HI

I am new to this forum and this is my first post, I really wouldn't know how to find the imformation I require as the question is not regarding a specific tool, I have a mechanical drawing which is very large and would like to know how to best arrange parts into blocks and groups etc so i can use seperate drawing files to speed up access. I have made individual parts as blocks and used the drafting pallet to get various views to layout in my 2D drawings for these parts, my problem comes when I need to combine these parts into sub assemblys and complete assemblys for assembly drawings, this means I cannot select individual items for part drawings as they are now assemblys and I can not use the drafting pallet while in the edit block mode, as my drawings end up being too large I also need to combine these sub assemblys in another drawing file, this explanation is probably a bit confusing, I guess I just have a few hundred parts which I think is too much for one drawing file and I need to do individual part drawings as well as sub assembly and full assembly drawings and would just like a brief explanation if possible on how best to arrange blocks, groups and drawing files etc to make it reasonably easy to add parts to a sub assembly drawing while still keeping the ability to select each item individually for individual part drawings, I know i haven't explained this very well but maybe somebody can understand  ,
I am using TC20 Professional Platinum Edition Version 20.2 64 Bit
Any help would be appreciated.

Mike.

Two things I would suggest:
1. Make sure all your objects are on Layer 0 before formatting them into a Block or Group.  Otherwise, turning off the visibility of a component layer can remove unintended portions of your drawing (or you may want this, but you should still consider it before defining your objects).

2. Once you have created Block objects that you want to use in multiple files, they can be saved in a separate file and accessed using the External Reference capability (Format / Create External Reference).  Use the Help file (Online or Disk-based) to get some basic instructions.


Jeff

You have stumbled on an issue that IMSI needs to address. TC really needs associative components. Even SketchUp has them. I thank Jeff for his input. I will try that myself on a structural steel assembly I am fighting.

I would guess that my drawings are not as complicated as yours, but they often contain many individual parts.
I create each part on its own layer and switch visibility on and off as required. 2D parts used to construct 3D parts are kept in their own layers.
Each part can be put into the drafting pallet and entered into drawing pages, as needed, and complete or partial assemblies can be viewed by varying the visibility of the appropriate layers.
Exploded views are created by copying the constituent parts to different layers and moved as appropriate, but my use of exploded views is rather minimal..

Thank you all for your replys, I will try the External ref capability that you have suggested Jeff as soon as I get a chance, for now I will try to make each part in its own file so I can do individual part drawings and then copy these blocks to another file to combine for partial assembly drawings and then these partial assembly blocks to another file for full assembly, then if I update drawings I can take the new part blocks into the sub assembly file and replace blocks then to the full assembly drawings and replace the block, I understand I will have to update the drafting views and partial assembly/ full assembly drawings but my file will just be too large with all of the paper space drawings if I do I do it any other way I think, I am new to this and have been learning to use this program myself but can not find much in help topics regarding this so will just have to work through it and see what works best but I will certainly try as you have suggested, thank you again for your help.

Regards
Mike.

Hey Mike thanks for posting on this topic, for me it was a mistake not to look into xRefs some time back and Ive been fighting large size  mechanical drawings for some time. But after reading your post the penny just dropped, that using xRefs has many benefits and more.

FWIW, I was constantly trying to reduce the file size of a drawing ( 95mb) but having little success and for those that have been using TCW for years know ( I didnt) that xRefs save on the total file size big time. But theres more, using xRefs in the revised drawing has reduced my file by 70mb, where many individual parts are now external to the main drawing. Wow!

When loading the revised file it so much quicker to load in all respects, animating the revised file is so much quicker in that it appears to consumes less memory from how I see it here,  as the xRef is displayed as an image without the data load for that xRef.

Old size: 95,750kb
New size: 25,155kb
Total xRefs used: 20 ( total files size of 69,255kb )
 
Daz