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Subassemblies
A subassembly is a group of parts inside a panel that your model marks as a unit of its own: a window frame, a lintel or a service box that is built separately and then fitted into the panel. produuz.it reads these groups, gives each one a design of its own next to its panel, and gives every unit of the panel a unit of each of its subassemblies.
Setting it up
Open the parsing setup in Projects Settings → IFC Parsing Setups, tab Hierarchy and project, section Levels detection, row Subassembly.
| Detection system | Value | The subassembly of a part is |
|---|---|---|
| By part property | The name of a property, for example SUBASSEMBLY | The value of that property on the part |
| By IFC class | Optional: the class of the group, for example IfcElementAssembly | The group the part sits in, when that group is inside the panel: its tag, or its name when it has no tag |
| By assembly property | The name of a property, for example SUBASSEMBLY | The value of that property on the group the part sits in, when that group is inside the panel |
A part belongs to the panel when it has no subassembly, or when its subassembly is the panel's own name. With By IFC class and By assembly property, a part that sits straight in the panel always belongs to the panel.
- The property name is not case sensitive, and it is looked up in every property set.
- With By IFC class, splitting a project file does not cut a subassembly out as a panel of its own: it stays in its panel's file.
Most setups already have it
Most parsing setups have By part property with SUBASSEMBLY. Nothing happens as long as no part in your files carries a property with that name.
When your model nests the subassemblies
If your exporter writes each subassembly as a group inside the panel, for example an IfcElementAssembly inside the panel's IfcElementAssembly in Tekla, choose By IFC class. Every group inside the panel then becomes a subassembly, including a group of a single part, as long as the setup keeps that part. Check the panel's analysis summary after the first analysis.
What the analysis does
When a panel is analysed, produuz.it collects the subassembly names found on its parts. For each name it:
- Uses the design of the project that has that name, or creates one.
- Links it to the panel and marks it as a subassembly.
- Analyses it again, from the panel's model file. This happens on every analysis of the panel, so a subassembly always follows its panel's current model.
A subassembly has no model file of its own. Its analysis, its 3D view and its parts all come from its panel's latest model file.
A panel is never turned into a subassembly
If the project already has a design with that name and its own model file, it is a panel of its own and stays one. The panel's analysis summary lists the names that could not become subassemblies for that reason. A design with that name and no model file, for example one made from a drawing named after the subassembly, does become the subassembly.
When a name is no longer in the panel's model, the subassembly is unlinked from the panel. Its design stays in the project: delete it if you do not need it.
In the Designs table
- A tree chip with the number of panels the subassembly belongs to. It is orange when it belongs to none.
- The IFC column shows a blue check: the design takes its panel's model. An orange cross means its panel has no model, or it has no panel.
- The analysis column shows a blue check, Analysis done with parent IFC.
- The analysis summary in the panel's details lists its subassemblies.
- The type of a subassembly cannot be changed by hand: the panel's analysis sets it.
Parts, units and quantities
- The parts of a subassembly are not in its panel. They are left out of the panel's parts, its reports and its machine files, and counted on the subassembly's units instead. A part is never counted in both.
- Every unit of the panel comes with one unit of each of its subassemblies, in the same batch and next to the panel. They are created with the panel's units, move to another batch with them, and are deleted with them.
- A panel unit that is already started or finished gets no new subassembly units, for example when a subassembly appears in a new model of the panel. It was built from the parts it had.
- If you already added units of a subassembly by hand, the panel's units take them over, in the order of the batch, instead of making new ones. A unit you added in another batch is left alone.
- Subassemblies do not appear in Quantities: you plan the panels, and their subassembly units follow. Quantities saved for a design before it became a subassembly are listed in the Generate dialog as now a subassembly and discarded when you generate.
- A subassembly unit has its own status, its own checklist and its own place in the parts list and in logistics.
In the viewer
- A subassembly opens its panel's 3D model. When several panels share the subassembly, a unit opens the model of the panel it belongs to.
- The zone buttons draw the parts of the subassembly. The PARENT button draws the rest of the panel around it.
- Drawings, details and documents are the subassembly's own: the files named after it.
- The Unknown Parts buttons list only the subassembly's own parts. For a panel they leave out the parts of its subassemblies, which are on their own units.
See 3D Viewer for the rest of the viewer.
The checklist
A subassembly unit gets the checklist of the production line of its batch, as any panel. Stations and tasks that depend on a zone or a branch look at the whole panel, not only at the subassembly, and a panel's look at its subassemblies too. Keep that in mind when you give a station or a task such a rule.