Resolving a Part Family

 

In this task you will learn how to resolve a part family or a part family component.

Resolving a part family means that you generate the .CATPart documents referred to by the part family. These documents are generated in a specific place (a folder you specify in the catalog settings) and each generated document is a copy of the generative part configured with the matching row in the design table.
 
You can open one of the default catalogs provided with the Catalog Editor. In our example, we are working with the EN_nuts chapter which contains a design table. This catalog can be accessed the following way:
  • on Windows
    $CATStartupPath\components\MechanicalStandardParts\EN_Standards\EN.catalog
  • on UNIX
    $CATStartupPath/components/MechanicalStandardParts/EN_Standards/EN.catalog
     

  1. In the specification tree, right-click the part family to be resolved and select xxx object -> Resolve (where "xxx" is the name of the object you right-clicked).
    The status indicated in the Type column under the Reference tab changes to "Resolved part family configuration"...

    ... and the corresponding reference documents are generated in the folder you specified  in the catalog settings, in the Tools > Options > Infrastructure > Catalog Editor > Catalogs tab as shown below:

    After resolution, each catalog description points to the corresponding resolved part (this link may also be displayed with the Edit -> Links... command). Whenever a reference part is modified, you use the Synchronize button from the Links dialog box to update your catalog.
    By default, when a resolved description is synchronized, the corresponding part is always regenerated.

By default, if PartName is defined in the design table row, the name of the generated document corresponds to the PartName value. Otherwise, it corresponds to the PartNumber value. Note that all document names must be unique.

Note: The resolved part never contains the design table since it is removed during resolution.