An Instrumented Assembly is a type of an assembly that maintains one-way associativity with a model being instrumented. This component can be an assembly, a part, or a sheet metal part. The model being instrumented is referred to as the source model. In other words, when there are changes to the source model, the Instrumented Assembly is updated. But, when you make changes to the Instrumented Assembly, the source model is not changed. When you add components, change component placement constraints, or edit parameters you are instrumenting the assembly. Instrumentation is done using ‘Flexibility-on-the-fly’ and the differences appear in the Varied Items dialog box.

An Instrumented Assembly is used primarily for adding sensors to a model that will be used as a digital twin. A digital twin is a Creo Parametric model that is one-to-one identical to a physical instance of the model. The digital twin bridges the gap between the digital and physical. Each physical instance can have its own digital twin.

When you select the model to instrument, all components are included by default. You can exclude selected components from the instrumented assembly. Although the default for creating an Instrumented Assembly is from an assembly, you can create an Instrumented Assembly from a part. Available options appear in the Type and Sub-type lists in the Open dialog box when you create an Instrumented Assembly.

An Instrumented assembly can be assembled into another instrumented assembly. You cannot assemble an Instrumented Assembly into a Design Assembly.

In the Model Tree,