Workflow for quickly swapping parts nested deep in subassemblies

[mitchell6LPHR]

Hi there, I'm hoping someone out there has a good suggestion to help with a bottleneck I've been running into.

I have a top level assembly (e.g. a desk) [1] containing a subassembly (filing cabinet) [2], which was modeled as an iAssembly (so it is table-driven with many variations). This subassembly itself contains 3 subassemblies (individual drawers) [3] [4] [5]. These individual drawer assemblies each have a pull handle that I am interested in changing to a new pull style.

I am working in my top level assembly [1]. I am looking for a quick method for swapping every single instance of the drawer pull (each instance of course is nested deeply in a separate subassembly). This is just one example--the general idea is the same across many projects I work on.

I am open to any reasonable suggestion as I want to be able to do this type of thing on the fly, doesn't have to be super clean. I know throwing constraints in the mix muddies the water somewhat but I'm still hopeful.

Thank you.

[Gabriel_Watson · Accepted solution]

Because you are working with a factory file (iAssembly), you will need to "Replace All" the handles on the master file and then re-generate the child components again.

[mitchell6LPHR]

I got this to work only by diving into my lowest-level assembly [5] (i.e. one of the filing cabinet drawers), using "replace all" on the pull, resolving the constraints, then going back up through my assembly chain and saving/rebuilding each one. By replacing the part in just assembly [5], the same change carried over to drawers [3] and [4] upon rebuild of the filing cabinet [2].

Thank you for the response. I didn't know the "replace all" command worked this way.