How to un group an assembly of grouped items


how do I un group an assembly of grouped items. I have several groups that have been grouped together as an assembly. I wish to copy an one of the grouped items within the assembly and use it outside of the group but every time I hide the assembly group it hides the copied item as well?


It depends on how you drew and used the layers:


Thanks, I want to be able to leave the assembled group in tact but copy a group from within the assembly then be able to use the copied item independent of the assembly and have the individual saved group visible when the assembly is hidden


Then you don’t use “cut”, use “copy” and “paste in place”.
You just have to understand the idea, you extract a piece (group) from a group (with cut or copy) and then, outside that group, put that piece back in place (paste).


It may be the group you’ve copied is on the same layer as the assembly group. Place it on Layer0 or another layer. (when you’re doing the copy and paste).

I generally keep all nested groups and components on Layer0 ,unless I am doing some particular organization (like putting a group of walls in a “walls” layer inside a “house” layer). The top or parent group is put on a specific new layer for hiding all of it.


Another way is to go inside the assembly group, select the component you want to copy, copy it to the clipboard (Ctrl-C), come out of the assembly group, and then paste the copied item (Ctrl-V).


Once you are inside the group and you can select the “inner group” you would copy it (cmd+C). You then need to exit the main group by clicking elsewhere on the screen or esc. Once outside the original group you can then “paste in place” which will put that copy outside the original group. As it occupies the same space, these identical groups can be hard to select, so it may be useful to put it on another layer, or re-name the group in outliner so it’s easier to identify.