Copy Project?

you can get all the parts & sub parts from a top level assembly by using solidworks explorer & the copy command. However unfortunately there is no command to make sure that you get all the drawings of all those items -- I believe that this is one of the reasons WHY pdm systems exist. The only other answer is for you to manually open each & every drawings individually inside of sw explorer & then do the copy. However that will only get the models of which you have drawings of -- if you have models that do not have drawings you will have to use the first method as well... regardless it is not an easy process if your files are scattered on a network drive or you are not familiar.

However I did see at solidworks world how sw 2007 will have the ability to grab all the drawings -- however my gut tells me that your drawing file names will have to be the exact same file name as the model in order for it to work -- just like when using the "open drawing" command inside solidworks. But who knows maybe when the beta starts I'll be surprised.

Sorry for the bad news -- maybe something pointed you in the right direction Steve T.

Steve,

I would use SW Explorer. Open up the top level assembly in SW Explorer then under -Edit- -Copy Document-. You have options to "copy children" and "find where used". Set the location where you want and click apply. It will copy the assembly, parts and drawings to the new location. You could also use -File- -Find References-, but you will only get the molds and assemblies, no drawings.

Mike

I just tested it in 2006 SP3.0. As long as you click where used and make sure the drawing is check in the list to copy.

Mike

Does this find the drawings, of sub-assemblies and parts, or just the drawing(s) of the top level assembly?

John Harland

The test I did utilized part drawings and assembly drawings.

I guess I learned something here. for some reason I thought that the find children option only worked for rename -- duuh *slap forehead* It would only make sense that it would work for copy as well (to get the drawings)

Steve T.

Hello-

I just tried this and I was unsuccessful.

I have a folder with all SW files inside(drawings, assemblies, parts) I opened the top level assembly drawing, copy, copy children, where used.

Only the top level assembly drawing, all assemblies and parts were copied. The part drawings were not copied.

Did I do something wrong?

Best Regards, Devon T. Sowell

Now, I tried this all in one shot. Of course, using Where Used in a separate Search will yield a list of Assemblies and Drawings that can then be opened and copied.

Devon

The best workaround I found so far is, after copying an assembly using SW explorer, then copy the drawings with MS explorer into the new directory with the assembly open in SW all the drawing references are updated.

steve

I am not sure about SP0, I am using SP3.0 and made sure that find references was clicked. The drawings will be listed below. Be sure there are checked for copy.

Thanks, I'll try that.

Devon

I have found that with you can just copy all the parts, assemblies and drawings to another folder and they will retain their relationships ie open a drg and it will know the model has also moved and call the model from your new folder. This also applies to assemblies. However, if the drawing is saved not with the model but in another folder, say a central drg registry, then this doesn't work.

Trouble is Bob, that many projects (mine certainly) comprise assemblies, sub-assemblies, and parts that are drawn from a variety of different folders because they use sequential part numbers and are saved in folders in batches of 500.

The OS file/copy process would therefore have to be done in many stages. Having done this, you're still left with having to give the files new names to match their new part numbers. This can be done by doing "save as" on the parts with the sub-assys/assys/drwgs open to maintain the links, but then you're left with a duplicate file that needs deleting.

Basically I'm just whinging that SW don't supply PDM as standard, and the company I now work for haven't seen fit to pay the extra for it. It makes me want to rename it SolidChore.

Regards, John H