The subassemblies tab will display the subassemblies that the product is currently referencing. A subassembly works the same way a product does. It contains its own set of parts, hardware, and prompts. A subassembly can also contain more subassemblies. These are called nested subassemblies. A nested subassembly cannot contain more subassemblies.

Subassemblies are often created and used for an assembly of parts that are almost identical such as a drawer box. The only thing that might change from one drawer box to another is its overall width, height, depth, or where it is located within a product. So within a job, there might be only one drawer box subassembly. Still, several different products reference that same subassembly, and by modifying the values in the subassemblies tab, you are only changing how this specific reference to the subassembly will be modified. If you want to modify the individual parts within a subassembly, you will want to select the subassembly in the product tree, on the left side of the part properties interface, and load its properties.

Subassembly Context Menu

If you right-click in the subassembly list, you will display a context menu that will allow you to remove the selected. If you want to add a new subassembly to the product, you will need to do so through the spreadsheet interface.

Delete Selected Subassembly

Select the Delete Selected Subassembly to remove this reference to the selected subassembly from the product. This will not delete the subassembly from the project, but it will remove it from the product.

Copy Selected Part to Clipboard

This command will allow you to save the currently selected subassembly to the Microvellum Clipboard. Refer to the Microvellum Clipboard topic for additional information.

Paste Part from Clipboard

This command will allow you to select a subassembly saved to the Microvellum Clipboard and overwrite the currently selected subassembly. If you are trying to add a new subassembly from the Microvellum Clipboard, you'll need to add the subassembly through the spreadsheet interface. Refer to the Microvellum Clipboard topic for additional information.

Subassembly Parameters

Below are the available parameters that you can change from the Subassembly tab. It is important to remember that by modifying the values on this tab, you are modifying the values that get used by this subassembly.

Subassembly Name

The name of the selected subassembly. Using the Edit Subassembly button allows you to change the subassembly that is currently being used by the product.

Quantity

The quantity of the subassembly.

Width

The width of the subassembly. This value gets passed into the subassemblies width prompt when the subassembly is drawn or processed.

Height

The height of the subassembly. This value gets passed into the subassemblies height prompt when the subassembly is drawn or processed.

Depth

The depth of the subassembly. This value gets passed into the subassemblies depth prompt when the subassembly is drawn or processed.

X Origin

A parameter used to place the subassembly within the product. The X origin is the value from the left of the product to the right of the product. Any positive number will move the hardware towards the right of the product, and any negative value will move it towards the left.

By modifying this value, you will move all the parts within the subassembly. This origin point is also going to be the 0,0,0 origin for the parts inside the subassembly.

Y Origin

A parameter used to place the subassembly within the product. The Y origin is the value from the back of the product to the front of the product. Any negative number will move the hardware towards the front of the product, while any positive number will move it towards the back of the product.

By modifying this value, you will move all the parts within the subassembly. This origin point is also going to be the 0,0,0 origin for the parts inside the subassembly.

Z Origin

A parameter used to place the subassembly item within the product. The Z origin is the value from the bottom of the product to the top of the product. Any positive value will move the hardware towards the top of the product, while any negative number will move it towards the bottom of the product.

By modifying this value, you will move all the parts within the subassembly. This origin point is also going to be the 0,0,0 origin for the parts inside the subassembly.

Z Rotation

An entire subassembly can only be rotated along the z-axis. This parameter will rotate all the parts within the subassembly.

Perfect Grain Info

The value in this parameter will get passed into the subassembly's PerfectGrainIndex prompt when it is being processed. This allows you to create your own custom perfect grain patterns for subassemblies using the perfect grain parameter of the part.