About Assembly Family Tables
An assembly Family Table represents the design optional deviations, or a family of similar assemblies. All items that can be added to the part Family Table can also be added to the assembly Family Table. In addition, you can add assembly components to the assembly Family Table. You can assign simplified representations to assembly Family Table instances. Each component in the assembly model is displayed according to its simplified representation status.
Use the Replace command to substitute instances from the same assembly Family Table. The following rules apply:
• Every member entry must contain a Y indicating that the member is present, an N indicating that it is absent, or the actual name of a replacement member.
• When a member is omitted from an instance of an assembly, it is still placed in the instance. This ensures that other parts attached to it can still be placed. However, the omitted member is not displayed, nor is it considered during mass property calculations.
• Members being replaced with one another in an instance must be interchangeable. That is, they must be instances from the same part or assembly family, or they must both be included in the same interchange group. Otherwise, the replacement member can not be positioned automatically; you have to position it manually. Note, too, that relationships between parts may need updating.
• If the instances of a family of assemblies use instances of other families as components, and the names of the component instances are entered in the Family Table of the assembly, the names of the component instances must be present in an instance index file in order to be assembled. This also applies to component instances for which the generic models are members of an interchangeability group.
Values of Family Table Component Items
Instances of assemblies differ from their generics in the values of their Family Table-driven items. The item that is specific to assemblies is the member, or component, item. In the instance cell of a component item, in a Family Table, you can specify the following two categories of values:
• Boolean value, which has the following possible values:
◦ Y—Resume even if suppressed at the generic
◦ N—Suppress even if resumed at the generic
◦ *—Whatever is in the generic
• Name—a solid name. If that solid is a generic, and it is to be replaced through a Family Table, the solid of the component of the generic.
◦ If that solid is not a Family Table-driven solid assembly or part, you can simply retrieve it and replace it in the generic.
◦ If that solid is a generic, you are prompted whether you want an instance of that generic.
◦ If that solid is an instance name, the instance index file is searched to determine if that solid is listed. If so, it is retrieved.
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 The solids in session are referred to first, even if they have no solid file, and their instances are visible even if there is no IDX file. |