Tips for replacing assembly components

In the design process, you often need to replace one or more components in an assembly or assembly pattern. You may design a placeholder component that you eventually replace with a standard purchased component, or replace one vendor's component with another.

You can select a single component or all components to replace existing assembly components regardless of their location in the directory structure. When you select a component in a pattern element, usually all occurrences of that component in the pattern are replaced. If there are multiple instances of a component in each element of an assembly pattern, not all occurrences of the component in the pattern are replaced. For example:

Example Pattern Assembly1     Component Pattern 1         Element:1             Box:1             Box:2         Element:2             Box:3             Box:4

Only Box:1 and Box:3 are replaced in the example pattern if you select Box:1 and use Replace Component from the context menu. All four occurrences, as well as any other occurrences of Box in the assembly, are replaced if you select Box:1 in the example pattern and use Replace All in the Component panel of the Assemble tab.

Note: In a networked environment, you need write permission (authority to save changes) to replace a component in the open assembly.

The new component or all occurrences of the component are placed in the same location as the original component. Assembly relationships are retained, if possible. The origin of the replacement component is coincident with the origin of the replaced component. If the replacement part has a different shape than the original, some relationships might need to be reapplied to correctly position the component.