Interface > Importing and Exporting Files > Importing Assembly Data > About the Selective Import of Assembly Data
  
About the Selective Import of Assembly Data
When you import assemblies with Associative Topology Bus (ATB) enabled, you can choose the level of detail for the representation of the Translated Image Models (TIMs). You can selectively import the product structures of the assemblies with or without their display data while you can import full and complete assemblies by default.
Select one of the following Representation options on the Import New Model dialog box for the selective import of assembly data:
Master—Imports the geometric and non-geometric data of the assemblies and displays the full representation of the TIM assemblies. This is the default.
Graphic—Imports the display data of the assemblies with their product structures.
Structure—Imports the product structures and the meta data of the assemblies.
If you set Representation as Structure for the initial import of the assemblies, you can thereafter change the representation of the TIM assemblies and their components from product structures without display data to product structures with display data and their master or full representation. If you set Representation as Graphic in the Import New Model dialog box, you can import the visualization data of the assemblies with their product structures and change their graphic representation to their full representation. You can change the level of detail of the TIM assemblies or vary the level of detail of the TIM components to have a selective mix of product structure and graphic representations of components within the assemblies.
The level of content detail is stored as the ATB information of the TIM components. Therefore, you can use the Read Graphics and Read Master ATB commands to switch from the product structure and meta data content details to the graphic and master representations of the TIMs at the component or the assembly level.
 
* Changing the content level details of the TIM assemblies and components is a one-way process. You can switch from the product structure representation of the assemblies and components to their graphic representation and from the graphic representation to their master representation. The reverse process, however, is not valid. That is, you cannot switch from the master representation of the TIM assemblies and components to their graphic or their product structure representation. The product structure representation is the lowest level of detail.
If you set Representation as Structure for the assembly model in the Import New Model dialog box, the Read Graphics and Read Master commands are available on the Associative Topology Bus menu or from Model > Operations > ATB. You can select and right-click a TIM component on the Model Tree and access Read Graphics and Read Master on the Associative Topology Bus menu to change the content level details of the TIM component from product structure to display data and display data to the full representation of the TIM, respectively. You can also use Read Master without using Read Graphics and directly change the content details of the TIM component from product structure to its full representation. You can, alternatively, select a TIM component and click Model > Operations > ATB to access the Read Graphics and Read Master commands. However, if you set the model Representation as Graphic in the Import New Model dialog box, only Read Master is available on the Associative Topology Bus menu.
The Read Graphics and the Read Master ATB commands are only available for up-to-date dependent TIM parts and assemblies. If you use these ATB commands at the TIM assembly level, the change in the level of detail is recursively applied to all components of the TIM assemblies.