Best Method suggestions needed

I have an assembly of a mold (of a bottle) done using a cavity, split
into parts, then many features added to each part of the mold.
Accessory parts & fasteners added to assembly, etc.

Need to create a similar mold assembly, wherein a new cavity shape,
mold block size changes, water-line changes, will be needed. Most
parts will need to change, but I would like to just change them without
making them all over again.

What approaches do you suggest?

If I "save-as" the top level drawing or assembly, how do all the linked
parts get duplicated so I can change their filenames prior to making
actual changes to the models, protecting the original assembly from any
changes?

And can I replace the cavity shape by substituting a new bottle part
file?

 

This works, although may not exactly be "best practice".

Use SW Explorer, open your top level assembly, edit, copy, select the copy
children box, you can then override which files get copied ( you may not
wish to create multiple copies of fasteners and the like, or you may wish to
maintain some references, so that you can effectively modify both top level
assemblies at the same time). SW Explorer automatically adds rev2 to the
end of the origional filename which may be sufficient for your purposes or
you can alter the addition to whatever works for you.

This is a bit of a dirty solution, but sometimes works perfectly:
Delete your copied bottle file from the new directory without opening the
top assembly. Place the new bottle into the directory where the copied
parts are and rename it to "bottlerev2" or whatever the deleted filename
was. When you open the assembly through solidworks it will give you an
error stating that the internal ID does not match. Ignore the error and
continue.

Depending on the level of similarity between the two bottles, some,
none, or all, of your references and features may update automatically. The
others can be re-referenced/rebuilt as necessary to update to the new
bottle.

 

Thanks Brian, sounds good, especially the "trick".

Any more suggestions out there?

 

hi there,

You can use 'save as' and use the 'references' box to rename/move the parts
you want to copy from withing the 'save as' dialogue'.

Hope this helps,

LB