toolbox paths

seem to have trouble with a "few particular assemblies" not retaining the
toolbox parts path after checking out from pdmw.

assemblies are corrected with toolbox parts path being re-established.
everything is fine on local disk (close and re-open), then check back in.

next time the assembly is checked out, back to square one, cannot find
toolbox parts. have done qtrl+q numerous times to no avail. anyone have
any other ideas or tricks?

sw 2004 sp4.0, pdmw 2005 sp0.0, win xp sp1

cheers,
kb

 

First, is there someone else who is using the assemblies? If so, and
you are using local toolbox libraries, you really should have your
libraries set up in the same path on each computer.

Second, are you checking in the TB parts? Delete local copy? It
actually might be a better idea to check them in, depending on if you
are using configurations or "Copy Parts". Only do it if you are using
the copy parts option. This is actually the safest way to run TB and
PDMW.

Third, are you using a shared network library? There can be a lot of
things that go wrong with this. If it is a network library, are you
sure the read-write access is set up properly? If you don't know what
the proper read-write access is, then I guarantee it's wrong. SW makes
sure that you really have to know what you're doing before you can get
TB set up properly in anything but a single user setting.

Fourth, are you using Copy Parts or Configurations? If you don't know,
you're probably using configurations. Configurations in TB parts have a
couple pretty major drawbacks, all dealing with data sharing.

Fifth, have you set up your Tools, Options, File Locations, Referenced
Documents paths? This might be useful. How are you determining the TB
parts path? I recommend File, Find References. If you try to do it
with the References in the Open dialog or SW Explorer, you could get the
theoretical path rather than the actual path. Remember there are 13
places SW looks for files.

Sixth, are you positive that you don't have copies of your TB parts
lying around on your hard drive? Checking in and out TB parts with
configs can give you copies of parts with different sets of configs,
which is the biggest problem with TB parts in general. This can be an
even bigger problem if you're sloppy about where you put parts coming
out of the vault. I recommend putting all the parts into a single
working folder, and keeping that folder cleaned out if all changes have
been put back into the vault.

It's really a shame that SolidWorks can't figure out how to make a
LIBRARY OF PARTS which is actually usable.

matt

 

Actually there can be more or less than 13 places SW looks for files.
It finally dawned on me that the 13 steps in help are just for their
example. It all depends on how many paths are setup in
FILES/REFERENCES, how deep the tree is for each one and how deep the
tree is to the file that is being referenced in its original location.
The last few of the steps are the same whether references are searched
or not. There is also the wildcard that SW threw in.

 

yes. same unc path (shared copy)

no. delete local copies manually.

yes. read -write is set correctly. we have the toolbox browser folder set
to read-only. local stations have browser set to no copy, and always change
read-only status. works quite well. just have to remember to remove
browser folders' read-only status when upgrading software.

configurations. seems to work well.

no. tb path set in toolbox.ini (i know that doesn't really count)

almost. we use a single folder.

it's almost usable. the killer is switching from one setup (local) to
another (shared). when using a shared version of toolbox you have to be on
your toes at all times. i have had reasonable success.

i think i may have found it (just before i left last night), but it's a
little complicated. since i'm not there right now (this is a part time
contract position, evenings) some of what i describe will be speculation.

when i started there a few months ago, they had tb parts being checked in
(no copy) and one user had a local tb. yes, any expletive will do.

so i've been working furiously at correcting the fouled up assemblies and i
just didn't look hard enough at this particular assembly. the assembly had
2 tb parts that were checked-in, bingo.

here's the speculation part. since tb parts are no longer being checked-in
how can they be checked-out? when i checked this assy out no tb parts came
with it. here's the kicker, when opening the assy and it looks for the tb
parts, it prompts for a local path (remember, one user originally was using
a local copy of tb).

on a side note, i'm happy that sw is addressing this situation with the
improvement in pdmw 2005 for tb parts. hopefully we will see some more
improvements in the near future!

 

They aren't checked out. They're not revision managed, they're not even in
the vault, just a shortcut, so there are several things you can't do with
them that you can do with other PDMW parts

Right, it should be looking for the path where the TB parts were when the
assy was last saved before check in.

If the guy with the local TB checked the assy in last, that's exactly what
I'd expect.


I'm glad you sound reasonably happy with it, but you seem to know what's
going on, yet this one has slipped past you. What do you do when you share
assemblies with people outside your network? Do you have any way to take
work on a laptop and then re-synch with the laptop? These are going to be
major problems for TB.

matt