Often after you have built up your final machine assembly, you find that your assembly is too large and you need to break it up into sub-assemblies. You think to yourself, " To do this, I will have to build a new assembly, break out all the components in my present assembly and then place and constraint the new sub-assembly ". You could easily spent a few hours doing this task.
Inventor has a tool that will do this automatically for you and it will preserve all your assembly constraints as well. All you have to do is select the components in your new sub-assembly and execute the command.
For example, this assembly contains seven parts I needin a sub-assembly. I would like all the parts associated with the ram to be in a separate sub-assembly.
I first select all the parts for the new sub assembly either in the browser or the graphics window.
Right click, and browse to the component entry on the context menu and then to the Demote command on the fly-out.
Inventor will open the Create in Place Component dialog where you give the new sub-assembly name, the template it will use and its location. You can also declare the BOM role. Select OK to continue.
Inventor will present a "Disclamer" that you may lose some constraints but this rarely happens. Click OK to finish.
In the Browser you will find your need sub-assembly with the seven parts.
If you find you need to move a part from the sub-assembly back to the top level assembly you have two options. Select the part, right click and under the Component entry, select the Promote command or simply drag the part from the sub-assembly into the top level assembly.
This tool works as described in Inventor 2010 thru 2012. It is available in earlier versions of Inventor but it will lose the three assembly constraints between the new sub-assembly and the top level assembly. Even with three assembly constraints, you will save a large amount of time.
Is it possible to include work plane(s) when using Demote? Thanks.
Posted by: Devin | 10/08/2014 at 01:00 PM
Devin,
Workplanes are a part of the subassembly and/or parts that you are demoting or promoting in the assembly. They are will remain with the objects as the operation occurs. If you need extra workplanes in an part of your assembly, you will have to edit the part and add desired workplanes. You may be confusing this Inventor function with Derive Part where you can specify if workplanes are included.
Posted by: John Hackney | 10/08/2014 at 01:13 PM
The discolsure is very accurate.
EVERYTIME I use this command it crashes inventor.
I cannot use thiscommand ever.
Posted by: scott williams | 02/25/2015 at 10:34 AM
Scott,
You did not mention the Iventor version you are using but in any case, I would seek help with this issue. You can either contact your reseller, Autodesk Subscription help or Imaiginit support at 888-528-4765.
Posted by: John Hackney | 02/25/2015 at 10:40 AM