SW Search Paths?

[MadMango]

If you go into SW Help>Index and enter "search" you should be taken to a page titled Searching for Referenced Documents.

If you look at the rules listed, they don't make much sense compared to what I was taught (maybe I was taught something wrong). I was taught that SW looks in the folder where a file was opened from [blue]first[/blue], then if it can't find that file, it looks in the search paths defined in File Location Options.

But, according to Help, it does this:

1. Uses any open document with the same name. [This makes sense]

2. Searches the first path that you specify in the Folders list in the File Locations Options dialog box.

3. Searches the path in Step 2 plus the last folder in the path where the referenced document was last saved.

4. blah, blah, blah

It seems to me that it does the last half of Step 3 before it does Step 2.

Anyone care to clairify this for me?

MadMango
"Probable impossibilities are to be preferred to improbable possibilities."
Have you read faq731-376 to make the best use of Eng-Tips Forums?

 

[SBaugh]

MadMango,

Do a search at the SW Knowledge base. There is a detailed article on this. I think that will help explain it better.

Regards,

Scott Baugh, CSWP
3DVision Technologies

http://www.3dvisiontech.com

http://www.scottjbaugh.com

faq731-376
When in doubt, always check the help

 

[MadMango]

I spent the last 15 minutes searching the Knowledge Base with zero luck/returns. Can you please suggest the search string I should be using?

MadMango
"Probable impossibilities are to be preferred to improbable possibilities."
Have you read faq731-376 to make the best use of Eng-Tips Forums?

 

[SBaugh]

Reference Document Search Routine

If you still can't find it, let me know I'll send you the Word Document I have on it. - I got it from the SW KBA.

Regards,

Scott Baugh, CSWP
3DVision Technologies

http://www.3dvisiontech.com

http://www.scottjbaugh.com

faq731-376
When in doubt, always check the help

 

[TheTick]

Load order for external references (explanations of what is in help file).

1.) open document with same name.

2.) The paths specified in the Folders list, if the Search file locations for external references check box is selected.

3.) The last path you specified to open a document.
Last path specified using the "File --> Open" interface. Opening a file by double-click from Explorer does not change this.

4.) The last path the system used to open a document (in the case of the system opening a referenced document last).
Last path the system used to find another reference, such as a component.

5.) The path where the referenced document was located when the parent document was last saved.
Relative path w.r.t. parent document as last saved in the parent document.

6.) The path where the referenced document was located when the parent document was last saved with the original disk drive designation.
Absolute path document as last saved in the parent document.

7.) If a referenced file still is not found, you are given the option to browse for it.

What's the difference between #5 and #6? Picture an assembly was located in C:\Project\ and its components in C:\Project\Components. Then, copy the entire \Project directory including subdirectories to another drive, say to D:\Work\Project\. On opening the assembly, step 5 would look for components in D:\Work\Project\Components. Step 6 would look in C:\Project\Components.

All this machinery making modern music can still be open-hearted.