Hi,
The Vault view in Explorer doesn't give the complete story when it comes to the Where Used tab.
I tried using SolidWorks Explorer as a test. While it is slower, it is completely accurate.
Anyone have a similar experience? Solutions?
Thanks,
fred hodshon
Yes, that was looked into, same results.
here's a screengrab of the Vault via explorer:
here is a screengrab of SolidWorks Explorer - same file:
are the versions of the other assemblies that reference this part checked into the vault?
That seems very odd. I don't like a lot of things about the Where Used interface, but I have not noticed anything like that. SW Explorer is showing use in 9 files, 1 drawing and 8 sldasm. EPDM is showing PP1687.sldprt is used on 1 drawing and 1 assembly.
Have you seen this with other files as well? If you open one of those assy that EPDM does not mention does SolidWorks find PP1687?
Did you run it by your VAR? I would not go gentle into that no good discrepancy.
Remember that SolidWorks Explorer reads the "file references" directly from file.
EPDM only read the meta data that is stored in the SQL database.
Depending on how the assembly files were checked-in could control the information that is shown.
If you check-in the assembly from SolidWorks, the where used references get updated accordingly.
If you check-in the assembly from Explorer, you may not/will not get all of the where used references.
Seriously?
Do you mean if we check in files from the EPDM window on the taskbar within SolidWorks, we will get different results than checking in files from a folder within the Vault?
if that's the case, it's not acceptable.
"If you check-in the assembly from SolidWorks, the where used references get updated accordingly.
If you check-in the assembly from Explorer, you may not/will not get all of the where used references."
I second the "seriously?!" Can you elaborate on that Brian? Thanks.
I'm having issues where "Where Used" shows something on my screen, but doesn't show the same things on my colleague's screen. All the files have been checked in.
I've also been really suspicious of EPDM's "Where Used" being very inaccurate. However I don't have SW Explorer installed, so I'm really in the dark and don't trust it.
can you post screenshots of the differences?
Hi Jeremy. Sorry, after seeing your tip to view "all versions" it worked.
But I still don't trust EPDM's "Where Used." Do you feel it's reliable?
"All versions" selection hasn't worked here.
I don't trust it.
It's a little disconcerting to my group when I tell them not to use the
"Where Used" tab in explorer after "selling" EPDM as a must have management tool.
At least SolidWorks Explorer is a native solution.
Overall, EPDM has been INVALUABLE. I've been dealing with 3D CAD data management
since the early '90's. I've seen the evolution of the tool-sets available.
It's a miracle we have ANYthing that works..
fred
has this part ever been "rolled back"?
it has not.
have you checked any of the assemblies not on the EPDM where used, to double check that it is looking at the same file (including file location) that you are looking at?
we have been running EPDM since 2011, and the only thing I have found that breaks it is roll backs - and it warns you when it will do that.
Hi Everyone.
I work for a VAR and work specifically with EPDM. Let me just state the following:
The references in EPDM and SWE (WPDM for that matter) should always match.
The mechanism for establishing the references between files is triggered whenever a file is checked in. SolidWorks reads the file references from the file header and writes the information to SQL for fast retrieval. Therefore, if you checkin an assembly inside of EPDM (using either the vault view or SW Task pane), the references for that file will be created for all files in the vault that exist at that time, linked to the assembly...i.e. if you check in an assembly (with missing references) and later check in an individual part file, that part file will not show as 'where used' until you have (as a minimum) opened, rebuilt, saved, and checked in the assembly to update the references for all its children
As stated earlier, it would be unacceptable if the references were not read consistently, and I can assure you this is not the case.
To make life easier for the end user, the specific version of a file shows its 'where used' information in the where-used tab, so that you don't have to manually search all the links yourself, but should you need to, then the 'all versions' setting will let you peruse all the possible combinations for the different versions of assemblies that this file belonged to. So if v1 of assembly 1 contains no reference to this file, and then v2 onwards of the assembly does contain a ref to this file, then the 'all versions' setting will reflect this accordingly by displaying the version number of the assembly at which this component was inserted. It will not display old references, only the newer insertions. I would encourage you to test this with a 2 part assembly, first inserting the 1 component, checking in the assy, then the 2nd component, checkin, then checking the where used tab for the first component
That being said, if the 'all versions' setting doesn't work it means 1 of 2 things:
Thank you Andries Koorzen!
I will look into your comments.
Makes sense with a first read.
I will report back.
fred
first thing to check would be are you looking the at the where used for "all versions"?