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This gives Insert Into New Part both advantages and disadvantages when compared to Insert Part. The advantages are that it can selectively insert either solid or surface bodies, or even selections of both types. You can Ctrl+select multiple bodies (solid and/or surface) to bring only the bodies forward that you need. However, it cannot bring forward planes or axes, or change the selection of what is brought forward after you create the feature. You also cannot use it to add a body to an existing part file; you can only use it to create new documents. This is definitely a good news/bad news situation, but with this information, you can make a more informed decision about which function to use.

When you use Insert Into New Part to place bodies into a part, the bodies are not shown in the same way that the Insert Part function shows them. Figure 19.5 shows that the Stock feature symbols are used rather than the Inserted Part symbol.

Keep in mind that if this feature loses its referenced bodies, they cannot be reattached. This means that you cannot intentionally replace a body. For most users, neither situation (lost references or the need to replace bodies) should arise often, if at all, but it may still be a roadblock when implementing this function.

FIGURE 19.5

Bodies placed in a part using Insert Into New Part

Using Push Functions

Push functions are initiated from the master model (parent document) and push data from the parent part out to a child part. A feature in the tree of the parent identifies the point at which the model is pushed out to the child, and the child file can be found from the parent. These options combine to give the push functions better overall control than the pull functions; however, there might be other factors that are more important.

The first feature in the child part is a Stock feature and contains a reference back to the parent, so that the parent can be found from the child. The features that fall into this category are Split and Save Bodies. The bidirectional identification of the source (parent) and target (child) of the feature offers a distinct advantage over the Pull functions, which do not allow you to identify the child from the parent document.

Working with the Split feature

The Split feature has three functions, two of which are plainly visible and one that is hidden. Its main function is of course to split a body into multiple bodies. It can also save the bodies out to individual parts. The hidden function is that it can then create an assembly, and reassemble the individual parts back into a complete assembly where all the parts are placed in their original relationships to one another. The Split PropertyManager is shown in Figure 19.6.

Splitting a body

The primary function of the Split feature is to split a single solid body into multiple bodies. You do this with sketches, planes, or surface bodies. The Split feature can save both the preexisting bodies and any bodies that result from the split as individual part files using the Stock feature as the initial feature in the part.

FIGURE 19.6

The Split PropertyManager

Assigning names automatically

The ability to save solid bodies out to part files directly from the lower half of the Split PropertyManager caused some serious file management problems in earlier versions of SolidWorks. Fortunately, recent versions of SolidWorks have removed most of the bugs from this complex feature.

When you save the bodies out to individual part files, SolidWorks automatically assigns names for the parts. These names take the form of .sldprt. You can manually assign names either in the lower half of the Split PropertyManager or in callouts on the screen. You can change the names later if necessary. Features added to the parts created from the Split feature should update correctly when you rename the parts in the Split feature.

One drawback of creating parts using the Split feature is that you cannot insert the body geometry at any point