Breaking External References?

[bsol]

I have made a new assembly. All parts in the assembly are made new just for the assembly, with the exception of one part. When I add this part and try to sketch on it using the other parts as references, I get the following message:

"This part has features defined in the context of another assembly <oldassembly>. You can edit the part, but cannot create any external references to the components of the current assembly."

Is there a way I can break all external references from this part so that the part with be defined in my new assembly?

Thanks yall!

 

[ShaggyPE]

There are two things you can do:

1. There is a setting in tools>options>system options>external references

* allow multiple contexts for parts when editing in an assembly

2. Go to the part that has the external reference and find the feature(s) that have a little > next to them. This indicates an external reference. Right click on the feature and list external refs. Within this dialog you can break or delete the references. If you break them, SW may still not allow you to make incontext edits to it due to #1.


I would probably change the setting of #1. Though that can open a can of worms. With great power comes great responsibility.

-Dustin
Professional Engineer
Certified SolidWorks Professional
Certified COSMOSWorks Designer Specialist
Certified SolidWorks Advanced Sheet Metal Specialist
Certified SolidWorks Advanced Weldment Specialist

 

[drawoh]

bsol,

Open your new part and look at the feature tree. Any features externally referenced, will be marked with an arrow thussly -> .

You need to edit these features and remove the external references. When you remove them all, you can edit the part in your new context.

When you finalize your design, you should localize all the external references of your fabricated parts. This prevents the problem you just described. Also, it prevents your parts from changing dynamically in RAM without affecting the read-only original. This can be a very nasty mess.

JHG

 

[drawoh]

bsol,

If your link is to a drawing you do not have loaded, I believe it is marked thussly -?

JHG