Fundamentals > Family Tables > Retrieving Instances > About Retrieving Instances
  
About Retrieving Instances
When you retrieve an instance, Creo Parametric opens the specified instance in a new window. When you retrieve a generic by using File > Open, Creo Parametric retrieves the instance rather than the generic into the main window. Creo Parametric regenerates the instance automatically during retrieval.
You can retrieve an instance of a family of parts or assemblies using one of the following methods:
With the generic already open and active, select the instance from the Family Table and click Open.
Open a file that contains a Family Table, select an instance from the Select Instance dialog box, and click Open.
Click File > Open. All instances for the model are listed as parts unless you explicitly set the menu_show_instance configuration option to no. Select the required instance and click Open.
Retrieving Assembly Instances
When you retrieve an assembly instance, Creo Parametric retrieves and assembles all the necessary components.
All components of the generic assembly must be accessible, that is, they must either be stored locally, or they must reside along a search path.
When you retrieve an assembly instance, Creo Parametric does not prompt for an instance name of the generic components. It places the exact component (whatever is written in the component entry) at the instance line in the Family Table.
If you set the sel_insts_on_comp_retrieval configuration file option to yes, then when you retrieve a generic, Creo Parametric prompts you to specify an instance of that generic.
Set the retrieve_instance_dependencies configuration option to an appropriate value to determine what set of objects are loaded into the session when retrieving Family Table instances with dependencies. On setting the retrieve_instance_dependencies configuration option to:
instance_deps_only—you can only retrieve an instance assembly with instance dependencies and the generic with no dependencies. The generic dependencies are never retrieved even if there are some references to them from the instance components.
Instance_req_generic—You can retrieve the instance and the required generic models along with their dependencies. Generic dependencies such as components excluded from the instance are not retrieved.
instance_and_generic_deps—This is set by default. You can retrieve instances with its dependencies and all dependencies of the generic.