From the Ground Up

A European perspective on design and out of the box thinking with Civil 3D.

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posted 08/20/07 by Ove Cervin Copying an Assembly
Hi everyone,
After a long vacation I'm back again and now I'm really looking forward to create a new presentation for our customers in C3D. I have so many ideas but so little time... ;-) Luckily things are quite fast to create in C3D...
I'm also working on a real project for roundabouts that's quite interesting. Always good to keep up with a proper project - not only demonstrations...

Anyway - after this summer we have now our hands on SP1 for C3D and I guess many of you have installed it.
One thing that I have noticed and heard is the occasional problems with "How to copy an Assembly".
20-1.png

If you have an Assembly on screen (containing parts of several Subassemblys) you might have noticed that these get's "arrayed" or "splitted up" if you copy them using "Copy" command?
The same happens if you drag a complete Assembly from the "Tool palette".

To get this properly done - here's the way to do it:
Save the complete Assembly in the Tool palette (as a Block) and make sure you have NOT marked "Explode" under Properties for that one.
20-2.png

If you explode it once inserted in the drawing it stays just fine.
20-3.png

If you're using "Copy". Make sure you select the Assembly marker when selecting. Not a "Window crossing" etc.

I have heard (but not yet checked) that the SA has to be created after SP1 was installed to behave like this.
I'll check that and get back here with an update.

Hope it helps someone ;-)

Cheers / Ove C

2 comments In From the Ground Up > Tips and Tricks

User Comments

  • I have attempted this several times but with no luck. Can you explain this in more detail. All I get when
    I explode is a jumble of parts.

    Thanks
    Mike

    Posted 8/21/2007 9:47 AM by Michael Smith

  • Hi Ove,
    You are right, but I have better way how to do it...

    Copying an Assembly
    1) You can select Assembly or all its Subassemblies using crossing polygon...or however, it doesnt matter...

    2) run COPY command with base source point 0,0 then again enter destination point 0,0 and ENTER

    3) Drag or move the Assembly marker to another place and finally you have the second copy...

    Making block
    1) Move the whole Assembly to 0,0 (Assembly marker)
    2) run BMAKE command with 0,0 base point (explode option is marked)
    3) Drag it to Toolpalette, with no explode option
    4) After inserting, just EXPLODE

    That is all, good luck
    Martin

    Posted 8/29/2007 2:05 AM by Martin Folber