Family tables are collections of similar parts, assemblies, or features but may differ slightly in one or two aspects, such as size or detail features. Family tables enable you to use standardized components by representing the part inventory in Creo Parametric. You can also easily interchange parts and subassemblies in an assembly, because instances from the same family are automatically interchangeable with each other.

You can use family tables in Creo NC to change dimensions, features, components, parameters, groups, and pattern tables in the manufacturing model and quickly generate a family of parts as follows:

If you add an NC step to the family table, its child features are managed automatically. They are suppressed when the step is not included in a particular instance, and resumed when it is.

In a family table, you can use the feature-level parameters PTC_MFG_PRM_CL_FILE and PTC_MFG_PRM_PARTNO for all NC sequence and operation features. These parameters correspond to the NCL_FILE and PARTNO manufacturing parameters, respectively. Changes in the table to the values of any of these parameters result in a change in the corresponding parameter. The PTC_MFG_PRM_CL_FILE parameter is used to change the name of the CL file. The value of PTC_MFG_PRM_PARTNO determines the PARTNO/<value> statement in the CL data for an NC sequence or operation.