Solidworks deleted component but file remains 1

[mechdaddy]

Hi

Today I came back to a completed model of a winch that I finished on monday, only to find that solidworks had deleted half of the components withing the assembly

on closer inspection, it seems that solidworks has deleted all the internals that make up the individual components, but has left the file

I was wondering if anyone has come across this problem before/ knows of a solution, as recreating all the parts is not in my time frame

I created a step file of the model on monday before leaving work, but i checked both the step file and the origional model before saving and shuting down

I am currently running solidiworks 2011 with SP 2

Cheers

 

[CorBlimeyLimey]

Don't mess with the files ... send them to your VAR for interrogation.

Do you not have a back-up copy?

 

[ShaggyPE]

Is the assembly tree empty... or are all the parts and subs grayed out? Did you move any of the files?

-Dustin
Professional Engineer
Pretty good with SolidWorks

 

[ShaggyPE]

Are you saying the part files in the assembly exist... but their feature trees have been deleted?

-Dustin
Professional Engineer
Pretty good with SolidWorks

 

[fcsuper]

Are the missing files virtual components? If so, did you previously rename them within the assembly in SW 2009?

Matt Lorono, CSWP
Lorono's SolidWorks Resources & SolidWorks Legion
Follow me on Twitter

 

[Updraft]

mechdaddy,

If the parts show up in the Feature Tree, but are greyed-out then they are suppressed. Is it possible you moved the part files? If they are not where the assembly is looking for them then the assy will show them as suppressed.

If we have a better understanding of what your problem really is we can provide better help. As it is we are speculating.

- - -Updraft

 

[SnowCrash]

If you saved a STEP file, then opened it and saved it you have written over the file with part history and replaced it with an assembly of featureless shapes, maybe?

--
Hardie "Crashj" Johnson
SW 2010 SP 4.0
HP Pavillion Elite HPE
W7 Pro, Nvidia Quaddro FX580

 

[mechdaddy]

The files do not come up grayed out, they come up red, as the mates cannot relate to the rest of the assembly, because the parts no longer exist. The majority of the files were, and still are kept in a single file, as they were new parts created for this design. However some parts have been pulled standard from the general network (bolts, washers, ect) that appear in a vairety of other assemblies. It is a mix of both of these types of files that have gone missing


SnowCash: I can see how that might be the cause of this problem, however why would that affect only half of the model

The problem boils down to the this: A number of individual files that make up the model have been completely stripped of their internals, but the actual files still exhist, pretty much leaving an empty shell.

 

[ShaggyPE]

I am still having difficulty understanding your problem. Seems to me you are using your own terminology to describe your problem... that may be why the group is having difficulty understanding the problem too.

Ex. "... files were, and still are kept in a single file"
"stripped of internals"

What I think you are saying is that you designed up an assembly that used many virtual components. Now when you open the assembly file, the virtual components have no geometry and therefore the mates have errored out. When you open up the virtual component individually, there is no feature tree... no geometry.

Is my interpretation correct?


-Dustin
Professional Engineer
Pretty good with SolidWorks

 

[mechdaddy]

yeah that definition is pretty much spot on to the problem I am having

 

[SWKennedy]

The files havn't gone to a lightweight state, have they? They would still appear in your assembly tree, but they wouldn't show as having any features in them. Just planes, maybe routing/connection points if you're using those.

I have some flexible assemblies that if I don't load all of my parts in a resolved state, the mates error out on me.

 

[ShaggyPE]

Unfortunately mechdaddy, I really haven't used virtual components that much. I have never seen the issue you have identified.

Does your step file contain the original geometry? What about SnowCrash's question? If your opened the step file (thus creating a SolidWorks file) and saved it, you may have over written your original model... the files would be different... but they should still have the geometry. Not sure.

-Dustin
Professional Engineer
Pretty good with SolidWorks