Resources » Technical Support Blog » Inventor-select parents to open a component's sub-assembly

Inventor-select parents to open a component's sub-assembly

June 25, 2025 Joanna Gryszka

Issue:

In an Inventor assembly you want to be able to select a component and open the sub-assembly it's in.  Or find this sub-assembly in the Model browser.

The shortcut command 'Select Parents' command will do this and show you a component's parents and open or find them in the browser.

Solution:

This command is available in the Part or Body Priority selection set mode:

 

Right-click on a component, choose Select Parents:

The component's parents will show in a pop-up mini-toolbar.  Select the first(1) or next(2 or higher) direct parent available in the pull-down menu:

After choosing the parent, right-click again to open or find this sub-assembly in the Model Browser:

  • Open: to open the parent sub-assembly in a new window
  • Find in Browser: to find the parent sub-assembly in the Model Browser

About the Author

Joanna Gryszka

Manufacturing Technical Support Specialist<br><br>Joanna has over eight years of experience working with Autodesk products. She started supporting core AutoCAD and network installations of all Autodesk products. She now has five years of experience with Inventor. <br> She graduated from Mechanical Engineering and has been providing solutions to clients and dedicating her knowledge to the Solution Center since then.

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