Component Configuration Could Not Be Found...HELP PLEASE

Aron, after listening to this group's problems with various SWks 2007 issues, I am convinced to stay with 2006 SP 5.1 for the foreseeable future.

I think it is best to revert to backups or archives and use 2006 until there is verified good 2007 SPs and you have a definite need to go to

2007. I have not upgraded to a new "year" of SolidWorks until at least SP 4. My time is too valuable to do otherwise.

The days of mindless hardware and software upgrades are over. VISTA as an OS is NOT AN OPTION for me. The early testers call it a dog, let alone other issues.

Good Luck - Bo

Ar> Hi,

Hi Aron,

When you installed 2007 did you designate a new location for the toolbox install? If you did, then it will have an empty database (mdb) file. If when you installed 2007 you specify the same toolbox path that 2006 used then it should update properly. I specified the same path and didn't have this problem, but I can't garuntee this is the answer for you.

As a quick-fix to the problem you describe below ( The following component configuration could not be found.)

Just open the toolbox and drag in the same pem stud that is noted as missing into the assembly, spec the same size etc. This will recreate the missing configuration in the toolbox database. Then delete the newly created pem stud.

Zander

Ar> Hi,

Zander, I truly hope your suggestion below works for Aron.

I have a single Mandatory Boy Scout Rule on upgrades & this applies to:

A. Hardware: Leave the old hardware in place & functional, & install a new Hard Drive or Computer as needed without changing the prior OS/Hard Drive...(Guaranteed Reversion to 100% working condition)

B. Software: Slightly less certain is to leave the old SWks-OS installation in place & intact & ready to go, & put "new" upgraded OS's or software applications on a new Hard Drive...(Not a 100% solution, as there is always a chance for screwing up a motherboard, Hard Drive controller, or whatever when firmware might be upgraded).

Choice "A" is the ONLY way to avoid the slight chance of an inability to rapidly deliver design work when something crashes out.

If I had a project with high complexity and/or a huge amount of parts and had to deliver designs in a week, I would NEVER upgrade anything, until I had a lull in work, and enough time to smoothly, carefully install, archive-backup and check things out in an organized manner.

The cost of a whole new computer is nothing compared to the loss of delivering a key project to a valued customer. If you are billing for

100 hours work, but can't deliver because an upgrade screwed up the delivery, & you lost or delayed $5000 billings at least, because you wouldn't buy a new hard drive, what does that say?

Bo

Zander wrote:

All good points! I was only addressing his toolbox issue and not his deadlines or backups.

I too am very cautious with upgrades/backups etc. I still have a complete archive of all my projects prior to upgrading to 2007 and an older computer with 2006 installed. In fact with 4 computers in my office (including my laptop) - plus nightly backups to removable drives, intra-day zip files of projects on the go, pdm vault backups as well, online backup running 24/7, raid-5 arrays and offsite backup at my friends house you could even call me 'overly cautious'!!!

If Aron ignores trying to 'fix' or 'upgrade' his toolbox and simply creates toolbox items that match his missing studs for now he will be able to get some work done. It's a pretty simple workaround as long as you assembly doesn't contain thousands of differnet toolbox parts....

Zander

Bo wrote:

First "Thank You All" for helping me on this one - what a pain it is!

I will answer the questions/comments in order - I hope this makes for some thought provoking reading ;-)

I let SW install where it chose to, I always let the program choose what and where it like to put things... I did however clean the 2006 data out because I did not want this to happen again - I had HS happen HS (Huge Screws)on the switch from 2005 to 2006, and someone told me it was because the "older" 2005 database was not cleared before 2006 was installed - I can now see that was not the problem and may have made it worse. I did however not erase the 2006 "C:\Program Files\Common Files\Solidworks Data" files, I simply moved them in case I had a problem... so maybe I could do something with the old data, but of course I do not want to corrupt the new data either.

So the simple answer is it is the same location as the original files were, I looked - same path - and I made no changes to the toolbox - it is a stock toolbox.

Now for my commentary: (Are you listening SolidWorks? I hope so... it's not that bad...)

As a user I should not have to go through this AT ALL during an "Upgrade". I cannot charge my clients money for a database error that your program causes me. I pay $2K a year maintenance and still cannot talk directly with the actual programmers (or high level tech support) if I have a problem. While a VAR may be good at some things (some are sharper than others - normal, like any business personnel) I should not have to go through an extra layer of horsesh^t (bureaucracy) just to get a problem with SolidWorks Software or in this case Software Installation.

This whole VAR thing is really weird to me - should I set up a VAR structure for my company - if a customer has a problem with a design they deal with my VAR. No, they should come directly to me, and I will help resolve the issue. I see a VAR as a shield to help protect you from the day to day rigors of company struggle. Maybe you need to be a little closer to reality? Not saying this in a bad way - but get in touch at a more personal level with your customers - we are the ones paying your salaries in all fairness, and we enjoy using the tools you have provided to use. It makes us look good when your software helps us create a nice product or solves a problem for the customer - we see SolidWorks share in that excitement often - But Where are You, when we need high level help on equally important issues? Again, not trying to be the bad guy here, but life is sharing the good and bad together - that VAR stuff really insulates you from the sharpness of reality sometimes.

Take a lead from Microsoft who I pay only for the cost of the software - once, and pay no $2K a year maintenance fee to. I can deal with the $2K a year for SoilidWorks Updates (even that seems a little high), but I find it tough to have no help if a new install corrupts old files and causes lost productivity - with no fault of mine! SolidWorks seems to tout about often is how productive the software is - I agree. But when files stop working when I did nothing wrong, that is a big, big problem for all of us as SolidWorks Software users!!!.

Please note that during the installation of a Microsoft Product (Operating System, Office Software, Games, etc.) tech support is free -FREE. And better yet I talk directly with someone at the company - and usually not overseas either (your experience may differ I guess) but the point is that these are very serious issues here with A LOT OF MONEY floating around (at least for me as a small business) and yet I, as a user, gets left holding the short end of the stick while installing a new version of the SolidWorks software. I hate to say this but if your software is really worth it, back it up by live SolidWorks Corporation Installation Help - if it is properly written software with few bugs, then your help lines will be nearly silent, and your techs will be able to get work done. If not, well - then you know where the problem is...

So:

Dear SolidWorks Corp. Please add a toll free number that users may call if they have installation problems between (if nothing less than) version changes, 2005 to 2006 to

2007, etc. You will be loved by your user base and the loyal following you seem to seek in all of the speeches and seminars I have attended over the years, will become an absolute reality, and you will reap the monetary rewards you seek, as well as the personal satisfaction of being there for your customer.

SolidWorks Software is not getting any simpler to develop and install issues will arise - we all are paying for the price of technology whether we like it or not. Think of how many things go slightly wrong in just one day when a simple technology lets us down - do the experiment one day or so will do, and keep tabs, it will astound you. We as a nation are paying a price for our technology "lust". Tech support and the ability to resolve the problem quickly are the answer - going through a VAR for this type of info and help is not.

Anyway,

I also would like to say that I agree with getting a new hard drive when changing over a new version of SolidWorks, since the workstation is typically used only for that purpose - mine unfortunately multi-tasks a little - so it is a little more work to do, i.e. more software to reinstall, update, etc. you know the drill. I typically keep the old hard drive in an external case, and after pulling down the old info/data/files the drive stays in the external case for a few years until I am sure it is un-needed, then it gets backed-up (again) and the becomes a generic storage device for backing up files to. I haven't actually done the last part yet - I just have about 3 external drives from past iterations of my workstation, but in theory I could just swap out the drives and it should boot. However it would get Flooded with update requests and be useless for a few hours while that stuff happened (i.e. Microsoft Update)

Thanks again for your help on this. I did load the first problem assembly, and dropped in a "flush PEM Nut" of the proper size and it did work - but what a pain to do for all of the assemblies - wow. I certainly will be asking my VAR to do this at opening time early on Monday morning - get ready guys!

Aron

Hi Aron,

Your old toolbox folder that you moved contains a *.mdb file which is your toolbox database. It is what contains all of the configurations. The 'big screw' problem is simply caused by loading an assembly with a toolbox part that is looking for a config which doesn't exist in your database. Note, assemblies created in 2007 will open toolbox parts properly no matter if the config ref exists or not - but this is no help for 2006 assemlies.

I would hesitate to recommend a procedure to follow to restore your mdb file. Anything I suggest could turn into a disaster - maybe someone else here knows if you can simply shutdown solidworks and over-write the new mdb file with your old one.

(back in sw2005 I use to work in multiple locations and I used to 'sync' my mdb file from one location to the other without difficulty - but this was within the same version - I suspect it would 'bad' to try this now.)

Zander

Ar> First "Thank You All" for helping me on this one - what a pain it is! >

Well it only gets better (worse actually)

Any of the parts or assemblies made with weldments also have issues: "The following component configuration could not be found"

So now I can't work on that clients work either. More deadlines more not working, costing $$$ here.

I am suspecting any and all parts & assemblies I created using the toolbox!

This is absolutely ridiculous...

Aron SW 2007, SP2.2 Hi,

Aron, I believe there are other posts in the last month concerning Configurations in 2007 which other users had problems with, though I'm not using 2007, so I passed over what the details were and whether there was a solution.

If possible, I think I would revert to 2006, but that is just me.

Bo

Ar> Well it only gets better (worse actually)

I got it working... Yes!!

This is what I did in my case, but others may have this problem as well:

I replaced the new (2007) toolbox data (C:\Program Files\Common Files\Solidworks Data) with the old (2006) toolbox data... of course SW 2007 will not load it because it senses the data base is not correct - it will give a warning.

Then I reinstalled SW 2007 (I have premium and chose that again)... SW 2007 saw that it needed to merge the new and old data base for toolbox (gave a progress bar) and then skipped over COSMOS and the others, because they were not affected and or in need of reinstallation.

Now I had SW2007 back, but at SP00... I tried a few drawings, parts, assemblies and all of the toolbox & weldments seem to be working fine, however I wanted to update to SP2.2... so more fun.

It would not update, no matter what I tried. It wanted disk #4 CD, of course I was using the DVD, and it was looking for the tb3.cab file in the i386 subdirectory... Which would have been on disk #1 anyway. I read of a similar problem (not exactly the same - but at 3AM I was desperate!) on the SW Website (see:

Aron, I believe there are other posts in the last month concerning

Aron,

I know this information is a little late, but what you have seen is predictable and expected Toolbox behavior. I'm not obsessed with paranoia about upgrades, it just takes a little information to upgrade successfully, but I have done some research on Toolbox.

Toolbox is designed to work in the way you observed. I have written about this many times on this newsgroup, and my website has some articles posted on this topic.

The short solution to your problem would have been to write down the configs you needed, exit out of the assembly open command without saving, and then go into your new Toolbox and create those size fasteners, and then re-open the assembly, and it should have come in perfectly. Of course you would have the same problem again the next assembly you opened that had different fasteners in it, so what you wound up doing in the end was what you should have done in the beginning.

Anyway, read my stuff, and be careful with toolbox.

matt

Hi,