Pack and unpack elements

Packing an assembly lets you hide unnecessary elements, tools, and manufacturing elements, especially of the same type, such as a bolt or nut, by compacting them into single lines in an assembly. You can pack or unpack elements in an assembly and then allocate the elements to multiple operations within the structure.

Note

• Elements are unpacked for your current session only. You must unpack the components again the next time you log on.

• On the BOM Alignment page, elements can be packed and unpacked in a target BOM such as a manufacturing bill of materials (MBOM), and packed or unpacked part occurrences may be assigned and unassigned from a source BOM such as an the engineering bill of materials (EBOM) to the MBOM. In the Process Planning or Work Instructions Authoring pages, you can review assignment status icons for packed lines by enabling Show Comparison in the upper toolbars.

Procedure

1. If you have not done so already, search for and open an existing work package that contains processes and elements and navigate to the Process Planning or Work Instructions Authoring page.

2. In the Assembly tab or panel, expand the structure and do one of the following.

Select an assembly that contains multiple occurrences of one or more elements.

Tip Elements with multiple occurrences contain identical names and find numbers.

To pack all occurrences of the same element as a single line at the same level and all levels below the selected assembly, click Pack All . In the assembly, a packed line is indicated by an x, followed by the number of lines that are packed. For example, x 2 indicates that the packed line contains two lines, or elements with the same name and find number.

To unpack all previously packed lines, click Unpack All . Elements with multiple occurrences are displayed as separate lines, with identical names and find numbers.

Select an element for which multiple occurrences exist in the assembly.

To pack all occurrences of the element into a single line, click Pack . Instances with the same name and find number are packed into a single line.

To unpack all occurrences of the element as individual lines, click Unpack . All occurrences of the unpacked line are displayed.