large assembly rework

[ediushu]

I have to deal with a very challenging sittuation I haven't been exposed to before.
I have a large assembly (bottom-up design), few hundreds components (parts and subassemblies) and the manager decided to change all the part names, also drawing and assembly names and assign new names for everything but keep the existing top-assembly. This company dosen't have Pro/Intralink to manage their files. I know when you change part names or drawing names, also assembly names I need to have opened all this files and save them one by one. But how can I have everything opened since the top-level assembly takes about 10-15 minutes to load because of the large number of components?
Is there a way to rename all the files (subassemblies, parts, drawings) without blowing-out the existing top-assembly? Anybody did this before?
Thanks!

ediushu

 

[Tofflemire]

Hi Ediushu,

Good luck with that!!! I would not recommend attempting that, especially if parts (like hardware) are used in other assemblies that you are not working with. If you do not have Intralink, I would leave it alone...

Tofflemire

 

[ediushu]

Thanks Toefflemire.
You have conffirmed my fears. How much would cost the Intralink software?

 

[3dlogix]

One thing that you can do is a "SAVE AS". Provided that the parts and assemblies have the same name as the drawings (so BEARING_1.prt has a drawing BEARING_1.drw, and so on).

Set the config.pro option for SAVE AS to include to make new drawings, and then do the SAVE AS. Re-enter the new assembly and part names as required.

If you have flat patterns (or many instances), this may be tricky, as the instances are not renamed to the new generic name.

Steve

http://www.sprdesign.com

http://www.3dlogix.com

 

[edleit]

Ediushu,
Although purchasing Intralink would be a good long term strategy for your company, you may consider contracting a third party firm that has Intralink to perform the file renaming exercise for you. This would ensure that the interdependencies would remain intact. Also, be sure to specify that all family table instances are verified.

Standard (library) parts such as hardware & some vendor items are generally not subject to renaming, unless your practice is to copy everything into a dedicated folder on a project-by-project basis.

Attempting to do this without a file management system would be tedious at best. Be sure to have a backup of your data beforehand!

Ed Leitkowski

 

[ediushu]

Ed,

I don't know if contrating a third party firm to rename all our files using their Intralink software would be a good ideea since the renaming process in Intralink is actually just assigning new attributes but not changing the name of the files for real. When they have to be exported out of Intralink I am not sure what kind of file names I would have. This is something that I haven't try before.
That's why implementing a file management like Intralink is probably the best solution.

ediushu

 

[ediushu]

Steve (3dlogix)

I like your suggestion and I want to try it out but could you please explain how do I setup the config.pro for SAVE AS to include the drawings? How pro/e would know where those drawings are on my hard drive? Or do I have to have the drwaings open as well?

Thanks!

ediushu

 

[3dlogix]

The config.pro option " rename_drawings_with_object" must be set to "both". This means that parts and assemblies that are SAVED AS with a new name, automaticly have their assosciated drawings renamed to the new part or assembly names.

There are some things to consider first.

Drawings of parts and assemblies must have the same name for this to work.
Example:, you have the following parts, assemblies and drawings.

FLANGE.asm ------> FLANGE.drw
PIPE.prt ------> PIPE.drw
PIPE_1.prt -------> PIPE_1.drw
GASKET.prt -------> GASKET.drw
VALVE_BODY.prt -------> VALVE_BODY.drw


You want to make a new assembly and rename them as follows. Select FILE > SAVE AS and enter the new part and assembly names as needed.

(new names) (drw's automatically saved under new names)
FLANGE_NEW.asm ------> FLANGE_NEW.drw
PIPE_NEW.prt ------> PIPE_NEW.drw
PIPE_1_NEW.prt ------> PIPE_1_NEW.drw
GASKET_NEW.prt ------> GASKET_NEW.drw
VALVE_BODY_NEW.prt ------> VALVE_BODY_NEW.drw



For this to be successful, the files should be in one folder. Make a new folder and copy all the parts, assemblies and draiwng over. Do the SAVE AS and renaming here, that way, if you mess up, it doesn't affect the "good" copies. The drawings do not need to be open or in session for this to work.

If your drawings don't have the same names as the parts or assemblies, then this exercise will not work for the drawings.

I hope this helps you out.

Steve

http://www.sprdesign.com

http://www.3dlogix.com

 

[ediushu]

It helps a lot. I have tried out on a small assembly and it works nice. The thing is the assembly that I want to work on is way bigger so I hope it will work well.
Thanks a lot for the information.

ediushu

 

[Heckler]

Once you have all the subassemblies changed then just do a replace (3R's) providing nothing else changed within the subs things should be fine.

Best Regards,

Heckler
Sr. Mechanical Engineer
SW2005 SP 2.0 & Pro/E 2001
Dell Precision 370
P4 3.6 GHz, 1GB RAM
XP Pro SP2.0
NIVIDA Quadro FX 1400
o
_`\(,_
(_)/ (_)

"There is no trouble so great or grave that cannot be much diminished by a nice cup of tea" Bernard-Paul Heroux

Read before you write faq731-376

 

[3dlogix]

I will work on large assemblies, but I have seen these crash sometimes after you accept the new names. Be patient with this feature...

Steve

http://www.sprdesign.com

http://www.3dlogix.com

 

[3dlogix]

Sorry, it should read;

"It will work on ..."

It's Friday....

http://www.sprdesign.com

http://www.3dlogix.com