Understanding What a Subassembly Is
Subassemblies are smaller products inside of another product. Subassemblies are also shared within a project. For example, the subassembly, Carcass Base, is shared across all the base cabinets in a project.
The majority of products, included in the library, contain subassemblies. For example, the 2 Door 2 Drawer base will contain the following subassemblies (at a minimum):
Carcass Base – The carcass subassemblies include all the parts that make the cabinet box (sides, top, bottom, back, etc.).
Doors and Drawer Fronts – Each door and drawer front will be its own subassembly. These subassemblies will include all the parts and hardware that pertain to them (stiles, rails, pulls, hinges, etc.).
Drawer Boxes – Each drawer box will also be its own subassembly. All the drawer box parts and inclusive hardware will be contained within the subassembly.
Drawer Division – This subassembly is the vertical division between the drawer boxes.
Other subassemblies may be included in the product depending on what options are selected in the parent product or Global variables.
Subassemblies also contain their own set of prompts. Most of the prompts within a subassembly are driven by variables and options from the parent product. However, subassembly prompts can be overridden or modified if the options don’t exist in the parent product.
Subassemblies can also have additional subassemblies used within them. In these cases, they are referred to as “nested subassemblies.” Just like subassemblies, nested subassemblies will often reference variables/options from the parent product (in this case, the subassembly in which they’re contained).
Inside the Product Prompts for a product, the subassemblies can be accessed by selecting Subassemblies from the Menu, or by right-clicking in the open space of the Product Prompts and selecting Subassemblies. The image below shows the subassemblies within a 2 Door 2 Drawer Base cabinet:
By choosing a subassembly and right-clicking, you can access the menu. From the menu, you can access the subassembly prompts (or nested subassembly prompts if applicable), as well as other tools for working with subassemblies.