A while ago I posted about needing help as I had screwed up our SW assembly library, so now that I’ve rectified that, I thought I’d post before I change anything:
We have some assemblies saved in the library for use in our UK work, but I’m working on a new library for our European distributers who want minor changes to the standard assemblies, ie: remove a locker, or a shelf etc. If I save a copy of the assembly under a different name in a different folder, can I delete/change the relevant part, without changing any previous CAD models with a reference to the original assembly design? Or do I have to do the usual “get references command” meaning that I’ll end up clogging the server with unnecessary data??
Hope someone can help me, as I have been re-creating the assemblies from scratch which is taking me ages…
If you just ‘save as’ and change the name of the assembly, it will loose all of it’s references. Then, when you open your new Euro folder, all you’ll have is a bunch of Assembly files that can’t find any of the parts that are within them. You’ll have to find references. You can then change part and assembly names I believe, but I don’t know how to do that (when we send our files to our engineer in Taiwan, they sometimes come back with different names, but it’s still the same file. I donno it’s confusing)
If you’re clogging up the server, it’s time to get more memory or somethin!’ if you don’t find references you might screw everything up again…
I wouldn’t worry so much about assembly/parts names, find the product by naming the product on the folder inside your Euro Library folder, where you found refernces of the similar UK product… If that makes any sense
The best thing you can do to move files around is ti use Solidworks Explorer.(SWE)
NEVER use windows explorer to change and move files, it will justa start to make things blow up at some point.
When you use SWE you can grab the top level assembly, tell it to show what parts are being used in that assembly, and then copy everything into a new folder.
Its also highly recommended to use a data management system. ie PDM works or something to that extent. Programs like that are parametric definately need quite a bit more fore thought in how the data is stored for future re-visits.
We’re having PDM Works installed shortly, plus I’ve got some training coming up which should certainly help me with some of my questions, but it’s still great having so many of you guys around here!!
