Parent/Child
Parent/Child shows what a step in the History is built on (its parents) and what is built on it (its children). It is a window you read, nothing more: it changes nothing in the model, so it is free on every plan and works on an older version too.
When to Use It
- Before you delete, suppress or move a step, to see what else will be affected.
- To find out why a step stopped working: the parent it needs may have changed or gone.
- To understand a part someone else made: which sketch stands on which plane, which step repeats which.
How to Start It
Open the Model tab, right-click a step in the History, and choose Parent/Child.... A window opens beside the tree with the step's name in its title.
Step by Step
- Right-click the step and choose Parent/Child....
- Read the Parents list. Each row names a step, a sketch or a plane, and says in a few words why it is a parent.
- Read the Children list. These are the steps that need this one.
- Click any row. That step, sketch or plane is selected in the Model tree and scrolled into view, and the window stays open so you can keep going.
- Right-click that step and choose Parent/Child... again to follow the chain further.
- Press Close, the X, or Esc when you are done.
Options
There is nothing to set. The window can be dragged by its title and made bigger or smaller. It follows the History: if you rename a step, suppress one, or change another step, the lists update. If the step you were reading is itself edited, moved or deleted, the window closes; open it again.
What It Lists
Parents come from these links:
- Its own sketch, listed first for a step that has one.
- The plane the sketch stands on: a reference plane made with Reference Geometry, one of the Front, Top and Right planes, or a face that an earlier extrusion or cut made (its start and end faces exactly, its side walls by position). A sketch on a plane set off from Front, Top or Right says so, and says it is a guess when a revolve, sweep, loft, pattern or mirror before it could own that face.
- Pattern: the step it repeats. Mirror: the steps it copies, and the plane it mirrors across when that is a reference plane, an origin plane or a face an earlier step made. A circular Pattern also names the reference axis it turns about.
- Reference geometry: the reference points, planes, axes and coordinate systems it was made from, and the origin planes it names.
- Picked faces, edges and bodies: a fillet (including a face fillet), chamfer (including a corner chamfer), shell, move, rename and the like record the box of what you picked. The window finds the latest earlier extrusion or cut whose box holds it, and a body renamed by an earlier Rename step is credited to that step. These rows say (by position) because they are found by where the pick lies, not by a stored link.
Children are the same links read the other way round.
Tips and What to Expect
- A suppressed step still shows, with (suppressed) after its name.
- A step with no single parent says so: it works on the part as built before it, for example a Scale.
- The first step of a part has no parents except its sketch and plane.
- Dragging a step above one of its parents is refused by the tree; this window shows you which parents to look at first.
Common Problems
- A pick shows no parent: its box did not match one step. It lies on the part as built before this step, and the window says how many picks were left over.
- A pick shows the wrong step: picks are found by position, so two steps that fill the same space can swap. Treat (by position) rows as a good guide, not a promise.
- A reference made from a face or edge of the part lists no parent: that pick is frozen into it when it is made, and the window says so. A reference plane or axis made from another is found by its name at the time, so renaming the other one can hide the link.
- Revolves, sweeps, lofts and library parts: their boxes are not worked out here, so a pick on one of them is listed as a pick on the part so far.
- More than 1000 steps: the window refuses in plain words. Roll the bar back or split the part into two files, then try again.
- It took too long: the window gives up after 3 seconds and changes nothing. Sketches with more than 200000 points between them are skipped, and the window says so. Roll the bar back and try again.