Hello All,
So quick background which you can skip to next paragraph if not interested. My company will make parts that use certain features in common across multiple parts. The way we go about this is by having a part library, using Insert>Part inside the model we want the features and then using the Combine feature. This is great as it saves design/modelling time while still keeping proper association.
Currently the issue I am having is that the part I am inserting has 2 configurations each of which need to be shown in the model in configurations created there as well. The problem I am having is it seems once you insert the part into the model, whatever configuration it was in at the time it's stuck that way. When I go to Configure feature the only option I get is to suppress or un-suppress and not to actually set the model to the other configuration. What I have done in the past to get around this was to simply insert the part into the model twice, once for option A and then again for option B & having them suppressed or un-suppressed respectively. The problem this time around is that, although I tried to avoid it to the best of my abillity, there is some integration geometry that has to be added after these parts are inserted. Sure I could also re-create all the same features for both & then make equations to guarantee that they always stay identical but this would be needlessly complex and time consuming.
I am using SolidWorks 2012 and wondering if there is any way I can configure an inserted part other than just off/on?
~Eric
SolidworksParts And Features