Problems with Fastners

[diamondcat]

I have a job that I completed over a year ago. The customer comes back now and says he doesn't think he can find all of the final docs and wants us to send him a new set. The problem is that when I open these assemblies, that I did over year ago, all of the fasteners blow up. I am not on my third computer since then and the computer that I did that job on has long since been wiped clean.
Does anyone have any suggestions as to how to fix this issue?

Thanks

 

[CorBlimeyLimey]

Are you not using the same library?
How many different fasteners are involved?



Helpful SW websites FAQ559-520
How to get answers to your SW questions FAQ559-1091

 

[dgowans]

If you still have the drawings for the project, open them "View-Only" and print them out. If you just need to send him hard copies, you're set.

Otherwise, you may need to recreate the necessary fastener configurations in a dummy assembly before opening your customer's assemblies. Referencing the BOM on the drawings would help you here as well.

If you don't have the drawing files.... well, let's just say I hope you have 'em.

 

[diamondcat]

We do not have a library on the network as far as Solidworks Toolbox fasteners go. So far it hasn't been alot of fasteners, but I just started to go through the job so who knows.

 

[Theophilus]

Also, what do you mean by "blow up"? As in explode or as in very big?

I'm not sure what you can do about it now, but what I do about this sort of thing on a continuous basis is save my fasteners in my parts directory. This isn't convenient (or realistic) to do in everyone's work environment, but it does always keep this sort of thing from happening.

Jeff Mowry

http://www.industrialdesignhaus.com

Reason trumps all. And awe trumps reason.

 

[diamondcat]

dgowans,
Unfortunately the anchor of a customer wants files not prints, so I am kind of stuck.

Theophilus,
By 'blow-up' I mean the fasteners get huge.

I might just try and send them as is and see if they get by. The customer isn't that computer savvy so it might not even be noticed. It's a pretty big machine.

 

[dezignstuff]

The only thing you can do is go through Toolbox an recreate all of the configuration sizes you used. Once you save the assembly with the "huge screws", you're screwed. Because it can't find the configs that were used in the assembly, it is replacing them with the Default configs, which are usually the largest one in the list.

This is why I call Toolbox a virus. It will eventually wipe out loads of work unless you are aware of the problems and are very careful about things.

I can give you someones home phone number you can call to express your enthusiasm for this feature if you like.

 

[diamondcat]

It looks like it is just the fixes I did to this machine that have the toolbox screws. I used the ones from our own library for the rest of the job. I think I will just suppress or delete them.
Thanks

 

[SnowCrash]

I have this happen when I open old assemblies done several versions ago. I select the huge fasteners in the tree and do a "Replace" with my current fasteners, then save the assembly. You could copy the fasteners you need into the working directory before doing the replace.

--
Hardie "Crashj" Johnson
SW 2005 SP 4.0 (reluctant to change)
Nvidia Quadro FX 1000
AMD Athalon 1.8 GHz 2 Gig RAM

 

[SnowCrash]

I forgot to mention that in my case the problem is scaling due to changing from SI to CUS units. The fasteners are 25.4 times too big. Hmmm . . .

--
Hardie "Crashj" Johnson
SW 2005 SP 4.0 (reluctant to change)
Nvidia Quadro FX 1000
AMD Athalon 1.8 GHz 2 Gig RAM

 

[Sporkman]

If your customer will accept PDF files then simply do as dgowans writes -- open the drawings in View-Only mode -- then Print the drawings to Postscript files (.prn) and convert (or have someone convert) the Postscript files to PDF. You can also save the drawings to TIFF format (SaveAs does work for that one and only format in View-Only mode) and you can either use the files as-is or convert them to another raster format, or even import the into a PDF file using something like CorelDraw.


Mark Stapleton
Watermark Design, LLC
Charlotte, NC

http://www.h2omarkdesign.com

 

[diamondcat]

The customer only requires files, no prints.

 

[Sporkman]

Define "files".
Files could be interpreted as SolidWorks files, AutoCAD (DWG) files, PDF files, DXF files, STEP files, IGES files . . . What does the customer actually need?


Mark Stapleton
Watermark Design, LLC
Charlotte, NC

http://www.h2omarkdesign.com

 

[diamondcat]

Solidworks files

As it turns out is was only a few assemblies that had this problem. I was able to replace the fasteners and send the customer the files.

Thanks for everyones help.

 

[ongybill]

Won't help you in this case, but I've started saving copies of all my final assemblies for a project as part files. May not help you at all as you lose all your part creation data. On large assys best to start the save and go to lunch or go home.

Started this after spending 20 minutes refinding all the parts SW had lost on a large assy I'd had open just a couple of months ago. Really looked like an idiot while the engineer stood over my shoulder waiting so he could see how 2 parts fit together.

Nothing had been moved. All the parts were in the correct folders. The computer hadn't changed.

Don't know if others have this problem, but SW will lose track of where files are on an assy I just closed and reopened sometimes. Usually no big deal, but when the files are in a dozen different folders as that assy was it can be very time consuming to refind everything.

Also find this useful as nothing in the assy changes if any of the part files are accidentally changed, moved, renamed, ect.. It's a file I'm sure was correct at the time of the projects completion (extremely valuable). Plus the part file opens faster when you just need to look at something.