About CAD Family Object

CAD family is the main object in 3DEXPERIENCE that can assist you to create different SOLIDWORKS configurations from one CAD family.

When you create a part or an assembly, you create a configuration of that object. You can also create another configuration having some different features of that same object. The 3DEXPERIENCE platform displays all these configurations as physical products. Hence, all the physical products are linked to a CAD family object from which they are generated.

The following rules are applicable for Lifecycle, Revise, Lock, and Change Ownership actions:

  • When you perform one of the actions mentioned above on a CAD family, the action is applied to all the physical products associated with it.
  • When you perform one of the actions mentioned above on a physical product, the action is applied to its CAD family and all the physical products associated with it.

To delete SOLIDWORKS objects, consider the following:

  • Deleting SOLIDWORKS physical products: When you delete physical products from the Configurations tab of SOLIDWORKS and save it to 3DEXPERIENCE, the physical products are deleted from the 3DEXPERIENCE server as well. You can delete physical products that are not referenced in any assembly. Use Relations to analyze references of a physical product and delete these references using a top-down approach.
  • Deleting SOLIDWORKS CAD family: You can delete a CAD family from Collaborative Lifecycle or Bookmark Editor. When you delete a CAD family, you delete all the physical products corresponding to that CAD family. To delete a CAD family, the physical products of the corresponding CAD family must not be referenced in any assembly.

The CAD family object and all its connected configurations (physical product) must belong to the same collaborative space, because they all are aggregated in a single common file. While saving a new configuration in a collaborative space other than the collaborative space of the associated CAD family, an error is displayed. You can use Transfer Ownership to keep the CAD family and its configurations in the same collaborative space. For mono configurations, the CAD family name is not displayed and does not appear in search or Relations explorer.

Note: When you generate thumbnails for families, you can generate thumbnails for SOLIDWORKS part families only. You cannot generate thumbnails for SOLIDWORKS assembly families.