWiechen Well, I decided to just do it the way I normally do it and just take the heat, thank ya'll for the feedback

[kacper.suchomski]

Will it make your job any easier?

[Anonymous]

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@chris wrote:

@pcrawley LOL, that's exactly how I've always handled it, but when I did my meeting the other day  and they saw an "extra" "file" in the assembly they asked me to remove it and to only have finished geo in the Top Level assembly. I mentioned to them that it's BOM status was set to "ref" and that the part would not be visible, but they didn't like it

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They don't like it cuz they don't understand it. I had a boss that was like that. He'd ask me about something, I give him the 10k foot overview (because that's what he insisted of us all) and then he still didn't get it and asked for the details. Give him the details and then he'd complain it's too complicated or that I'm giving him....you guessed it, details. The kicker was, he never had to deal with any of this stuff, he just liked to stick his nose into everything and micro-manage. Honestly, I'd run it past the CAD Admin/Manager, get his buy in as he "should" understand your approach and let him deal with the grief....and I say that as a CAD Manager.

[pcrawley]

@chris - @kacper.suchomski makes a great point (although it took me a minute to translate it).

"Show Children Only" is a browser visibility setting - nothing to do with object visibility.

Place your grids part file into any/all subassembly and then toggle off "Show Children Only".

When you expand the browser for each subassembly, the children of that assembly are not visible, but the grids are still visible.  Problem solved.