I have a very large assembly. I want to explode it, save it, then edit it later. How?

gary_chapman

Can I use ex refs in Solid works assemblies?

alnis

To clarify, is what you want to do:

1. Import a SolidWorks assembly
2. Create an exploded view
3. Update the import with a newer version (that was edited in SolidWorks)
4. Have the exploded view continue working

If so, the import & explode process should all work normally (an imported assembly is still an assembly), but once you update the assembly, things may move out of place depending on the types of edits you made. For a smaller assembly, you could import everything into one part studio and group it, but this will be too slow on a large assembly.

Could you please clarify a bit more about:

• Do you want to edit the assembly in SolidWorks or Onshape?
• How many unique parts and how many total parts is the assembly?
• Are you planning on adding mates to define the motion of the assembly in Onshape, or will it just be a static view-only sort of thing?