"Insert Part" is NOT productive!!

What's your workaround? Insert a simplified config? Or does that not speed things up? It certainly would take longer to do.

Dale,

There is no workaround and if it stays as it is, it will get worse.

For instance, say you are designing a jig for a surface panel and you only need a few surface faces, 2 holes plus a plane. Unfortunately the surface file is made up of 300 surface faces and 10 disjointed bodies (let's say they are sheetmetal frames) with 40 mounting holes, plus it has 200 planes. When you insert the surface panel, you get 300 surface faces, 10 solid bodies, 40 holes and 200 planes.

Now, when I mean it gets worse, as this functionality grows (which it should) and as your surface panel changes and grows, (more entities are allowed to be shared) and the "insert part" content also changes and needs to be managed more so. Insert Part will become overwhelming and the file size will be enormous (they already are)!

That is why "insert part" needs "ONLY" to include what the user selects, nothing else. So, as it is, "insert part" needs to be fixed to exclude unused data.

Now this is not just a surfacing problem. Although, it is bear to deal with when working with a lot of surfaces and it shouldn't be this difficult!?

The insert part interface has very little management and it is a dog to use now and if nothing changes it will become a data taxing beast later.

..

I see. I didn't get the scale of the problem. I was assuming fairly simple solids.

One thing I've done on disasterously imported surface models is to make a dummy assembly so I can make a part with 0-offset copies of the surfaces I need. I stopped doing that though, because the copied faces sometimes forget what they were copying, then in-context references go haywire, etc. I've just been putting up with inserting the whole model.

It's not uncommon for me to have SW use half an hour or more CPU time in an afternoon, on days like that. I would love to be able to reliably copy only what I need. It would speed up my fixture designs nicely.

The funny thing is, I was just griping to someone not too long ago that insert parts needs to import MORE data. I want sketches, and the ability to mirror 3dSketches.

you mean what is selected and all parents?

Your example is a bit over my head, Paul, but I'm wondering if my workaround for simple solid Parts with numerous configurations would be useful to you. In my Assembly I'll insert one of maybe 150 fastener configurations, then right-click, open file, delete Design Table, make sure I have only the active configuration selected then select all configurations (in the Config Manager) and delete. Then SaveAs with a a specific descriptor filename in the local directory. Dunno if it'll help . . .

'Spork'

Paul Salvador wrote:

I just realized the scope of your problem, Paul, and realized that my workaround is (at best) only partial. After deleting all inactive configurations you'd also have to delete all suppressed surfaces, plane definitions, etc.. That may make it worthless to you.

'Spork'

Sporkman wrote:

We use it all the time for machined castings. The parent part is the casting and the child part is machined. I know configs could be used, but this is much cleaner.

Paul,

I haven't used the insert part command with part files as complex as the one you described, but unless I misunderstood your issue, I do see a workaround for this.

You could create a configuration of your complex multi-body part file called "simplified" and use a "delete body" feature to get rid of any solid/surface bodies that you do not need for your derived part. Of course, this "delete body" feature will be suppressed in all configurations except for the "simplified".

In the derived part, you can reference which configuration of the parent part file is used by accessing the "List External references" option.

I can see how this still might be taxing to your system when you load the child derived part and it automatically loads the parent. I have worked around this in the past by setting my "Load Referenced documents" option to "PROMPT" (Tools - Options - System Options - External References). Therefore, when you open the child part, you have the choice to load the parent part. Of course by doing this, you have to be aware as to whether or not changes have been made to the parent part.

I really like your idea of controlling what Bodies/Features are imported into the derived part as part of the Insert Part command. I will submit an enhancement request for this also. It would definitely make the command more robust.

Best Regards,

Ricky Jordan

Paul:

I've been using the Split function to save out some or all bodies as separate files. Of course that only works for me because I get my parts solid before splitting them.

It's not a great solution, but it would work to make configs that suppress everything but the body (solid or surface) you want, and then insert the config of the part into the new part.

matt