Solidworks Viewer Error - will not open model

[EdDaniels]

Hello all,

I was asked by a customer to provide my solidmodels as well as a Solidworks Viewer program to view the models.

I have created clean versions of my models (copy references) and I can get 4 out of 6 of my models to open within the viewer.

The other two get the following error:

"Cannot open C://......SLDASM. The file is either corrupted of from a version that is not supported by the current version of the SolidWorks Viewer software."

Any ideas why I might be getting this only on SOME of my assemblies?

Thanks a bunch!

 

[CorBlimeyLimey]

Have you tried using eDrawings as the viewer?
Were all the parts & assemblies created with the same version & SP of SW?
Is the viewer of the same version as your SW version?
Is there anything "fancy" or different in the offending assys? (Patterns, Mirrors, Assy holes, etc)
Are they very large files?
Do they have an excessive number of top level mates?



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[Theophilus]

Also, you'll probably need the assembly files and part files to be in the same directory or the viewer may not know where to find the part files that support the assembly files.

Check out what CorBlimeyLimey posted and see if that works.


Jeff Mowry

http://www.industrialdesignhaus.com

Reality is no respecter of good intentions.

 

[Dennyd]

As Jeff pointed out, it is important to make sure all the locations work. From the top-most assembly use the Find References to copy the files out. Select "No" when prompted to preserve the directory structure and then select the option to create a new destination folder. Before sending it to your client try copying this new directory to another computer or onto a CD along with the viewer and take it to another machine to verify it will open successfully. If you try to verify it on your machine the process might give you a false positive if it successfully looks into your original directories instead of into the new folder.

As CBL pointed out you can also send the customer eDrawing files in a variety of formats. This has the advantage of you maintaining control of your files. eDrawing files cannot be fed to a CAM package, but native SWX part files can.

- - -Dennyd

 

[Theophilus]

Dennyd--perfect recommendation. That's what I always do to make sure this sort of thing doesn't happen. (Also helps with document control between revisions.)


Jeff Mowry

http://www.industrialdesignhaus.com

Reality is no respecter of good intentions.

 

[EdDaniels]

Thanks for all the responses everybody...

I have tried many of your suggestions before, but here is what I did this time:

I opened my assembly, removed all the excess configurations, dissolved all the patterns, broke the links to all of the assy holes, and saved a fresh copy elsewhere where I redefined all the references into the new folder (references button within SAVE AS). No luck!

FYI, some of the parts were created within SW2004 and I am now using SW2005/SW Viewer 2005. I opened these parts and resaved them within 2005. I wouldn't say there are an excessive amount of top level mates ~100. I have seen worse!

I agree that I need to check it on another computer, and I have, but I am not going to try it again until it works on my workstation!

Thanks again everybody. Please help if you can! I am stumped!

 

[CorBlimeyLimey]

Do you have any library parts in the assys (screws, nuts, bearings, etc) & if so have you also updated those files to SW2005?
Can you open the "sldasm" files with the eDrawing program?
Can you save the files to eDrawing "easm" format & open them in the eDrawing program?



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[EdDaniels]

Limey,

thanks for the input.

I can open the assembly from edrawings - which makes me think perhaps I should provide the models to my customer with edrawings...

However! I still cannot get the files to open from within the solidworks viewer. While I do have library parts, I have saved them out of the library and into the folder containing all of my solidmodels. I saved a new copy of each of these files, so they should be SW2005...

Any more ideas!?

Thanks

 

[CorBlimeyLimey]

In the 2 problem files, suppress everything except the first component, then try to open in SWViewer. If successful, unsuppress the second component then try to open .... and so on until you find the problem component.

Let us know what you find.


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[darnell]

Ed,

We don't provide assy model to customers. We would create a part from the assy. If they do not have SW, then we create an edrawing for them. You can open the part or assembly in edrawings and saveas an EXE incase they don't have edrawings

 

[SBaugh]

FYI - I have heard Viewer will not be updated in SW06. Edrawing is going to be the default viewer. So you might start testing and turning in any bugs to SW about eDrawings, if you plan to upgrade this year.

Regards,

Scott Baugh, CSWP
3DVision Technologies

http://www.3dvisiontech.com

http://www.scottjbaugh.com

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