Control Deeper Layer Assembly Configurations

mike_hölscher

Hi,

I just encountered a situation where I have:

- A main assembly
- A sub assembly in the main assembly
- A size configured part in the sub assembly

I would like to have configurations in the main assembly that control which size configured part is used, while the part is in a deeper layer sub-assembly.

It seems like the only way to this now is to first make configurations in the sub-assembly for each size-configuration in the part, and then do the exact same thing again in the main assembly. That's double work. Maybe not so much work if you have only a few size configurations, but what if you have a lot?

I do not see an easy solution yet, but maybe you guys have some ideas...

lougallo

@mike_hölscher Today when you have a configured part that is referenced, then added to the sub assembly, access to the part is one layer removed from the top. This might be doable within the same document but as soon as the references are linked documents, immutable versions will not allow you to add configs to the subassembly without creating a new version.  Today this is not something we will be able to do and cascading the configurations up each level is the way it works today.

john_mcclary

mike_hölscher said:

It seems like the only way to this now is to first make configurations in the sub-assembly for each size-configuration in the part, and then do the exact same thing again in the main assembly. That's double work. Maybe not so much work if you have only a few size configurations, but what if you have a lot?

It is double work, but that is how it is in other cad packages also. Onshape at least lets you copy and paste the entire config table and paste it into your sub assemblies/part studios.

You could also just use variable configs instead of config tables in all but the main assembly if you really want an on the fly approach.

mike_hölscher

Thanks for the answers guys!

michael_joyce_badea

5 years later, I have a very similar situation to @mike_hölscher…

Is there a way to do this yet? I have 3 levels of nested assemblies and I want to control the configuration variables at the bottom level with variables at the top level. Is the only way still to manually add a copy of each configuration variable for each level of assembly and reference the previous level until I reach the top? This is going to be triple the work in my case, would love to know if this can be automated

Thanks

S1mon

As far as I know, no. It's definitely a pain point.