Extracting a component part from an assembly

Vans Aircraft publishes a SolidWorks model of the instrument panel area for an RV-8. This is an assembly of various sheet metal, rivets and fastener comprising about 2 linear feet of the cockpit. I want to extract the instrument panel part from the assembly/. I expand the assembly and can see the particular part, but I haven't been able to isolate that part. The goal is to then add cut out extrusions for the various radios in the panel. I want to end up with an isolated part that I can send out for machining. It seems that this should be simple, but I am not seeing it.

Why not analyze the the part, lay it out on foam board, cut it out and experiment with it. You will have many iterations before you settle into a final configuration. Now you have somthing tangable you can fit into your plane to check the ergonomics. Then get some material, a bandsaw and build it yourself. A fun project and a source of pride.
Gerry

You have to uncheck the Enable 3D Interconnect option in System Options - Import before reading the IGES file.

Dan-
If it is a SW Assembly, right-click on the Part in the feature tree on the left and do 'open part' icon. The part will open as a stand-alone file. Then do new Drawing; in the blank drawing, do insert model view (of the open panel part); doing 'preview' checkbox will show you the view aspect and the scale as you place the drawing view. Personally, I would scale the view to 1:1 and do 'properties' on the drawing tab at the bottom left: set the drawing page scale to 1:1, de-select 'Display sheet format' (makes title block go away), select 'Custom sheet size' and set it to 48"x24" to start with; you can adjust it smaller later when the panel is 'jogged' to the lower left corner of the sheet. Save the drawing. Then 'Save As' and select DXF from the dropdown at the bottom of the dialogue box. You now can 'Open' the DXF by doing 'Open', select DXF from file type dropdown, and do 'Import into a new part' (2D sketch) radio button in the next dialogue, and just click finish. This will give you a sketch in the view aspect you selected with no relations. You can add relations and dimensions, but if you move anything, you will lose the original intent. I would close that sketch and start a new one on the same plane and 'convert entities' to a new sketch. This is an example of a part which was saved as a DXF and then opened in a new part as a 2-D sketch:
-Christian
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