Draggin n droppin.....

This is from PTC Technical Support Knowledge Base...

About Automatic Placement of Components Components are often assembled using the same constraint types and references. Automatic placement allows you to constrain components faster and allows simultaneous placement of multiple instances of one component. You can place components in an assembly by automatically matching component information to geometry existing in the assembly.

Automatic placement operates by searching for geometry that matches the interface of a component. You can set a default interface to use when assembling a component or manually select an interface to assemble a component. The following methods can be used to automatically place components in your model:

Drag-and-Drop Automatic Placement You can drag-and-drop components in your assembly from a file browser. Preselect references before assembling a component, or select a drop location within Pro/ENGINEER to help find the closest matching geometry to the drop point. Set the following configuration option to drag-and-drop components for automatic placement:

autoplace_single_comp yes

Automatic Placement from the Insert Menu You can define component constraint interfaces by using the Interface Definition dialog box or define interfaces while placing components. To create component interfaces and automatically place a component in an assembly, set the following configuration options:

enable_component_interface

use_auto_interface

autoplace_single_component no

I know you asked this a while ago, maybe you figured it out already. But, in case you haven't, I'm throwing in my 2 cents. In reading through the responses, it didn't seem that people understood what you were asking. Or perhaps it was open to interpretation because you were really asking two different questions which you thought were connected. Anyway, my interpretation, once I got past the 'draggin n droppin' red herring, was that you wanted to work in two windows ~ one for the main assembly and a separate one for the component you're assembling. If this is the correct interpretation, the config option that governs this is comp_assemble_start. Setting it to 'constrain_in_window' gives you the separate window slopped over the main window. The other value for this is 'package' which puts the component in the window with the main assembly, my preference, actually. Although, sometimes, for example, when assembling a small component to a big assembly, that separate window comes in handy. However, now with WF2 (at least in my setup), components come in attached to the tip of the pointer. The interface screen is set to the Move page and Motion Type is set to Translate. If you are zoomed so you can see the hole you where you wish to insert a screw, working with small components in a big assembly is now possible. One click and the part is dropped in the vicinity of where you want to assemble it. Then you switch to the Place page and pick your constraining features. Pretty slick! I just wish I could figure out how to get it to default to Place instead of the Move page.

David Janes

Thanks all for the tips, and what I was looking for was the following. While working in an assembly somebody from the floor would ask me to look at a part , or another assembly for dimensions, info etc. So, I'd use my windoze explorer and drag the file onto any active Pro session. no directory change, no window closes etc within Pro The problem was that that dragged part would automatically want to be assembled into my current job . the option autoplace_single_comp no is what I needed to have those dropped files open in their own window.