Replacing a Specific Instance or All Instances of a Reference

This task consists replacing a Specific Instance first, and then All Instances of a reference.

As it was described in the previous section, Replacing a Component, the user activates the Replacement Component icon to replace one component with another. This command automatically chooses the first instance of the object that is going to be replaced.
Open the 16cubes.CATProduct document:

This document contains two identical CATProducts : 8 cubes (8 cubes.1) and 8 cubes (8 cubes.2). Both CATProducts have the same CATParts: Cube (Cube.1) and Cube (Cube.2).

  1. First of all, select Cube (Cube.1) and click on the Replace Component icon .
    The File Selection dialog box is displayed, select Cylinder01.CATPart and click Open:

  2. Click Open and the Impacts on Replace dialog box appears, with the following message:
If you choose to replace Cube(Cube1.1) with Cube2(Cube1.1), there is a Part Number conflict because both entities have the same Part Number (Cube).

Therefore, if you click YES, all the instances will be replaced (and the Part number conflict window does not appears because it is no longer needed).

If you click NO, only the selected instance will be replaced but, in the case of a Part Number conflict, the following dialog box appears. For more information about this Part number conflict, please refer to:

You can Rename (or use the Automatic Rename option for) the new instance Cube2.CATPart.

  1. If you click No, you replace only one instance.

    As a consequence, a Specific Instance, Cube (Cube.1), is replaced by Cylinder01 (Cube.1) in the specification tree and in the geometry area:
    Note that the last entity of Cube (Cube.1) has not been replaced by Cylinder01.CATPart because the entity's instance is not at the same level.

  1. Close without saving, re-open the 16cubes.CATProduct document.

  2. Repeat the same operation: Select Cube (Cube.1) and click the Replace Component icon . The File selection dialog box is displayed, select Cylinder01.CATPart and click Open. The Impacts on Replace dialog box appears with the following message:

    If you click Yes, all the instances of Cube (Cube.1) are replaced by Cylinder01.CATPart: the last entity of Cube (Cube.1) in the Specification Tree is also replaced by Cylinder01.CATPart.

    Wherever the element's instance is in the product, it is replaced by the new component. In our example, the Multi-Instances functionality looks for all the instances of the reference Cube (Cube.1) in the product and replaces them in the whole document.