Is there a command to go back to the last file you were in & make it work part? If there is I’d like to assign it to a function key.
Also is there a command that takes you to the next higher parent part in an assembly & make it the work part?
There is no practical way to return you back to the last work part as that information is not captured in a manner which is easy to extract (about the only place where that info might be found would be in the syslog, but extracting that in an automated fashion, on the fly, would not be very practical at all).
Now as for your second request, that's actually one in which we can help you get close to what you want.
On the Selection Bar there is a function titled 'Up One Level'. If you're working in the context of any assembly and you made a lower level component the Work Part and you would like to 'walk-up' the structure one level at a time, with the Work Part selected, press the 'Up One Level' icon and the selection highlighting will move up to the next level of the assembly. Subsequent selections of this icon will continue to move the selection highlighting up to the next level and so on. Now this will not make that next level the Work Part, but once it's highlighted, all you have to is double-click and it will be made the Work Part. While this may not be exactly what you were looking for, it can be very handy when working with complex assemblies and you wish to move quickly to the next level of the assembly without wishing to manually follow the assembly structure.
Anyway, give it try and see what you think.
John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
Product Design Solutions
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Industry Sector
Cypress, CA
Have you tried the 'Recently opened parts' button for opening the last work part. When working with TCE via the portal its a button in the portal. Otherwise you can find it under the file menu. Correct me if i'm wrong but you can assign a short cut key to it or place it in a toolbar.
Please be really careful what you wish on people here Michael. You see using the recently opened dialog would try to re-open the file. As I understand it the question relates only to swapping between opened files. So I wouldn't want people to ignore the warning messages and re-open their file at the expense of losing their work inadvertently.
Ok Hudson i understand your point, sorry if i misintrepeted the question. But if that is the case , swapping between opened files , using the 'Window' button like in any Windows based program should be sufficient enough?
That's not true. If the part file is already open, even if it has been modified and not yet saved, if you were working on another part and then used any of the mechanisms, such as 'Recently Opened Parts', 'Window' or the 'History' tab on the Resource Bar, to reselect the original part file, all that the system would do is change the one you selected to be the displayed part. It would NOT reopen the part file.
However, if you had opened an Assembly and then changed the Displayed Part to one of the Components in the assembly and then changed the Displayed Part to some other part, neither the 'Recently Opened Parts' nor the 'History' tab, would include that Component part since technically it had not been 'opened', but rather just it's displayed status had been changed. It would however appear in the list shown when selecting the 'Window' function. In fact, the 'Window' function comes closest to what is being looked for since it's the only scheme which will show ALL the files during your current session which had every been the Displayed Part (however it will not show parts which were only made a Work Part but not the Displayed Part).
John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
Product Design Solutions
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Industry Sector
Cypress, CA