In SOLIDWORKS PDM, a sub-parent reference is a drawing node that links a part to a drawing.
What is a Sub-Parent Reference? Where do I see this in SOLIDWORKS PDM? How is this created? Can I change this behavior? What happens when I change this behavior?
This article will answer these questions and more.
In SOLIDWORKS PDM, a sub-parent reference is a drawing node that links a part to a drawing. It is displayed indented above in blue text with an upward arrow in the reference tree. Sub-parent references are created automatically for SOLIDWORKS files and can appear in check-in and check-out dialogs and the Contains tab (see Figure 1).
Figure 1
How is this connection created?
When editing file type properties within the SOLIDWORKS PDM Administration tool, there is a text box at the bottom of the form. The description says, “This file can have Drawing nodes with the following extensions:”
How to change this behavior?
Expand “File Types” within the administration tool, then double-click one of the extensions. The resulting dialog box (see Figure 2) has a text box at the bottom labeled “This file can have Drawing nodes with the following extensions:” add/or remove the drawing extension. Drawing nodes will work with both SOLIDWORKS and Autodesk Inventor files.
Figure 2
What happens when I change this drawing node value?
If you remove this value from the dialog, PDM will have no sub-parent functionality. This means that drawings will no longer show in any tab, will not automatically be pulled into check-in or check-out dialogs, and will not show in workflow state changes.
You will have to manually perform these actions on related drawings for every document to ensure that they remain at the same version level at a minimum.
Does this work with any file type?
The purpose of this sub-parent relation is to reference the drawings of assemblies and part files.
While it is not advised, allowing the sub-parent references for other file types is possible. Unexpected behavior may arise because PDM is unable to assign the link.
You can use the "Paste as reference" technique instead of a drawing node to obtain equivalent functionality.