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Pack and Go woes (SW2009) 1

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niart17

niart17

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Mar 24, 2009
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Hey Guys, I am trying to copy and existing project to creat a "print-run" new project using the Pack and Go feature. The problem I am encountering is that all the individual parts drawings are in separate folders (about 6 different folder for each job) from the main assembly folder. Am I understanding correctly that pack and go will only grab the drawings from the main assembly folder and will not bring the parts drawings as well from outside folders? The way our company works, we need to keep parts drawings separated by type. Is there a work around for this problem or am I going to have to re-create a whole new set of parts drawings for the new job (which would suck!) Any help would be much appreciated.
 
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When you do a pack and go from the main assy, everything related to that assy will go with it, including drawings if you select the box to add related drawings.
It makes a copy of the files, so give it a try. Create a new folder to copy them to.

Chris
SolidWorks 09 SP4.1
ctopher's home
SolidWorks Legion
 
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I've done that and the only drawing files it copies are the ones in the same folder as the main assembly. It will copy all of the solidworks PARTS no matter what folder they are in, but it doesn't find the associated drawings for those parts unless they are in the same folder as the assembly. I have checked the add drawings box and I have the folder structure set up that I want to copy to, so it's not a matter of it not having a place to save them, it simply doesn't grab the drawings. I'm stumped.
 
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Are your drawings in the same directories as the parts they show? I think if the parts are in several different directories, but their associated drawings reside alongside the parts it pulls the drawings correctly. Some folks cause problems for themselves by putting the drawings in a separate "Drawings" directory.

- - -Updraft
 
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Yes, all of the drawings are in the same folder as their associated parts. So for example, we have an assemblies folder that has the assembly files and assembly drawings. In a different folder called wire cage parts for example, there are all of the associated wire cage parts files and parts drawings etc...Those parts are all linked to main assembly.
As I've said, pack and go will find the .sldprt files in other folders, but doesn't "see" the .slddrw files in those folders. It only finds the main assembly folder drawings.
 
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Yes, this is a REAL PITA. ;) The way to make this work is use SW Explorer.

In SW Explorer define your search paths under options and then browse to the assembly file you want to copy. Once you find the file select the "pack n go" option and then check the "include drawings" option. It should find all the drawings provided you set up your search paths correctly.

Rob Rodriguez CSWP
Eastern Region SWUGN Representative SW 2007 SP 2.0
 
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Well, now I'm really stumped. I tried what Rob suggested in SW Explorer and it still is only catching the assembly folder drawings. I tried it two different ways just to be sure. I tried it with the search path set to the root folder to see if it would automatically grab the subsequent sub-folders and that didn't work. So then I added the path to each sub-folder and tried it again. It still isn't catching any of the sub folder's drawings, just the part files in those folders.
 
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Yup, That's what I am doing. I am using the top level assembly to do the pack and go, but still no go. I guess I will have to pack and go, let that grab all of the parts files. Then copy the drawing files over to the new folders and manually go in a change their associations to the new parts. What a pain. If anyone else has any suggestions I'd much appreciate it. Thanks everyone for giving it a shot, I don't understand why it's not working.
 
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Anna is saying to use the assembly drawing for the pack n go, not the assembly itself. This should work as well.

Not sure why you are having so many issues with this. I do it on a daily basis and it works fine with the defined paths.

Do you have the "show all levels of reference" option checked in SW explorer (same place you define the search paths, on the where used tab)

Also, when the pack n go dialog opens the first thing you should do is check the "including drawings" box. I have had problems doing other things in the dialog and then checking the drawings box and it not working. You have to check that box before you do anything else.

If all this fails wait until the second Monday of a full moon, stand in perfect alignment of the planets at 8:00am sharp and try all of the above while signing the check that pays for your subscription. ;)

Rob Rodriguez CSWP
Eastern Region SWUGN Representative SW 2007 SP 2.0
 
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Ok, I'm not quite to the alignment of the moon phase yet. Rob, you did solve one of my problems with your last post. I did not have "show all levels of reference" clicked. So that DID find all of the drawings and allowed me to copy them. Now the only problem I'm having is it isn't copying the folder/sub folder structures with it. It just brings everything and dumps it in one folder. Which wouldn't be a problem except in order to move everything in the new job to the proper sub-folders, I'd need to change all of the reference paths in the main assembly to the new sub-folder path. Is there another option I'm not seeing that allows you to copy the folder structure as well? Sorry for being so dense.
 
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Ok everybody. I think I got it all to work now. I don't know if I've done it the most efficient way so if someone can correct me, that's great but this is what I did. I did all of the suggestions above, P&G from the assembly drawing,had my search paths set etc... In the file locations box, I had to manual add each sub-folder path I was copying. Once I had all my files to copy selected I picked the "Save to folder" option and set this to my new assemblies folder. This changed ALL of the files' paths to the new assemblies folder (which is not what I want). In order to get the new job files in the sub folders I had to manually select each file's "Save to folder" path and change that to where I needed it to go. That's the part I'm not sure if there is a better way to do it. It seems like there would be a way for them to automatically locate the proper sub folder provided the structure was the same, but I couldn't find one. I hope all of that made sense.

Anyway, Thanks everyone for your help. I'm sure I'll be here again pleading for your help.

Bill
 
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