Assemblies: STEP Assemblies

Opening One

A STEP file with several components opens with its own tree, with names like Name<1> and Name<2>. You see a note "Opened as an assembly: N parts." with an action Open as one part instead. You can also tick Open as one part in the Open window, or right-click a component and choose Open as one part.

What You Can Do

• Viewing is free on every plan.
• Hide or Show, Show All Components and Material... (on a single part) work on any plan. Isolate needs the Advanced plan or higher.
• Move Component and Rotate Component work on the top-level components and need Pro. Other plans see a Pro message.
• Large levels of the tree are paged: click Show more for the next rows.
• Which components you hid stays hidden when you save the model.

Moved positions stay in your tab. The structure of a STEP file is not kept when you save: it saves as the model it is. To build an assembly you can edit and mate, start a new assembly and insert saved models.

Exporting an Assembly as STEP

File, Export, Assembly as STEP is for assemblies you build here. It needs the Advanced plan or higher: "Export an assembly as STEP on the Advanced plan or higher." It writes one STEP file with the real structure, with subassemblies nested. Parts that are not STEP models are skipped. On a shared assembly the share's Exports permission also applies.