Is there any way to have solidworks save it's files in a 3 digit file extension, ie *.SLDASM = ASW: *.SLDPRT= *.PSW ; *.SLDDRW=*.DSW
I started with a new company that bought an EDM System called IFS. They were told that It would work with Solidworks but it turns out to be a huge amount of money to have them enable it to work with 6 digit file extensions.
I can have an easy solution if I can get SW to save the files as above or some other 3 character extension.
Steve Davis wrote in news:Xns93F3ECC443D9ASdavis322cflrrcom@65.32.1.6:
HA HA HA!!! Sorry, but I can't help laughing at things like this. How much do you suppose a system like this costs? I'm sure it's outrageous money. And it gets tripped up by file extensions longer than three characters? For cryin' out loud, this hasn't been a Windows limitation since Windows 95.
It's like how BobCAD still (as of ver 17, anyway) can't deal with anything other than 8.3 filenames. How sad and pathetic.
Anyway, I think your only solution is to manually strip the "SLD" from the extension when saving Solidworks files. You can do it right in the dialog box. Even if someone forgets to do that it can easily be changed later.
I notice that Solidworks already includes .PRT, .ASM, and .DRW in the filters when opening and saving files. However, it doesn't associate itself with those file extensions so you'd have to do it manually through Windows.
Also, keep in mind that some 3rd party SW tools may not be written to deal with the older extensions.
A better solution would be to scold the EDM vendor and mention to them how embarassing it is that their over-priced and under-featured software can't deal with something that a $50 database program wouldn't even blink at. Really, I would consider this a bug in their software and they should be obliged to fix it for free.
This isn't an automated solution however, you can open a command prompt window and then use DOS commands to:
navigate to the directory where the files reside
rename *.sldasm *.asw
rename *.sldprt *.psw
rename *.slddrw *.dsw
The process could be tedious (especially if you have many directory locations), but it works and can of course be used with the rename commands in the reverse when you want to revert the files to native SolidWorks recognition.
To work with the files on both SolidWorks and IFS simultaneously, you'll need to have duplicates.
Per O. Hoel ___________________________________________________________________
MANMAN....ugh....been in the same situation. Now I struggle with an equally cruddy software called Pointman. At least its windoze based so I can copy and paste meaningless data at will or export to a useless excel spreadsheet. Can't someone come up with a decent ERP system that is less expensive per seat than my house!?! I've been thinking about using Parts&Vendors!
"ms" wrote in news:pKx9b.269506$ snipped-for-privacy@rwcrnsc52.ops.asp.att.net:
That's what I'm using now. It's not an ERP system, though. It's really just a BOM maintenance/part ordering/ECO tracking database. And it has it's own problems as well. I'm more often disappointed than pleasantly surprised by its interface.
But it IS quite affordable.
Damn, I wish I had the time to write my own system.
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