About Editing a Part in Part Builder

As your design develops and parts change, you can edit parts using Part Builder.

You can change the part behavior and part size parameters. For parts you created using Part Builder, you can also change the part model, including geometry, profiles, modifiers, constraints, and dimensions. You can use the same procedures that guide you through creating a part to modify it. You can also delete parts that you no longer need. Deleting parts can be helpful when creating custom catalogs to ensure that all associated definition files are managed correctly.

This section outlines how you can modify a part and provides references to the related procedures that you can use to make changes.

When making changes to a part, refer to the illustration in About Modeling a Part in Part Builder. This illustration shows the relationship dependencies between features that must be maintained to ensure you are creating a usable part.

Modifying the Part Configuration

You can change the part configuration that controls the behavior of and defines the characteristics of the part. In the part browser, expand Part Configuration and change the part type or subtype. For more information, see About Part Configuration in Part Builder.

Modifying the Part Model

For parts that you created using Part Builder, you can change the model parameters that define the overall size of the model. You can change the geometry, dimensions, and constraints of the model.

You can add, modify, or remove geometry in the model; however, you must append the changed geometry to the profile in order for Part Builder to update the model and assign new geometric constraints.

You can also change the parametric relationships of model elements by modifying the geometric and dimension constraints. Because constraints control the overall shape of the model, you cannot safely make changes until you know the current constraints applied to the model. You can delete an unwanted constraint or add new constraints to reshape the sketch.

Part Builder’s parametric commands ensure that relationships among geometric elements remain intact; however, after changes are made to the model you should re-examine the geometric constraints and dimensions to verify that nothing else in the model needs to be updated.

Modifying Part Sizes

You can change the model dimensions of the part that determine the overall size of the model, such as length and width. You can also change individual size parameters for a specific part size. For example, you can change a constant size parameter value to a list of values. For more information, see To Add Model Dimensions in Part Builder and To Add Individual Part Sizes in Part Builder.

Modifying the Preview Image or Part Insertion Behaviors

You can change the preview image by selecting a different view direction that Part Builder uses to generate the preview image. For more information, see To Generate a Preview Image of a Part in Part Builder.

You can change the insertion configuration of the part that defines the placement point of a part in a drawing. For more information, see To Define the Part Insertion Position in Part Builder.