Lost Assembly Constraints (mates)

[aromech]

I hope some one can help me with this one. We currently run MDT 6 and have a few clients with old mdt 4.0 files. When we open any of their assembly files there are not any assembly constraints, none, zip , nada (the parts have full degrees of freedom). We have re loaded mdt 4.0 to see if it is a conversion problem, but the mates are still all missing in mdt 4.0 also. Normally I would just ask one of their engineers, but they are all gone and no one seems to know anything about MDT let alone how the files were created, so I am left to figure this out on my own.

Please advise, some one , help!!!

 

[wingm]

Is it possible that there were no constraints used at all in the drawing and the parts just 'placed' where they need to be?
I know we've got some designers who don't consistantly use constraints and as a result, revising prints can be hairy.

 

[aromech]

The thought has crossed our minds but it seems that everything we have gotten from their old engineering department does not have a single constraint on it. This amounts to about two years of work by three guys and atleast 100 assemblies of 50 or more components. I know they were not the sharpest prong in the connector but I cant see going that long without constraints. So this is why we are looking for some other explanation.