If you have spent anytime with assembly configurations in SW 2007, you would know how many steps it took to set up components for each configuration. Then if the component had configurations as well, it added even more steps. I don’t want to go on about some of the horror stories I have encountered but I will say that it is enough to cause most CAD administrators to shutter. With SW 2008 configuring components for assemblies got a heck of a lot easier.

In the assembly FeatureManager, when you right click on the component you will notice a new addition to the menu. Configure Component is a new window interface that allows for quickly setting up your components in assemblies.

In our example we have an assembly with three components. The assembly has three dash number configurations and one of the components, P1234, has three configurations as well. By right-clicking the component P1234 and selecting Configure Component we are able to modify the configuration in one step. For our example assembly, A4321, we want the component configurations to match up with the assembly configurations. The Configurations column in the Modify Configurations window allows us to select which component configuration will be used for each assembly configuration.

If desired, we can also select our component to be suppressed in the -003 configuration of the assembly. Add a checkmark in the Suppress column for each configuration you want the component to be suppressed.

One nice feature of the Modify Configurations window is that we can add a new assembly configuration and configure the selected component in one place. Just click the area labeled <Creates a new configuration.> and type in the new configuration name.

When all the changes have been made to component we can rebuild the current or all configurations while still in the Modify Configurations window.

I hope this new tool will make configuring components in an assembly easier for you. When you are flying through setting up your assembly, I hope you think of me.

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