Opps I'm in trouble!

Was messing around with 2006 and accidentally saved and converted a bunch of
production files with no backups. Now I'm forced into using it for
production stuff. As I work on things and save them, it's like having a
virus on your computer, because I end up saving more 2005 files and
converting them. It just keeps going on and on!

Just hope I can squeak by until 2006 is released. How much longer do you
think we going to have to wait?

Seems like every year they come with a new version, I make the same mistake.
I'm bumming dude!

 

Then "DON"T DO THAT". You need to be more organized.

Copy out the files you wan't to test with in a specific local folder.

Mark

 

I couldn't pick up this one on Google so I'm replying to you Mark.

This guy got into quicksand and quickly did all the wrong things.

1. No backups???? Talk about living dangerously.
2. Converted files and disregarded the checkbox that allows a backup to
be made automatically.
3. Didn't read any of the many warnings in the software and on the news
group.
4. Didn't understand that PreRelease means pre-release. Fortunately SW
rarely if ever makes PreRelease files incompatible with the released
versions. It is however more likely with a PreRelease that some file
corruption might occur.
5. Keeps going even after he knows he's screwed. This is the quicksand
panic trap. As soon as he noticed what he was doing he should have
stopped in his tracks, backed up everything and made a list of what was
converted and what wasn't. Assemblies are pretty easy to recreate and
parts can be washed through parasolid/feature works/autodimension
treatments to get back what he had with relatively little effort.

Betcha a box of donuts this guy still hasn't backed up anything. If he
has a Palm Pilot or Office, why not set an appointment that goes off
next year around this time telling himself not to do it?

If you think I'm being too harsh I'll be a little harsh on myself and
wonder why I keep supporting software that can not interoperate with
itself and has spent more in development on reading other vendor's
files (Pro/E) than it's own. Aside from the backup comments this guy
shouldn't be in this pickle in the first place.

 

I set up my machine to dual boot
1/ work
2/Beta testing (using system commander)

Regards
John Layne

 

I went to the 2006 launch yesterday and had to laugh at SW's AutoCAD plugin
that allows AutoCAD users to open older versions of DWG files. They were
bragging about how the plugin was giving Autodesk a headache and money
loss - how long before someone clever writes us a backward-open plugin for
SW????? Hopefully it will give SW a loss of sales too....

 

1. SW does not disclose their file format other than it is structured
storage.
2. SW files seem to be object oriented as opposed to ACAD files which
seem to be geometry oriented. So what is saved in a SW file is based on
the current structure of SW objects. It is like a house of cards. How
many times has a little file corruption made a SW file totally
unusable. In ACAD you can take away one part and still have most of the
rest.
3. SW files contain a lot of "junk" that ACAD files don't have. Display
lists, versions of the solid bodies, etc. How these all interact is not
clear.

Think of SW files like a chain. Take away a link and the chain can't
hold anything nor can you replace the missing link. Think of ACAD files
like a box of chocolates, take away one and you can still enjoy the
rest.

 

I think to a degree, the file changes in different versions of SW is very
intentional. My reason for believing this is how they can change file types
among pre-releases. It would seem that you wouldn't want to do this as your
working the bugs out, but yet they do. I bet it's something they do during
the compile process. I think it's partly a security reason with the
pre-releases so they can't be used with the production software.

I think they have more control over this situation than they want us to
believe.

 

They change things because they really aren't changing geometry, but
data structures.

Consider this mind experiment.

1. Model four cubes by creating the first cube and then starting a
sketch on two faces of that cube that have a common edge, convert the
faces and extrude then pick one of the faces of the two new cubes that
also have that edge in common and repeat to get four cubes melded into
one.

2. Model four cubes by sketching a square, bisecting two edges that
share a common vertex with normal so that you have four square areas.
Using shared sketches extrude four cubes by picking squares in a
clockwise rotation and letting them merge.

3. Do the same as in 2, but pick squares that are diagonal first and
then pick the others.

4. Do the same as in 2, but with merge unchecked and combine bodies
when done.

Each of these gets to the same result and to some extent are ambiguous
in how the final geometry is put together. Now consider how you will
represent this in a file especially if you extend your thinking to the
case where it is SW that picks the order the cubes are created. There
is going to be a lot more in the file than just the geometry.