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Why does my "Contains" tab for a part have drawings in it?

Question asked by Michael Cairns on Jun 16, 2015
Latest reply on Jun 16, 2015 by Jim Stone

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All of my basic standard library parts - in the "Contains" tab, they're showing a lot of drawings in a blue font. Can anyone tell me:

1- What the font being blue means?

2- Why are drawings showing as being contained in a part?

It's a major problem because any time I try to move a state on an assembly containing any library part, it tries to move thousands of different files all linked through the library parts. Many aren't in the correct state to be moved, so it just throws an error, which is a minor annoyance. Sometimes, however, the files are in the right state and we're moving multiple projects through workflows when they shouldn't be moved all because they both reference the same standard part.

Charley Saint Jun 16, 2015 3:54 PM

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Hey Michael,

The blue font indicates that the file is a sub-parent. These are parent files that are treated like children for reference dialogs like check-out or change state. Drawings are setup by default to behave this way, and the settings are per-file type not per-folder so if you change it for parts it affects all parts and you probably shouldn't (I can't imagine a time this would be a good idea). If you did want to change it the setting is in the administration tool under file types, just pick sldprt and remove the slddrw extension from the drawing nodes box:

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Charley Saint Jun 16, 2015 3:54 PM

Hey Michael,

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Michael Cairns @ Charley Saint on Jun 16, 2015 4:19 PM

This fixed the problem perfectly. Can you tell me of any adverse effects this could end up having?

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Charley Saint @ Michael Cairns on Jun 16, 2015 4:33 PM

Michael,

Not transitioning drawings with parts or assemblies when you are releasing files. They don't even show up in the change state dialog anymore so they will pretty much stay put from now on. Even if you change state on a top level assembly drawing it will find all the assemblies and parts under it, but none of the drawings that belong to those parts and assemblies. Essentially you no longer have anyway to lock drawings to read only when released so anyone can open them and modify them at any time, because they never move in the workflow.

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Michael Cairns @ Charley Saint on Jun 16, 2015 4:38 PM

I think we can live with that as a temporary fix. It's less debilitating than pulling up 50000 files every time we try and move something to a new state; we'll just have to build around that. Thanks for your help.

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Jim Stone Jun 16, 2015 4:40 PM

Michael,

For the state change file selection, you probably want to check this setting for your users -

We initially had it unchecked and had the same problem with changing state on files unintentionally. We found it to be much cleaner this way, though you have to manually select all files that you want to change state on. All of our drawings and their supporting model files begin with their part number/drawing number. If there are only a couple of files, you just select them manually before hitting Change State and they'll already be selected.

If they're in a big assembly with a gazillion files, right click in the transition window where you normally select the files to change state, and click on Select Files...

In the next window, enter that common base number, leaving the *.* that's already there.

All files starting with that base number will be highlighted in blue. Click on the selection box for one of them and they will all be selected.

I then like to scroll through and make sure all of those blue files are actually selected. Sometimes the person before me in the workflow didn't do this correctly and one or two of the files that should be selected say they're in the wrong state, calling for a little correction before moving forward.

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Charley Saint Jun 16, 2015 3:54 PM
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Correct Answer
Hey Michael,

The blue font indicates that the file is a sub-parent. These are parent files that are treated like children for reference dialogs like check-out or change state. Drawings are setup by default to behave this way, and the settings are per-file type not per-folder so if you change it for parts it affects all parts and you probably shouldn't (I can't imagine a time this would be a good idea). If you did want to change it the setting is in the administration tool under file types, just pick sldprt and remove the slddrw extension from the drawing nodes box:
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- Michael Cairns @ Charley Saint on Jun 16, 2015 4:19 PM
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  This fixed the problem perfectly. Can you tell me of any adverse effects this could end up having?
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  - Charley Saint @ Michael Cairns on Jun 16, 2015 4:33 PM
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    Michael,
    
    Not transitioning drawings with parts or assemblies when you are releasing files. They don't even show up in the change state dialog anymore so they will pretty much stay put from now on. Even if you change state on a top level assembly drawing it will find all the assemblies and parts under it, but none of the drawings that belong to those parts and assemblies. Essentially you no longer have anyway to lock drawings to read only when released so anyone can open them and modify them at any time, because they never move in the workflow.
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    - Michael Cairns @ Charley Saint on Jun 16, 2015 4:38 PM
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      I think we can live with that as a temporary fix. It's less debilitating than pulling up 50000 files every time we try and move something to a new state; we'll just have to build around that. Thanks for your help.
      Like • Show 0 Likes0
      Actions
Jim Stone Jun 16, 2015 4:40 PM
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Correct Answer
Michael,

For the state change file selection, you probably want to check this setting for your users -

We initially had it unchecked and had the same problem with changing state on files unintentionally. We found it to be much cleaner this way, though you have to manually select all files that you want to change state on. All of our drawings and their supporting model files begin with their part number/drawing number. If there are only a couple of files, you just select them manually before hitting Change State and they'll already be selected.

If they're in a big assembly with a gazillion files, right click in the transition window where you normally select the files to change state, and click on Select Files...
In the next window, enter that common base number, leaving the *.* that's already there.

All files starting with that base number will be highlighted in blue. Click on the selection box for one of them and they will all be selected.

I then like to scroll through and make sure all of those blue files are actually selected. Sometimes the person before me in the workflow didn't do this correctly and one or two of the files that should be selected say they're in the wrong state, calling for a little correction before moving forward.
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Why does my "Contains" tab for a part have drawings in it?

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