sub assemby part selection

I most often I build up a product starting with one part and building around
it. These parts will be cut and fixed together. Many of the parts will be
combined into sub assemblies as well.

Is there a way to pick the parts in this master assembly and group them into
sub-assemblies, or do I have to form the sub-assemblies manually by
dragging the discreet parts into new assembly drawings?

I'm not sure what version you are running, but this task is even easier in SW 2006:


In the Feature Manager Design Tree, select the components you wish to form into a new subassembly then clickInsert>Component>Assembly from [Selected] Component... or right click and select 'Insert New Sub-Assembly'. You will be prompted to enter the name and save the new sub assembly.


Once the sub-assembly is there, you can also move components in and out of it simply by dragging the components within the design tree.


Hope this helps.


Jake

Yep. Lets say you have a main assembly that is made up of 8 parts. Try to open one part, hit CTRL+A, then before doing anything just click the green check mark and it will place your part in the model space. Then just save the assembly as whatever you want and close it. Now go back to your main assembly, go to the Feature manager design tree. Now right click the part that you placed in the assembly you just saved, now scroll down the menu that pops up and find "Replace components", you may have to hit the double arrow at the bottom of the menu to reveal more options. Once you click on "Replace components". Now in the property manager on the right side that pops up, the name of the component you selected should be in the "Replace these component(s):" box, then below that click "browse" in the "with this one:" field, navigate to your assembly you just saved. Now you have a subassembly inside your main assembly. Now all you have to do is go to the feature manager design tree and click on the name of the component you want included into the subassembly you just made and drag the name into that sub assembly. It should drop the components into the subassembly with out actually "physically" moving them.


Hope that helps.

Paul