Save in-place family to library

Here are two workarounds to help save out an In-Place family in your project to your content library.

Method 1

1. Select the In-Place family and press Edit In-Place.
2. Select the elements in the family which you want to save out to a Family file.
3. Group these elements using the Create Group tool.
4. Go to the Application Menu (‘R’ button) > Save As > Library > Group.
5. Choose where you want to save the group and press Save.
6. Your Family is now ready to be loaded into a project.

Method 2

1. In the project create a new view and Isolate the In-Place family you need to put into a Family file.
2. Go to the Application Menu (‘R’ button) > Export > CAD Formats > ACIS (SAT). Save the file.
3. Start a new Family file of your choice.
4. Insert tab > Import CAD, and choose the previously exported file to import.
5. Select the import then, Modify | Imports in Families tab > Explode.

It’s not going to give you fully exploded geometry, but you at least have grips you can lock to Reference Planes.

There is a caveat, the more complex the geometry, the less likely this process will work.