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First, you must have the assembly and parts open. Then, you can open Part 1 in its own window and use Save As from there, entering in the new part name and location in the Save As dialog box. Part 1 will continue to exist, but it will be replaced in the assembly with 875003 base structure.sldprt, and any changes moving forward will affect the base structure part. The actual assembly must also be saved once you have performed the Save As on Part 1. If you do not save the assembly, it will continue to remember the old part (Part 1.sldprt) instead of the new part (875003 base structure.sldprt).

If you make the name change using Windows Explorer, SolidWorks will not know anything about the name change, and the next time you open the assembly, it will tell you it can't find Part 1.sldprt, and will ask you to find it.

You can also use the Save As command on the entire assembly, changing the name of the assembly. Actually, this just makes a copy of the assembly, leaving the new copy open, and leaving the old copy behind on your hard drive, closed.

Using Save As on the assembly gives you the option to also change the names or folders of any or all of the components in the assembly. The dialog boxes for Save As and the Save As with References option are shown in Figure 13.11.

FIGURE 13.11

Saving an assembly with references applies your changes to all of the documents referenced by the assembly.

The More Options section in the Save As with References dialog box enables you to add a prefix or suffix, as well as to use a simple Find/Replace function to rename files in the list. Remember that this makes a copy of the assembly and all the parts with new names or locations.

Cross-Reference

File management issues are a great place to learn best practice rules. The SolidWorks Administration Bible has a chapter dedicated to file naming and another dedicated to file management, with best practice suggestions throughout the book.

SolidWorks users frequently use the Pack and Go tool to make a copy of an entire assembly in a new location, or to a Zip file used to transfer an assembly with all parts to someone who does not have access to the local network. Pack and Go has all of the functionality of Save As with References, as well as some additional options. You can also replace files, include drawings and simulation results, and get a quick summary on the number of parts, assemblies, and drawings that are being included. If you are not using a formal PDM application, Pack and Go can at least serve as a main copy, archive, and renaming utility. The Pack and Go window is shown in Figure 13.12.

FIGURE 13.12

Pack and Go contains most of your file management needs outside of PDM.

Replacing components

Following the philosophy that “delete is not an editing method,” SolidWorks includes a tool to replace components that is an improvement over the less graceful delete-and-add technique. When you delete a component, you lose a lot of information that you could otherwise keep. Whether you delete a sketch line, a mate, or a part in an assembly, deleting more than doubles the work you have to do. You have to do a lot of repair work after you make a deletion. The deeper into a design you are, the more data you lose when you delete something from it. Each piece of information in SolidWorks has some other piece of information attached to it. That associativity is supposed to help rather than hinder you. Learning to use the tools in the way you were meant to use them is one way to improve your efficiency with the software — so that you work with the software rather than against it.

The Replace Component tool is available from the RMB menu of any component in the assembly. Figure 13.13 shows the PropertyManager for the Replace command.

FIGURE 13.13

Replacing a component in an assembly with another component

The All Instances option is an important one. Sometimes you need to only replace one instance of a particular component with some other part. The All Instances option makes it easy and convenient to replace just what you need.

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