How can I find the drawings for parts of an assembly using the API without opening SW?

Ronald, Interesting application, but I don't need to search the world, just the folder the parent file is in. Could be useful in the future though.

Ivana, I ran into that bug developing a similar application, very annoying. I reported it to SW, but doubt they will ever fix it. I seem to recall there was more to it than it reports the wrong value, but I cannot remember enough. I recall it being with the SwDMDocument16.Save  or SaveAs commands. That it was not actually saving the changes. Thanks for the reminder though, I had forgotten about it and will be watching for it.

Turns out it was really easy to just write my own (VB.Net). I have posted portions below for reference. the array DrwRefs will be filled with the drawing filename and the second column will container its references. I can then search it for matches to the dependents found inside the file the user actually opened. It might be more efficient to use a collection here instead of an array, but is not something I have learned yet.

        FolderContents = System.IO.Directory.GetFiles(swParentFolder, "*.slddrw")

        ReDim Preserve DrwRefs(FolderContents.Length, 20)      'Assumes a maximum of 20 dependents for each drawing

        For Each slddrw In FolderContents

            swChildren = swGetRefs(slddrw)          'Function that gets the references of any SW file.

            For Each Ref In swChildren

                DrwRefs(i, j) = Ref

                j = j + 1

            Next

            i = i + 1

        Next

   Function swGetRefs(sDocFileName As String) As Object

        Const sLicenseKey As String = "key as obtained from SW"

        Dim swClassFact As SwDMClassFactory
        Dim swDocMgr As SwDMApplication3
        Dim swDoc As SwDMDocument16
        Dim swSearchOpt As SwDMSearchOption
        Dim nDocType As Long
        Dim nRetVal As Long
        Dim vBrokenRefs As Object
        Dim vIsVirtuals As Object
        Dim vTimeStamps As Object
        Dim vDependArr As Object

        vBrokenRefs = Nothing
        vIsVirtuals = Nothing
        vTimeStamps = Nothing

        'On Error GoTo GetRefFiles_Error

        '==========Determine what type of file=================
        Select Case Right(LCase(sDocFileName), 7)
            Case ".slddrw"
                nDocType = SwDmDocumentType.swDmDocumentDrawing
            Case ".sldprt"
                nDocType = SwDmDocumentType.swDmDocumentPart
            Case ".sldasm"
                nDocType = SwDmDocumentType.swDmDocumentAssembly
            Case Else
                ' Not a drawing, assembly or part file,
                nDocType = SwDmDocumentType.swDmDocumentUnknown
                ' so do not open
                swGetRefs = "Error"
                Exit Function
        End Select
        '==============Find references==========================
        swClassFact = CreateObject("SwDocumentMgr.SwDMClassFactory")
        swDocMgr = swClassFact.GetApplication(sLicenseKey)
        swSearchOpt = swDocMgr.GetSearchOptionObject
        swDoc = swDocMgr.GetDocument(sDocFileName, nDocType, True, nRetVal)

        If nRetVal = 1 Then
            MsgBox("File Missing", vbOKOnly)
            swGetRefs = vbNull
        End If
        vDependArr = swDoc.GetAllExternalReferences4(swSearchOpt, vBrokenRefs, vIsVirtuals, vTimeStamps)
        swGetRefs = vDependArr
        Exit Function
        'GetRefFiles_Error:
        'MsgBox "Error " & err.Number & " (" & err.Description & ") in procedure GetRefFiles of Module Module1"
    End Function