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Guidelines If Starting Data Mangament From Scratch (or mostly)

Question asked by Jim Mongiardo on Jul 18, 2019
Latest reply on Jul 19, 2019 by Jim Mongiardo

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Our current library system can barely be called a library system. Its a mish-mash spaghetti of copies upon copies of the same file in different locations, sometimes with different construction (ugh!). Anyhow, thankfully our assemblies are not overly complicated and there actually is quite a bit of part reuse. What I need is the following:

1. I know modelling and have used PDM before, but not in a SW environment. I just found out about SW Explorer, does anyone have any good online tutorials on how it functions. I plan on pushing hard to implement SW PDM Standard as its included in our license, but we really need to start untangling this mess immediately so that future models aren't built on the same terrible foundation. It sounds like SW Explorer is the best tool for this.

2. It appears that the general idea of past designers was to save an assembly and all its constituents in the file folder associated with that particular job. They also tried to have a semi-organized structure of previous parts for creating new assemblies. As you can imagine, the hidden relations between all of these saved/copies/etc is mind-numbing. We use previous assemblies as the basis for future assemblies and it would be nice not to COMPLETELY destroy old assembly relations, is there a way to have an old assembly open as reference, with a new assembly being modified with possibly the same names?

#2 May sound like a dumb question, but the internal "memory" of SW when I've been cleaning up a model and then it ends up being one saved in a completely different spot than I thought has caught me out a few times. So much, I tend to close down SW and reopen it if I'm working two assemblies with similar part structures. Ugh, this spaghetti mess is frustrating.

Thanks for your input!

Jim

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Frederick Law Jul 18, 2019 2:31 PM

Solidworks cannot handle files with same name.

So first, find all the files with same name and rename them differently.

If they are same part, keep one and delete all the other.

Moving the files to another folder will not work. Solidworks will search every drives and folders it can access.

File open in memory will override file being open.

So the first file open will override all other after it.

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Jim Mongiardo Jul 19, 2019 9:25 AM

Thanks!

I kind of thought so. Ugh, what a mess I get to clean up. I can rename parts in those folders but I still don't actually know if the assembly in that folder is still pointing to that file or to a different one in a different folder.

Renaming files isn't really practical (unless they are actually differently structured parts). I need to point existing assemblies to the same correct library file as I rebuild our "master" library.

Is there a way to know the location of the file SW has open in its memory? i.e which is the one its overriding the other instances with? Once I start solidifying the library, I don't want old files accidentally worming their way into my approved library files. Will SW Explorer help me to navigate this?

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Frederick Law @ Jim Mongiardo on Jul 19, 2019 9:30 AM

Jim Mongiardo wrote:

Is there a way to know the location of the file SW has open in its memory?

Its always the first one it open. From which ever assembly it was open from.

First you need to pick one to replace all the other. Put it in a library.

Then find and delete or rename all other with the same name.

Then open all assemblies and reference the missing part.

I think PDM could do that better and easier.

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Jim Mongiardo @ Frederick Law on Jul 19, 2019 9:54 AM

Frederick Law wrote:
I think PDM could do that better and easier.

I agree! Which is why I hope I can convince them to implement it. In the mean time, I think I can get by with cleaning up the parts library and making sure its correct.

I'm just not that familiar with "replacing" parts. I don't know all the wrinkles that might be involved in opening an old assembly and replacing an existing part with my library part with the same name.

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Frederick Law @ Jim Mongiardo on Jul 19, 2019 9:58 AM

You can try the free PDM.

The worse "wrinkle" is all mates fail.

You could delete all mates on the part and fix it for the time being.

You'll still need to repair it when you use the assembly again.

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Jim Sculley @ Jim Mongiardo on Jul 19, 2019 10:15 AM

1-9T355V3 wrote:

Is there a way to know the location of the file SW has open in its memory?

In an assembly, from the menus select File...Find References. It will give you a list like this:

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Jim Mongiardo @ Jim Sculley on Jul 19, 2019 10:58 AM

Jim, that may be basic info to most but I appreciate! I'm finding a lot of these as I get to know SW.

I'd really like to find a decent online tutorial to go through for SW and SW Explorer. I'm familiar with modelling (from the days when Solidwoks, SolidEdge, etc. were the new kids on the block) but I'm very unfamiliar with SW as a program. I'd love a tutorial/training that I can speed through because I know how to model, but will give me those few, key, time-saving a-ha moments of..."so THAT's the command I thought they had that I couldn't find for an hour" to "that's a really cool modern SW command that I didn't know about that fit's with my workflow to a tee".

As far as PDM goes, PDM Standard is included in our license. I wasn't sure if "activating" it without setting it up would cause problems if we decided to roll out more features in the future. Our VAR has some basic setup packages but, of course, then I'm getting authorization to buy them, thus the delay. If I could use it without much trouble just for parts organization that would be tremendous.

I'm trying to avoid repeating the past mistakes of "I don't know what I'm doing but I'll do it anyway and fix it later..."

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Jim Mongiardo Jul 19, 2019 11:02 AM

Just to get a mini thread going on duplicate file names....

In perusing the pet peeves thread, I noticed a few experienced users that deal with the duplicate name issue from time to time (whether that's within a project folder itself or as in my case, across multiple project folders). What is your general procedure when you come across such a situation (other than throwing something...got that one covered already!)

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8 Replies

Frederick Law Jul 18, 2019 2:31 PM
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Solidworks cannot handle files with same name.
So first, find all the files with same name and rename them differently.
If they are same part, keep one and delete all the other.

Moving the files to another folder will not work. Solidworks will search every drives and folders it can access.

File open in memory will override file being open.
So the first file open will override all other after it.
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Jim Mongiardo Jul 19, 2019 9:25 AM
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Thanks!
I kind of thought so. Ugh, what a mess I get to clean up. I can rename parts in those folders but I still don't actually know if the assembly in that folder is still pointing to that file or to a different one in a different folder.

Renaming files isn't really practical (unless they are actually differently structured parts). I need to point existing assemblies to the same correct library file as I rebuild our "master" library.

Is there a way to know the location of the file SW has open in its memory? i.e which is the one its overriding the other instances with? Once I start solidifying the library, I don't want old files accidentally worming their way into my approved library files. Will SW Explorer help me to navigate this?
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- Frederick Law @ Jim Mongiardo on Jul 19, 2019 9:30 AM
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  Jim Mongiardo wrote:
  
  Is there a way to know the location of the file SW has open in its memory?
  Its always the first one it open. From which ever assembly it was open from.
  First you need to pick one to replace all the other. Put it in a library.
  Then find and delete or rename all other with the same name.
  Then open all assemblies and reference the missing part.
  
  I think PDM could do that better and easier.
  Like • Show 0 Likes0
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  - Jim Mongiardo @ Frederick Law on Jul 19, 2019 9:54 AM
    Mark Correct
    Correct Answer
    
    Frederick Law wrote:
    I think PDM could do that better and easier.
    I agree! Which is why I hope I can convince them to implement it. In the mean time, I think I can get by with cleaning up the parts library and making sure its correct.
    
    I'm just not that familiar with "replacing" parts. I don't know all the wrinkles that might be involved in opening an old assembly and replacing an existing part with my library part with the same name.
    Like • Show 1 Like1
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    - Frederick Law @ Jim Mongiardo on Jul 19, 2019 9:58 AM
      Mark Correct
      Correct Answer
      You can try the free PDM.
      
      The worse "wrinkle" is all mates fail.
      You could delete all mates on the part and fix it for the time being.
      You'll still need to repair it when you use the assembly again.
      Like • Show 0 Likes0
      Actions
- Jim Sculley @ Jim Mongiardo on Jul 19, 2019 10:15 AM
  Mark Correct
  Correct Answer
  1-9T355V3 wrote:
  
  Is there a way to know the location of the file SW has open in its memory?
  In an assembly, from the menus select File...Find References. It will give you a list like this:
  Like • Show 0 Likes0
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  - Jim Mongiardo @ Jim Sculley on Jul 19, 2019 10:58 AM
    Mark Correct
    Correct Answer
    Jim, that may be basic info to most but I appreciate! I'm finding a lot of these as I get to know SW.
    
    I'd really like to find a decent online tutorial to go through for SW and SW Explorer. I'm familiar with modelling (from the days when Solidwoks, SolidEdge, etc. were the new kids on the block) but I'm very unfamiliar with SW as a program. I'd love a tutorial/training that I can speed through because I know how to model, but will give me those few, key, time-saving a-ha moments of..."so THAT's the command I thought they had that I couldn't find for an hour" to "that's a really cool modern SW command that I didn't know about that fit's with my workflow to a tee".
    
    As far as PDM goes, PDM Standard is included in our license. I wasn't sure if "activating" it without setting it up would cause problems if we decided to roll out more features in the future. Our VAR has some basic setup packages but, of course, then I'm getting authorization to buy them, thus the delay. If I could use it without much trouble just for parts organization that would be tremendous.
    
    I'm trying to avoid repeating the past mistakes of "I don't know what I'm doing but I'll do it anyway and fix it later..."
    Like • Show 1 Like1
    Actions
Jim Mongiardo Jul 19, 2019 11:02 AM
Mark Correct
Correct Answer
Just to get a mini thread going on duplicate file names....
In perusing the pet peeves thread, I noticed a few experienced users that deal with the duplicate name issue from time to time (whether that's within a project folder itself or as in my case, across multiple project folders). What is your general procedure when you come across such a situation (other than throwing something...got that one covered already!)
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Guidelines If Starting Data Mangament From Scratch (or mostly)

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