Assembly Configurations: Parent Child Options

I was asked one day…is there a way to automatically create a
new component configuration when creating an assembly configuration? The answer
is yes.

This can be accomplished by the use of the “Parent
/ Child Options” under the assembly configuration manager”. You will see these
options during the creation of a new configuration in an assembly.

 

In this example, I have created an assembly layout of a 5 X
5 square. I have inserted a new component with a midplane extrusion to the
sketch vertices. (this will control the extrusion depth for my configurations)

 

Now it is time to create the new assembly configuration…and
also at the same time, create new configurations of our component.

During the creation of the new assembly configuration,
select your Parent / Child Options and expand your assembly. You will have the options
to select the components that you would like to add new configurations to:

 

Now you can make your new configuration changes.

Here I have edited my layout sketch from 5 X 5 to 10 X 5

As you see, the components have updated to the new length.

 

 

Now, opening the part, you will see the new configuration
has been created.

 

Of course this is a very basic example, but hopefully it can
cut down on design time for some of us.