Replacing external references

[Azuka]

Hi,
I have an assembly containing a part that has features referenced to the assembly's skeleton model. I some how made a mistake by inserting the part directly into the assembly. I need to insert the part in a sub-assembly that will be inserted in my top-level assembly.
Can anyone suggest a way to replace my part without suspending its references?

[street_preacher]

First I would edit the dimension scheme of the feature referenced to the skeleton using "Edit Dimensions" or just change the references with "Edit References" in the right click menu. Change the references to the part first will make it much easier since your current references will still be available. If you use "Edit References" be sure you understand the reference structure beforehand to correctly position the feature with the new references. After the references are changed to something more portable, use "Restructure" in the Edit drop down menu to move the part to the correct assembly. You will most likely want to change the assembly references once you have it in the correct assembly structure to something that makes more sense for the new location (i.e., orientation plane reference changed from sub-assembly plane to higher level assembly plane).

[Gearbox]

A potential problem with moving a part DOWN to a sub-assembly with restructure is that you MAY have to have the upper level assembly in memory to open the sub-assembly. Because I don't know how references to skeletons behave in this instance. Certainly, if you have other types of references (such as placement datums) to the upper level assembly, you will not be able to open the sub-assembly by itself. Moving parts UP to a higher level assembly never causes a problem.