Can a part be changed to instance??

[leemcdermott]

Hi all,


I have a couple of similar parts that were created years ago within Pro/e. We now have a situation where we want to create a whole load more of these similar parts (only one dimension differs!)- and a family table seems like the best method. Can these two older parts be modified to become an instance within the new family table?? The old parts are in intralink commonspace and used within a few different assemblies. We're on wildfire 2.0 and intralink 3.4 running on a UNIX system. Deleting the old parts from intralink is not an option - even if they are not used anywhere (IT admins rules!!)


Hope you can understand my problem,


Regards, Lee

 

[Isair]

I don't think that is possible to set one part that is instance of family table of another part.
But what you can do is to create new part, or from one of existing part create family table, and then those parts that you wanted to become instances, replace in assembly and whatever else they are with instances from this new family table.

I hope this helps

 

[looslib]

This only works with Intralink 3.x. Windchill-based solutions do not permit these operations.


You can create a family table from your parts.


Create the new instances, with a dummy name for the original. Rename the original file to a new name ans then rename the dummy instance to the original name. If this doesn't work, Then create a new family table and add the existing part number to the table and it will become an instance.

 

[leemcdermott]

Hi, thanks for your responses. I'm not sure I understand your answers correctly, or if you have understood my initial question fully. I'll try and re-write.


I have a family table of about 30 instances. 2 of these instances have appeared with "Same name exists" warning in my intralink workspace. Sure enough these two items exist in commonspace as parts in their own right - and in assembiles of their own. Possibly modelled in a slightly different fashion.


What happens to these existing parts when I check-in my generic and instances??


Will checking out the assemblies where the two existing parts are used overwrite my workspace instance versions??


Should I just delete these two instances from the family table and leave them out of this product grouping??


Regards,


Lee

 

[vlad1979]

If you get "same name exists" in workspace you will not be able to check-in your instances.


To be able to check-in your family table with these instances you should rename the others in commonspace to whatever. But this will not replace the old parts in the assemblies with the new instances.


You will have to replace theparts in those assemblies with the new instancesmanually.

 

[leemcdermott]

Thanks Vlad.


I'll give that a try - not sure if my CAD admin will like or allow me to rename things in the commonspace however as I know he's been concerned in the past about untidy metadata stuff been left around from renames etc......


Thanks,


Again

 

[pjw]

Yes you can make a standalone part become a family table memeber. Check-out your part to a Workspace. Open up your generic and add the part to the family table. Save. You may get a warning telling you the part already existsand do you want to overwrite it.


In the same fashion, you can also make instances become standalone parts. Open the instance, open the generic (it will be in session) and delete the instance from the family table. The part will now still be in session but will be standalone.


Be careful with how you handle assemblies which use the part. What I sometimes have to do is temporarily rename the now standalone part in session to the name of the old generic it was under, add the part to the family table so that the assembly can open it up, replace the instance for the generic, delete the family table erase the instance from session and rename the part back to what it should be.Then save your assembly. You can do virtually anything with Intralink 3.0. It's great. Surface references, axes, datum planes should not be problems for references since they should remain what they were prior to breaking off from a family table.

 

[SayWhatEh]

Is there anyone that has done anything like this with windchill pdmlink 7??? This is something I have to solve eventually...


Anyone?

 

[SayWhatEh]

Echo echo.......echo....