Part III: Working with Assemblies
An inserted part is simply an entire part that has been inserted into another part. This is sometimes
referred to as a pull operation because the data is pulled from the original part into the child part.
The part may be inserted at any point in the history of the design tree, and it may create an addi-
tional body within the part or be added to the existing one. Additional features can also be added
to the inserted part.
Items that can be brought along with the inserted part are solid bodies, surface bodies, planes,
axes, sketches, cosmetic threads, and even features. You can also use a particular configuration of
the inserted part in the child part. I discuss this aspect in Chapter 14, dealing with configurations,
and also in Chapter 28, dealing with master models.
You can use inserted parts for many modeling applications, such as cast parts and secondary oper-
ations. You first insert the original cast part into a new blank part. Then you add cut and hole fea-
tures until the part resembles the finished part.
Another application for inserted parts is a single part that has been built from several models. For
example, I once worked on a large, rather complicated plastic basket, where the basket was mod-
eled as three individual parts, and then reassembled into a single part. Another application may be
to insert a part as a body into a mold block to create a mold cavity. To insert a part into another
part, you can choose Insert ➪ Part.
Understanding split parts
I discuss split parts in detail in Chapter 28, in the section about master models. Inserted and split
parts are both master model techniques, as are a few more techniques that I discuss in Chapter 28.
Some people also include in-context techniques with the master model tools because this is a way
of making several parts update together.
Split parts are sometimes called a push operation because the data is pushed from the original
multi-body part to the individual child parts. The split function takes a single body and splits it
into several bodies, optionally saving the bodies out as individual parts. This is done for various
reasons, such as creating a single, smooth shape out of several different parts; for example, auto-
mobile body panels or the various covers and buttons on a computer mouse. You can use the split
parts technique for other applications, as well. Sometimes a product is designed as a simple, single
solid to keep the modeling simple, and because it is not known how the parts will be assembled or
manufactured. When the manufacturing decisions are made, the part can be split into several mod-
els that have the engineering details added to them.
Understanding mirror parts
You can mirror a right-handed part to create a left-handed part. To activate the Mirror Part com-
mand, you must select a plane or planar face. Then choose Insert ➪ Mirror Part to initiate the
Mirror Part command.
