TIP: External Links - Link multiple existing parts

[TH]

Have you ever.... got so excited about a new part that you went and placed it into an assembly in multiple places but forgot to link them?  There is no way to link them up now other than starting over and using "link" instead of "copy", right?  This has happened to me multiple times but I finally stumbled across a solution.  The parts in red represent the items that I placed with too much excitement.  I went to save the part as an external link but realized I could only do that to one part.  Dang!!

 

External Link Manager (an IronCAD Mechanical Add-on) to the rescue...kind of.  First, though, I named all of my parts the exact same way.  Four of them in this case.

 

Then I loaded up the External Link Manager which is found under the Property Managers folder.  I clicked on the middle tab along the bottom to bring up "Not Linked" files, selected my four parts, and gave them each a

different New File Name (because it won't let you name them all the same PLEASE CHANGE THIS BEHAVIOR!!!).

 

 

Click the green check.  All of the parts are saved as different files on the hard drive - don't worry, I'll show you how to fix this in the next step.

Save your assembly and then close it (and any other files that might be referencing your parts).  Open Windows Explorer and navigate to the folder where the parts are stored.  Delete all of the files from Windows Explorer except for the actual part name you want to use.  In my case I want the final part to be called DP7201 so I deleted DP7201A, DP7201B, and DP7201C.  I then re-opened my assembly.  IronCAD will complain about missing files and ask if you would like to browse for it.  Say yes.  I browsed to the actual file I want to use (DP7201) and clicked ok.  Repeat for the remaining missing files.  IronCAD will then open your assembly and all your parts will still be in their exact same location and orientation, but now they will all be externally linked as one single part!!!  YAY!!!!!

 

Tyler

 

 

 

[Cary OConnor]

Here is another method.

[TH]

Thank you, Cary.  I like that.  Now, is there a way to do the same thing for internal links?

 

Tyler

[Cary OConnor]

On 8/18/2021 at 10:48 AM, TH said:

Thank you, Cary.  I like that.  Now, is there a way to do the same thing for internal links?

 

Tyler

Not yet but we are looking into supporting a method for this as well. Possibly in the 2022 release. 

[Bertrand Kim]

Thank you so much Tyler & Cary

 

What a brilliant!

[SSIMMONS]

We do this all the time! Very helpful for all sorts of applications, we love tricking IronCAD into doing things it doesn't want to.

 

-Spencer

[aalbè]

Hi Tyler,
for internal links you can use the Replace Element Tool whit the option Replace in place
here the manual page:

http://ironcad.it/learnICM/en/tools-catalog/0350_replace_element/#replace-in-place

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMgTlxe-Iig&t=1s

[Bertrand Kim]

On 7/29/2022 at 5:51 PM, aalbè said:

Hi Tyler,
for internal links you can use the Replace Element Tool whit the option Replace in place
here the manual page:

http://ironcad.it/learnICM/en/tools-catalog/0350_replace_element/#replace-in-place

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMgTlxe-Iig&t=1s

Hi!

 

Thanks aalbe, this tool is awesome!

 

If it changes all things that have the same name, I should be very careful when using it. But I can't trust me hahahaha