Insert design

Insert design copies the parts of another of your designs into the one that is open. Use it to reuse something you have already made, such as a box you want to fit a lid to, a motor mount, or a part a friend shared with you as a file. The parts come in where they were in the other design, with their names, materials and colours.

The copy remembers where it came from. If you change the other design later, open the copy and click Update from source to bring the changes across.

How to use it#

1. Save the other design in this browser first (open it from Documents, or open its file once).
2. Open the design you want to add it to, and click Insert design.
3. Click the design to bring in. Its parts appear in the view and in the parts list, and the feature tree has an Insert … feature named after it.
4. Put the parts in place with Mate or Transform, or with Move by in the Insert feature.

Update from source#

Double-click the Insert … feature in the feature tree. The dialog says whether the other design has changed since the copy was made. Click Update from source to copy it again, as it is now. Mates, holes and other features after the Insert feature then work on the new copy.

If the other design is not in this browser any more (it was deleted, or you are on another computer), the copy stays as it is, but it cannot be updated.

Tips#

• With the 3D engine on, the copy is exact (it is kept as a STEP file inside your design). Without it, the copy is a mesh. Either way you can drill, cut, mate and draw it.
• Library parts (screws, hinges and so on) stay hardware in the copy, so the shopping list still counts them.
• A big design makes a big copy. If your design gets slow, insert only the design you need, or use Save file to keep a copy on your computer.