BUG - Opening multiple documents via Windows Explorer now impossible

SW2004 SP01 and SP02

Select three small SW files in Windows Explorer. Right click and select
'Open'. Only one file (typically the last selected file) is opened.
Note that Windows Explorer is seemingly dead at this point. Close the
file. Close SW. Like magic, another SW session opens with the second
selected file. Close it and then SW. Once again, SW pops up with the
first selected file shown.

Imagine what fun it is when you've selected 14 drawings including a few
assemblies with many parts.

SW2003 and prior versions handle this correctly.

Also, the same behavior occurs when you drag multiple files from
Explorer into an already open SW session.

Jim S.

 

Jim,
Both of these methods are working for me in 2004 SP1 running under Win2000
SP4

Richard

 

Richard Doyle wrote:

Windows XP here.

Jim S.

 

The right click and open won't work for any prior version if SW2004 is
installed on the same machine. 2004 is associated with the file type.

Interestingly, after reading the above, I assumed that you had meant
'one at a time'. So, just to be sure, I tried it, and as you say, I was
able to drag all three into SW 2004 at once and they each opened.
Subsequent experiments indicate that the behavior is intermittent, which
is actually worse than just plain broken.

Jim S.

 

I just tried a similar procedure using 4 ".doc" files. Ctrl-select the
files, RBM, select "Open", and I got four instances of Word, not four
documents in one instance. Ctrl-select the files and drag-drop into an
empty session of Word, and I still get Word opened three more times. I
can't think this is simply a "SW bug"

 

Jim,
I just tried it on my laptop (XP Pro) and it still works here. It even
opened the derived (mirrored) part that was referenced by one of the
selected parts (I had to try it three times before I fugred out why it was
opening four parts instead of the three I had selected).

Your original message referred to SP2. Just a guess, but could the install
of the SP hosed it up somehow? Maybe try to repeat the test on a "clean"
computer.

Richard

 

I saw the problem on a different machine running SP1. At the time I
didn't recognize what the problem was, but I can see now that it was the
same issue.

Jim S.

 

I can't think this is simply a "SW bug"

Steve - quite right. I think that anyone who is having this problem
owes it to themselves to look into their explorer launch association
and see if having (I think) DDE enabled or not changes the undesirable
behavior.

Based on having DDE enabled or not will cause a new window to open or
not - at least this is what I have seen over the years.

The real problem (caused by solidworks programming) is a serious lack
of a multi file open capability in the current solidworks "open"
dialogue. This is the real problem here, not that explorer acts
strange as it always does.

Regards,

SMA

Fight The Plower . . .

 

No, you got four windows, and one instance of Word. The task manager
will tell you as much, as well as the fact that closing one via
'File...Exit' closes them all.

Microsoft recently decided that MDI apps are no longer useful. The
think it is much better to fill your taskbar with dozens of IE, Word,
Excel or other application windows. So be it, but SW is still an MDI
app and should behave like one.

Once again, you get three windows and one instance or Word.

Why not? Even if your post was accurate, SW doesn't behave in the
manner you describe. It locks up the Explorer application, which is
undoubtedly because it is blocking waiting for SW to make a response
that it never makes.

I'm also fairly confident that this right click to open functionality
*for SW* worked in the past. I commonly need to open two dozen drawings
to print them. However, I suppose it is possible that my recollection
is faulty and I did this only with my previous machine running Windows NT.

In any event, SW and SW alone needs to fix the problem. If that means
that SW can no longer be an MDI app, so be it. I'll mourn the loss
though, because I typically have 20-30 files open.

Jim S.