Renaming all parts and drawings in assembly at once

[rlj4794]

My company has a unique work order for each job, and we are often retrieving old work orders renaming all parts, assy's, sub-assy's, and drawings. We are currently using SW explorer to rename our assemblies and parts, and a batch file renamer to rename drawings.

We don't have many problems using this method, it's just that it would be nice if we could simply replace all old work-order #'s in filenames with new work-order #'s in one step instead of renaming each component individually. Are there any macros out there that could rename mutiple part files in a batch while keeping part and drawing references?

The closest thread I could find was: thread559-133945.

Thanks in advance for your help.

 

[smcadman]

I believe PDMWorks has a copy project feature in it. SW Explorer has a copy document feature, and it can add a suffix or prefix to each file. Edit > Copy Document. Open drawing, pick "Copy Children" and also pick the folder location and new drawing name in the To field.

The problem is you can't replace file names with new text, for example the first 6 characters with the new project number.

So the answer probably is no, there isn't a quick way of doing this because you would still have to use SW Explorer to rename each part.

On a side note, if we use an existing part/assembly for a new project, we keep the same file name.

Flores
SW06 SP4.1

 

[CorBlimeyLimey]

You can do this using the References option in the File > Open box.

1) Copy the folder containing the models & name to whatever.
2) Click on File > Open.
3) Browse to the newly copied folder and select (highlight only) the top level assy.
4) Click References.
5) Click Select All.
6) Click Replace.
7) Fill in the Find what: (old W/O) and Replace with: (new W/O) fields, then click Replace All.

You should now have a complete assy & parts renamed to the new W/O.

NOTE: I cannot rememer if the drawings get updated using this method.


Helpful SW websites FAQ559-520
How to get answers to your SW questions FAQ559-1091

 

[rlj4794]

We tried that method, Cor. You have to fix the references to all drawings that way. It's quicker and has less room for error if we just use SW Explorer.

Thanks for the replies anyway.

 

[J-C]

Solidworks 2007 has totally rewritten Solidworks Explorer. It now as the ability to copy an assembly, all parts, and all related drawings and can find/replace a text string or add a prefix/suffix.

Doesn't help you now...but something to look forward to.

Jason

UG NX2.02.2 on Win2000 SP3
SolidWorks 2006 SP4.0 on WinXP SP2

 

[rlj4794]

Glad to hear that. Thanks for the info.