Detailed Drawings > Annotating the Drawing > Working with Symbols > Manipulating Symbol Instances > To Update Symbols in Drawings
  
To Update Symbols in Drawings
If you change or modify a symbol instance, you may also want to update all instances of that symbol to reflect the changes throughout the current drawing. If you retrieve the new symbol from the same directory as the original symbol, the system prompts you to update the symbol instance.
If the symbols are retrieved from separate directories the new symbol is renamed.
To Update Drawing Symbols Retrieved from the Same Directory
1. On the Annotate tab, click the arrow next to Symbol, and click Symbol Gallery. The SYM GALLERY menu appears on the Menu Manager.
2. Click Redefine. The GET SYMBOL menu appears.
3. Click Retrieve. The Open dialog box opens.
4. Browse to and open the desired symbol. If the symbol file names are the same, you are prompted to update all instances.
5. Type [Y] to update all instances of the symbol in the current drawing to the most recent version. The symbols are updated throughout the current drawing.
To Update Drawing Symbols Retrieved from Different Directories
If the existing symbol instances were retrieved from a different directory than the new symbol, there are a few alternate techniques available:
• Manually replace the existing symbol instances with the new instance.
• Copy the new symbol to the directory specified in the full name of the existing instances. For example, if the full name of the existing instances is C:\PTC\files\symbols\ptc.sym, copy the new version of ptc.sym to C:\PTC\files\symbols. Ensure that the new version of the symbol has a higher revision number than the old one. The revision of each symbol is shown after the .sym extension. For example, ptc.sym.2 has a higher revision than ptc.sym.1. Then retrieve the new symbol instance.
• Write the existing symbol instances to disk in the symbol directory. On the Annotate tab, click the arrow next to Symbol, and click Symbol Gallery. The SYM GALLERY menu appears on the Menu Manager. Click Write > Pick Inst and then select an existing symbol instance. This will change the full name of the existing symbol instances to <symbol_name>.sym. Copy the new version of the symbol to the symbol directory, ensure that the new version of the symbol has a higher revision than the old one, and retrieve the new symbol instance.
• If the existing symbols were retrieved from the symbol directory and the new symbol is located elsewhere, set the symbol directory to the location of the new symbol before retrieving it.