×
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

Assmbly moved to released folder, now no references

Assmbly moved to released folder, now no references

Assmbly moved to released folder, now no references

(OP)
Hi all,

I have a bit of a conundrum. We've recently moved to SolidWorks but neglected to get the PDM.
This hasn't been too much of a problem, we've just handled different revisions the same as with AutoCAD, by adding Rnn to the end of the file name.

We're getting some assmblies completed in SolidWorks now and generally we work on models/drawings in one folder, and when they are ready to be released. We move them to a released directory that's separated into folders by the first three digits of the part number (000 through 060).

We're finding that the assemblies are losing their references and each part file has to be found and re-referenced in the assembly individually. I dread having to do this for some more complex assemblies.

Is there any way around this? Possible to have SolidWorks search a certain directory for the file name? maybe a macro could help?

Any help would be much appreciated. Thanks!!

RE: Assmbly moved to released folder, now no references

If you have SW2011-SP4, you can now (at long last) Move files within SolidWorks Explorer whilst retaining references.  

RE: Assmbly moved to released folder, now no references

In my opinion, solidworks is not good at finding files when they have been moved.  I tend to keep all of my files in "my documents".  One of the worst things you can do is have multiple copies of a file in different location and different revision with the same filename.  For example, c:/mypart.sldprt and c:/new/mypart.sldprt.

Did your assemblies and parts go from one folder during development to two or more folders for release?  ie, c:/part1.sldprt, c:/part2.sldprt, c:/assy1.sldasm in development and c:/released parts/part1.sldprt, c:/released parts/part2.sldprt, c:/released assys/assy1.sldasm.

if this is the case, and you used windows explorer to move the files, solidworks will not be able to find the parts when the released assy is opened.  

google "soldiworks explorer"
and google "solidworks search routine"

now, to actually answer your question, there is a box in tools->options->file locations->external references where you can add all of your released folders.  solidworks will search there when it doesn't find a part in the same folder as the assembly.

 

RE: Assmbly moved to released folder, now no references

(OP)
I wish I could give you about 88888 stars for that one.

RE: Assmbly moved to released folder, now no references

Perhaps if you used "Pack and Go" to move the files to the new directory instead of using windows explorer, you would bypass the problem altogether, retaining references the entire time?

RE: Assmbly moved to released folder, now no references

CBL and applejack are making a major point in that copies are a problem so you should be concerned about properly moving files.  Pack and Go is really handy for bundling a project and sending it offsite to someone outside your system or for working on the files at home (heaven forbid an engineer do work at home).  However, P&G is too often misused in a production environment.  P&G makes it very easy to copy related files, but in a production environment it makes it too easy.

CBL's suggestion to look into the newly added/improved capabilities of SWX Explorer is your best bet short of using a PDM system.  But wait, what level of SWX are you using?  SWX Premium and Professional, the mid and top-level systems, include Workgroup PDM.  It may not be the ultimate system, but it sure has lot of advantanges over trying to manage the files and revisions manually.  You might very well have a better solution available and resident on your system already.

- - -Updraft

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