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Grouping of parts for assembly convenience

LesB

New member
In my main assembly I have a set of components; bolt, washers and nut in this instance that are used in the same mated arrangement in lots of places in the assembly. I can't pattern as they are randomly placed.

I have been creating a sub assembly of these parts to make life easier than placing and mating the parts in all the separate locations as that would be impractical. However, this group isn't really a subassembly that I need other than for this purpose.

Is there a way of creating a temporary collection of parts like this so I can drag the group around and mate where needed? Mating each group to the relevant panel hole is relatively easy by comparison.
 
I'm a little surprised that nobody has said I've been missing a SolidWorks feature that allows groups of parts to be 'paired' for reuse throughout an assembly in the manner I describe. If it really doesn't exist then maybe it should and could be an enhancement. But there is still time for me to be corrected.

My requirement cannot be unique; how do you deal with such an issue? Do you create the necessary subassembly or just accept that you have to mate all those parts, repetativly within your main assembly?
 
Ok, so lots of views but no suggestions. I can't believe what I'm asking for is unique!
 
There's a COPY WITH MATES command that let's you copy groups of parts.

Hi Jackk.

That's not a command I've really used much at all and it's so easy to get in a rut. Now you've pointed it out to me it seems to work pretty well in my assembly.

Thanks, much appreciated.
 

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