×
INTELLIGENT WORK FORUMS
FOR ENGINEERING PROFESSIONALS

Log In

Come Join Us!

Are you an
Engineering professional?
Join Eng-Tips Forums!
  • Talk With Other Members
  • Be Notified Of Responses
    To Your Posts
  • Keyword Search
  • One-Click Access To Your
    Favorite Forums
  • Automated Signatures
    On Your Posts
  • Best Of All, It's Free!
  • Students Click Here

*Eng-Tips's functionality depends on members receiving e-mail. By joining you are opting in to receive e-mail.

Posting Guidelines

Promoting, selling, recruiting, coursework and thesis posting is forbidden.

Students Click Here

Jobs

Alternate Setups, Alternate Toolboxes?

Alternate Setups, Alternate Toolboxes?

Alternate Setups, Alternate Toolboxes?

(OP)
I have my home system setup just the way I want it, including Toolbox.  I have saved the settings for this home setup with the Settings Wizard.

Now I want to replicate my work settings on my home computer, but keep it separate from the home settings including Toolbox.  It is easy to run the Settings Wizard files for work or home, but my question is how to setup two separate toolboxes so I do not get cross contamination.

Any suggestions?

Thanks!!

- - -Updraft

RE: Alternate Setups, Alternate Toolboxes?

(OP)
Yes.  And I use Pack and Go, but I really want to have two indepent SolidWorks "machines" on my home computer.  One that is my current home setting and independent of the other one setup for work.

What is the best way to set this up?


- - -Updraft

RE: Alternate Setups, Alternate Toolboxes?

Problem is going to be is when you place your TB parts at work and bring the files home. The SW browser.mdb file is not going to match between the 2. Plus any configurations you add at work for a TB part will not be transferred home. You can would have to overwrite your TB file at home, but that is going to require more work on your part. Meaning you will need to change the read-only status of the file to write before you can replace it, then you will have to change it back. You will have to do this every time you make changes between work and home of the TB parts. The only solution to this is a multi-user environment, but because its your home and work machine this solution will not work. So replacing the file like I mentioned above is probably your only course of action.

You will also need to place the TB locations EXACTLY the same on both machines or you will get further problems about "file location", "can't find "X" file" stuff like that.

Some companies don't change the master database of files and instead they copy the fasteners to the working directory of the project and that might make it easier when transporting files from one place or another. Problem with that is your Master DB will never grow as you use the DB. Meaning it will never remember the last configuration you used. You can configure the TB to make all the standard configurations for you, but anything customized will not be in there.

Hope this helps,

Scott Baugh, CSWP pc2
www.scottjbaugh.com

Quote:

"If it's not broke, Don't fix it!"
FAQ731-376: Eng-Tips.com Forum Policies

RE: Alternate Setups, Alternate Toolboxes?

(OP)
Scott,

I am not worried about the Work TB parts not existing on my home machine.  When this type of thing happens, i.e., an assy is calling out a TB part that doesn't exist, I am prompted to allow TB to create it.  Besides, the way I have TB setup is to have it create all the fasteners as separate part files and I have the option with Pack and Go to include them or not when creating a folder of files to take home.  The important thing here is to make sure my Work toolbox at home has the same database of definitions of our company standards that have been painstakingly established.

So, back to my original question:  How to properly setup two independent installations of SWX, particularly with two independent Toolboxes?

- - -Updraft

RE: Alternate Setups, Alternate Toolboxes?

I would get a copy of your companies SWBrowser.mdb file to put on your home computer.

Cheers,

Anna Wood
Anna Built Workstation, Core i7 EE965, FirePro V8700, 12 gigs of RAM, OCZ Vertex 120 Gig SSD
SW2010 SP0, Windows 7
http://www.solidmuse.com
http://www.phxswug.com

RE: Alternate Setups, Alternate Toolboxes?

You can keep two safe directories called Home_Toolbox and Work_Toolbox to put your SolidWorks data and subfolders in. Then you can simply copy which ever you plan to use into your SolidWorks Data folder prior to launching SolidWorks or save off two Settings files with system options for File Locations and Run the Restore settings or write the .reg file to registry to swap to the other folder location and settings.

Michael

RE: Alternate Setups, Alternate Toolboxes?

If you get the option to write the configuration to whatever toolbox you are using... then do it!

The problem you will have is if you don't get that option. Toolbox was not really designed to work over 2 computers on 2 different networks. This is going to make it much harder... outside of that there is no real solution other than what has been given when it comes to setting it up.

Just make sure the path is excatly the same for both work and home.

Regards,

Scott Baugh, CSWP pc2
www.scottjbaugh.com

Quote:

"If it's not broke, Don't fix it!"
FAQ731-376: Eng-Tips.com Forum Policies

RE: Alternate Setups, Alternate Toolboxes?

I would do something along the lines of what mjcole suggested and have two toolbox directories and switch between them using two .reg files.  Something similar to the two snippets below, modified to match your SolidWorks version and desired folder structure.

Alternatively, since these and many other settings are saved in the current user portion of the registry, you could create a separate user account on the computer and log into that when you wanted to use the work toolbox.


PersonalToolbox.reg

CODE

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\SolidWorks\SolidWorks 2008\ExtReferences]
"Document Folders"="C:\\Program Files\\SolidWorks 2008\\Toolbox Personal\\Browser"

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\SolidWorks\SolidWorks 2008\General]
"Toolbox Data Location"="C:\\Program Files\\SolidWorks 2008\\Toolbox Personal\\"

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\SolidWorks\SolidWorks 2008\SolidWorks Toolbox Browser]
"CopyFileDirectory"="C:\\Program Files\\SolidWorks 2008\\Toolbox Personal\\Created Parts"

WorkToolbox.reg

CODE

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\SolidWorks\SolidWorks 2008\ExtReferences]
"Document Folders"="C:\\Program Files\\SolidWorks 2008\\Toolbox Work\\Browser"

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\SolidWorks\SolidWorks 2008\General]
"Toolbox Data Location"="C:\\Program Files\\SolidWorks 2008\\Toolbox Work\\"

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\SolidWorks\SolidWorks 2008\SolidWorks Toolbox Browser]
"CopyFileDirectory"="C:\\Program Files\\SolidWorks 2008\\Toolbox Work\\Created Parts"

RE: Alternate Setups, Alternate Toolboxes?

SolidWorks or your VAR can open Service Requests to have the Database files merged to prevent loss of info due to mishandled Toolbox updates. I opened one when I was working for a VAR.

 there is also a method of updating the toolbox to 2010 or whatever release you are on using your existing database file.

deejay
Install Path|Toolbox|data utilities|UpdateBrowserData.exe
picture shown and attached


http://files.engineering.com/getfile.aspx?folder=ab456fd8-97c0-4346-919d-00f8ef394f5d&file=sw_UpdateBrowserData.exe.png

Michael

RE: Alternate Setups, Alternate Toolboxes?

When you install TB from 09 to 2010, then it automatically updates the mdb file. You should not have to use the utility you pointed out above, unless a problem occurs which I have rarely seen happen.

Scott Baugh, CSWP pc2
www.scottjbaugh.com

Quote:

"If it's not broke, Don't fix it!"
FAQ731-376: Eng-Tips.com Forum Policies

Red Flag This Post

Please let us know here why this post is inappropriate. Reasons such as off-topic, duplicates, flames, illegal, vulgar, or students posting their homework.

Red Flag Submitted

Thank you for helping keep Eng-Tips Forums free from inappropriate posts.
The Eng-Tips staff will check this out and take appropriate action.

Reply To This Thread

Posting in the Eng-Tips forums is a member-only feature.

Click Here to join Eng-Tips and talk with other members!


Resources