Fixing overlapping part positions

This article explains how to correct numbering series when you get the Overlapping part number series warning message.

Below is a simplified situation of overlapping numbering series. Two red columns have numbering series c/1 and two gray columns have numbering series c/2. All four columns have different length, so when you number the model, each column gets a different number.

The red columns get numbers c/1 and c/2. The gray columns would get numbers, c/2 and c/3, but because c/2 is already used for the red column it cannot be used for the gray column. Otherwise there would be two different columns with the same number c/2. So, there are overlapping part number series. The other of the overlapping series is not numbered, but their number is shown as c/0 (?).

 

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Numbering history log contains more information about the situation:

Overlap detected in numbering:
 (A) Id: 328, GUID: ID57959EFE-0000-0008-3134-363934323333, series c/1, position number c/2
 (B) Id: 332, GUID: ID57959EFE-0000-000C-3134-363934323333, series c/2, position number c/2 (tentative) <-- This object will not be (re)numbered!

 
To fix the overlapping problem:

1. Open the numbering history log: File > Logs > Numbering history log. The log file contains information about the overlapping parts. When you select the row containing the “Id:”, the part is selected in the model. You can also right-click the row and select Properties… from the pop-up menu to open the part properties dialog box directly.

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2. In part properties (in this case Column properties), clear all modify filter check boxes  with  
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    and select only the check box in front of the part start number field. Change the number from 2 to 10.

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3. Prepare a select filter for selecting all parts in conflicting series. In this case, we select all parts with the same prefix ( c ) and start number ( 2 ) as in the conflicting series:

 

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4. Click Apply to turn on the select filter.

5. Select all parts (either with Crtl+A or with area selection over the model). Because you have the select filter on, only the parts in series c/2 are selected.

6. Click Modify in the Column Properties dialog box.

7. Number the model and check that the part numbers are correct. Our example looks like this after numbering:

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Note! Another solution would have been to change the start number in all parts to be 1. Most common error is that some parts have start number 0 and some parts 1, even they all should be in the same series. Then you just need to make sure that all parts which have same prefix and should be in the same series have the same start number.

This is only very simple example, to understand the overlapping problem, but situations might be much more complicated in real models , especially when there are nested assemblies and components used.