Deriving an Assembly from a Multibody Part
Similar to the way you can create a part from a body in a multibody part, you can create multiple parts from multiple geometric bodies of the same part and add them to an assembly. You can add the parts to a new assembly, to the assembly owner of the multibody part, or to a different, existing, assembly. This process supports both standalone multibody parts and multibody parts in an assembly
Multibody parts can serve as master models to capture design intent and drive the creation of new parts in a small assembly. This increases design efficiency, especially for top-down design workflows. The source multibody part can be a solid part, a skeleton part, or a Sheetmetal part. All information in this topic applies equally to all types of multibody parts, unless specific details are provided. For more information on skeleton models, click the Related Link at the end of the topic.
Adding the New Parts to a New Assembly
1. To select bodies from a multibody part, follow one of the procedures below:
◦ To select the bodies from an open multibody part, follow one of these methods:
▪ Click > 
Save As > 
Save as Assembly.
Save As > Save as Assembly.▪ In the Model Tree, expand the Design Items node, and then expand the Bodies node. Select the bodies to include in the assembly, right-click and select 
Assembly from Bodies.
Assembly from Bodies.The Assembly from Bodies dialog box opens.
◦ To select the bodies from a multibody part in an assembly follow these steps:
a. Select the multibody part in the Model Tree, expand the Design Items node, and then expand the Bodies node.
b. Select the bodies to add to an assembly. You can only select bodies from one multibody part.
c. Right-click and select Assembly from Bodies. The Assembly from Bodies dialog box opens.
Assembly from Bodies. The Assembly from Bodies dialog box opens.2. To change the default name of the assembly, type a new name in the File name box.
3. To give the new assembly a common name, type a name in the Common name box.
4. To create the assembly using the default options, click OK. The new assembly opens in a new window.
5. To create the assembly and change the default options, click Advanced. The Create Parts from Bodies component chooser dialog box opens.
Adding the New Parts to a Selected Assembly
When the multibody part is placed in an assembly, you can add the selected bodies as new parts to the parent assembly or to a different assembly. By default, the new parts are added to the parent assembly and placed in the location of the source part, but you can change their location.
The following applies when you add bodies as parts to an assembly:
• When you create a new assembly from a multibody part or choose not to use associative placement to place the new parts in an existing assembly, the new parts are placed using the Default constraint. You can edit their placement definitions to change the constraints. Parts created from multibody skeleton parts do not use associative placement and are always at the top of the Model Tree.
• When you use associative placement, the new parts are placed with respect to the source part’s placement.
• Solid bodies use Copy Geometry features to copy the body geometry. Sheet metal bodies use Inheritance features to copy sheet metal bodies.
• By default, construction bodies are not copied, but you can explicitly include them.
• By default, the bodies from the multibody part drive dependent parts. You can, however, set the Update Control type to No dependency using the Update Control Options.
Adding the New Parts to an Existing Assembly
There are two main use cases for adding bodies as parts to an existing assembly:
• In a master model design, the skeleton part is the first component in the assembly. Based on this skeleton part, new parts are created in the target assembly driven by the bodies in the skeleton part.
• An assembly was created from a multibody part and new bodies are added to that multibody part. You can add the new bodies as new parts to the existing assembly that was created from the original multibody part.
1. To select bodies from a multibody part, follow one of the procedures below:
◦ To select the bodies from an open multibody part, follow one of these methods:
▪ Click > Save As > Save as Assembly.
Save As > Save as Assembly.▪ In the Model Tree, expand the Design Items node, and then expand the Bodies node. Select the bodies to include in the assembly, right-click and select Assembly from Bodies.
Assembly from Bodies.The Assembly from Bodies dialog box opens.
◦ To select the bodies from a multibody part in an assembly follow these steps:
a. Select the multibody part in the Model Tree, expand the Design Items node, and then expand the Bodies node.
b. Select the bodies to add to an assembly. You can only select bodies from one multibody part.
c. Right-click and select Assembly from Bodies. The Assembly from Bodies dialog box opens.
Assembly from Bodies. The Assembly from Bodies dialog box opens.2. To add bodies to an existing assembly, click Existing. By default, the current assembly is selected, and the Associative placement checkbox is selected.
3. Clear the Associative placement checkbox to place the new parts using the Default placement constraint. When placement is associative the new parts are placed with respect to the source part position. When the component placement of the source part changes, the new parts associatively follow.
4. To move the new parts to a different subassembly, select the subassembly in the Model Tree. The assembly name updates with the name of the subassembly in the box.
5. To add the bodies to a different assembly that is not in the context of the source assembly, click 
, browse to the required file and click Open.
, browse to the required file and click Open.6. To change the default options, click Advanced. The Create Parts from Bodies component chooser dialog box opens.
 | When the target assembly is an inseparable assembly, the new parts are embedded in the assembly. |
Setting Advanced Options
When you click Advanced, the Create Parts from Bodies component chooser dialog box opens. Follow these steps to set advanced options:
1. To filter the bodies displayed in the Model Tree of the Create Parts from Bodies dialog box, click the arrow next to Show and choose the items to display.
2. To find a body in the Model Tree, type the name in the Find box. As you type, the bodies that contain the letters you entered highlight in the tree.
3. Select a checkbox to include a body or clear a checkbox to exclude a body.
4. To include construction bodies, you must display them in the Model Tree. Select the checkbox of a construction body to include it in the assembly.
5. To change the default names of the new parts, click the name in the New File Name cell, type a new name, and press ENTER.
6. To change the default Type of a sheet metal body, click 
(inheritance) and select 
(copy geometry). The sheet metal body is copied as a solid part.
(inheritance) and select (copy geometry). The sheet metal body is copied as a solid part.7. To change the common name of the new part, click the name in the Common Name cell, type a new name, and press ENTER.
8. Select a template for the new parts from the Part Template options:
◦ Use default template (default)—Uses the default templates set for your models.
◦ Use source part properties—Applies the properties, units and accuracy, of the original part to each copied part.
| | The part properties option is based on the default template and is not available when the default template is not well defined. |
◦ Select a template part—Browse to select a Part Template part and/or a Sheet Metal Template part for your solid parts and sheet metal parts, respectively.
9. Continue to set properties and options as described in the next section or click OK to complete the configuration. The new assembly opens in a new window, or the new parts appear in the Model Tree of the assembly, depending on your use case.
Setting Options for Properties and Update Control
To set the options for the part properties and for assembly update control, follow the steps below.
1. In the Create Parts from Bodies dialog box, click Options. The options display.
2. Click Properties. By default, all properties are included when you create the new parts. Clear the checkboxes of properties that you do not want to include in the new parts.
3. Click Update Control to control how the new assembly updates when the original multibody part is modified. Choose from the following options:
◦ Automatic update (default)—Keeps the dependency between the assembly and the original multibody part. When the multibody part is updated, the assembly is updated.
◦ Manual update—Suspends the dependency between the assembly and the original multibody part. When the original part changes, the assembly does not change. You can update the assembly if the original multibody part is in session.
◦ Manual update with notification—As with Manual update the dependency between the assembly and multibody part is suspended, but when you choose this option, you receive a notification when the original multibody part is modified. This option is relevant only for parts created using Copy Geometry features. Parts created using Inheritance features, have basic manual update without notification.
◦ No dependency—Creates independent parts that do not update when the original bodies change.