Locked or Broken External References

[andrzej01]

Hello,
Our company switched to SW about two months ago so my question might sound very trivial but since I really love that forum I will give it a try.
I am working with quite big assemblies ( acumulator tables ) and of course I have to use Top Down Assy using geometry and relations from within the assy.
My question is what's the diference between locked and broken references.
I know broken are gone for ever and locked can be unlocked but where would be the case to use particular ones.
Sorry about my English but it's my second language.
Thank you for any help.
Andrzej

 

[DetroitPickles]

Both Broken and Locked References will NOT update the existing references.

Broken WILL allow additional references to be added.

Locked will NOT allow additional references to be added.

Hope that helps....



Mr. Pickles

 

[StarrRider]

Andrzej01

In my experience at least, an external reference is broken or locked accidentally and not deliberately. This happens when SW cannot locate the files while an assembly is opened. If those files are moved, normally by an external program, they will not be where SW thinks they are and you will be prompted to locate that file. If you then tell SW NO, the links are broken and the part is suppressed.
There are very few occasions when you will deliberately want to do this. There is only one reason to do this that I can think of. That is when you need to force SW to release control of a file so that another program can access it. If as an example, you wanted to rearrange some of the parts in your hardware directory. You could use SW to do a SaveAs but it would leave the original file in the same location. If you try using Windows Explorer on a file that SW is referencing, then you will receive a File Access Error when you try moving the file or deleting it. By breaking or locking the external reference, you allow the other program to do what it needs to do.
A slightly better reason for doing this would be if you have the assembly open in SW and it is very large. One of your parts is named “ABC” and at some point you copied it creating “ABC2”. You now want to use “ABC2” and have no need to keep “ABC” – further – you want “ABC2” to be named “ABC”. The safe way would be to use Component Properties to change the reference from “ABC” to “ABC2”, then do a SaveAs to rename it to “ABC”, then use Windows Explorer to delete “ABC2” – OR - you could Lock “ABC” in SW, delete “ABC” with Windows Explorer and then rename “ABC2”. SW will probably notice the difference when the file is unlocked and tell you that the file header information has changed, but it will still make the change.

My best advice is – play with it on an assembly that doesn’t matter and see if it is worth the effort.

Lee

It really IS as bad as you think, and they ARE out to get you!