Re-ordering Products

You are correct, that will break the links (if they're Contextual). The Context in contextual links is the Product Structure which was loaded at the time the links were created. When you change the product structure, you break the links (actually, they aren't really broken, they are only broken in the context of the new assembly structure).

You can, however, re-define the context for these links. With the top level assembly curent, and in Assembly Design, right click on the part and select Components, Define Contextual Links. From the Pop-up window, simply select OK and it should re-define the Context. Your best indication that it worked is the the gear in the icon of the part (in the tree) changes from Brown to Green. If this doesn't work (and I have seen it fail), you can Isolate the part and then replace the individual Isolated External Reference elements with newly linked elements (this usually isn't too bad on a small to medium sized part).

Good Luck

my understanding is the problem is from adding the subproduct to your structure. Just reordering the parts to C-A-B wouldn't cause any problems.

is this right, Jim?

Thanks for the tips Jim.

Unfortunately, I still can not get it to work and isolating is not really an option do to the complexity of my model.

If possible, could you let me know the exact procedure that you would use on my example. i.e. how to move the models to the subproduct (copy-paste, cut/paste etc...)

On a more general note, why is it not possible to simply change the pointed document in Edit_Links? I just get the error message "Impossible to replace link from contextual import".

Also, with the Components_Define-Contextual-Links mentioned by Jim, how do you get more than one context in the "Context to replace by this one" drop down box?

A Contextually linked part may only have one "Definition Context".

The process that I would use to re-arrange your assembly is exactly the one you used - Insert the new Product, Cut the 2 parts from the top product (and it will squawk at you that they contain Contextual Links), and paste them into the new product.

Then I right click on the first contextual part, select Components, Define Contextual Links, and select OK. This seems to work most of the time for re-defining the Context. When it doesn't work, I usually have to resort to the Isolate and Replace method. I know this can be a pain in complex models. As a general rule of thumb, I try to restrict the multi-model links to the absolute minimum required just to simplify this. I also make sure that I am only linking to elements that I have re-identified (i.e. Side Plane, not Plane.238) so that I can figure out later what I did.

I have not been able to see the "Context to replace..." drop down do anything. It would seem to be logical, but I just can't seem to get it to work the way I would expect. In R9 or R10, the selection was Components, Re-define Context. This was much more intuitive than we have today in R12.

Hi,

You have:

Product X
+-Part A
+-Part B
+-Part C

you have a contextual link A-B in product X, so try :

Product Y
+-Product X
| +-PartA
| +-PartB
+-PartC

so you keep the link in Product X.

Eric N.

catiav5@softhome.net

Thanks itsmyjob, that method did save a few link reconnects, but my real model is a lot more complex than my example.

However, here is a solution. The links need to be Published for it to work:

1) copy PartA and paste "as specified in part doc" into subassy.

2) repeat for PartB.

3) right click on original PartA, go to Representations and "Deactivate Node".

4) repeat for original PartB

5) right click on new PartB, go to Components and "Define Contextual Links".

6) Press OK in the popup box.

7) An update is then required.

8) delete the original Parts.

It does not seem to matter which product is current during the above operations.