SW writing files to random directories on crashing.

Found the problem. Somebody didn't check in a referenced file with an assembly. So when PDMWorks checked out the assembly SW dutifully went through its routine for finding files. There were a couple of copies of the offending file in various places and somehow SW latched onto them and also set itself to write to those places.

The directories weren't as random as I had thought. One of them was probably the absolute address for the referenced file stored in the referencing document. In fact two of the directories probably were.

The writing of files to the SW install directory still has me a bit puzzled though. I can see why SW might search there, but not why it would put files there without user instruction.

I think a lot of programmers use "app.path" as a path of last resort in their logic to avoid the uncomfortable position of having something to do and no place to do it.

----------------------------------------------- Brenda D. Bosley CustomSolids

SolidWorks has a rather complicated way of dealing with looking up files. It is documented in the PDMWorks manual but it should be drilled into users in the Essentials manual. The algorithm is quite complex with about six or seven possible ways it can go to find a part. For a single part a person can just about grasp it, but for a thousand part assembly there is just no easy way to see where SW got its information for each part. I suppose a little macro could be written to display the saveas directory for each part in an assembly to let the user know these things.

Brenda D. Bosley wrote:

File/Find References works for me. A bit hard to follow sometimes in a complex assembly.

Jerry Steiger Tripod Data Systems

Thanks Jerry,

I found a bit of VB in the API help that traverses an assembly and I added a path printout to it. Then I can dump that information to a file.

It still rema>> SolidWorks has a rather complicated way of dealing with looking up files. > It