IGES overwrites native Pro/E models

[jvannorden]

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[jvannorden]

[No message]

 

[jvannorden]

I have a requirement to share Pro/E and Solid Works models with our sister company frequently. We use many of the same parts and P/N's. If we create a model in Pro/E and send it to them as an IGES assembly, everything is OK and they can work with it. The problem occurs when we import the part back from Solid Works as an IGES assembly. Pro/E seems to overwrite the original native Pro/E file and we lose all assembly references and intelligence in EVERYWHERE the part exists; even on other assemblies. Is there a format we can use that Pro/E will recognize that the imported version shouldn't overwrite the original? Or a format that would keep all the original datums and assembly references?

 

[miked]

Is it because the iges file has the same name as the file that is being overwritten?

Have you tried appending or altering the name of the iges file when you save it in pro, so it is not identical to the existing pro e file?

Mike

 

[jvannorden]

Mike,

The part files do have the same name for both the IGES and the .prt. We use the part number as the filename, so we can't change the filename. We wouldn't want to change the component name in the assemblies every time we share parts and assemblies. It just seems odd that Pro/E would overwrite a native file with a file that contains no intelligence.

 

[miked]

Thats not a pro e issue then.

Anytime you save a file in windows with a name that already exists, you are prompted to overwrite or rename the file. You get a warning something like file prt.001 already exists do you want to replace it?. I think you'll have to change your file names.

Mike

 

[jvannorden]

Mike,

We never get that warning from Windows because when we store the IGES assembly we are storing an assembly that has a unique name. The problem is, the assembly contains .prt's that get automatically stored and overwritten when the assembly is stored. As far as Windows is concerned, we are saving a brand new file. Pro/E stores and overwrites each part when the new assembly is stored without giving us the option to keep the old versions.

 

[miked]

Thats what I am talking about. Forget about pro e for a minute and say you were saving a file in photoshop or some other program. When you try to save the file with a name that is exactly like an existing file (including the extension .ps, .igs or .prt) you will get the that file already exists warning.



If you save the file without changing the name (regardless of which program you are using) it will overwrite the original file. It has nothing to do with pro.

Mike

 

[jvannorden]

The difference is, I get the message in Photoshop that I'm about to overwrite an existing file. In Pro/E, I don't get the option to decide if the parts in and assembly should get overwritten. I understand that this would defeat the purpose of Pro/E, and would be extremely cumbersome if you had to confirm overwriting all of the parts in an assembly everytime you saved the assembly. I guess the bottom line is I need to get our sister company to use Pro/E if we are going to share parts and assemblies. Probably not an option.

 

[adicar01]

U must verify first on server location the purge comand. Pro/E will try to save a new file with different name anyway

prt01.prt.30 at next save will be prt01.prt.31

verify the configuration on server, or try to split the locations for native and impoted files.

 

[jperkins]

Upgrade to Wildfire, you can use the parasolids files and forget about IGES.



You get multiple copies of Pro files because it appends a number to the name each time you save it to make the name unique.



jperkins

 

[jvannorden]

Adicar01,

What should the configuration for the purge command be? My assemblies look at the most recent version for each part. The most recent version ends up being the imported version from the IGES conversion. We thought about splitting the locations, but that is risky because if you have the Working Directory set incorrectly, the wrong version of the file gets overwritten.



Jeff

 

[adicar01]

On config.pro you can choose some more path definition for your library files. ... this is for spliting directory.

For purge on server u can use a third-party software like:CGN Purge, with this for example you can choose how many revisions should remain in one directory. Let's say you want last 3 of them, nothing complex, you must set this software, and everithing is ok.

If you dint' have it, send me a email, ... by the way ... is free.

or visit ... cgnengineering.com

 

[jvannorden]

Is there something special about a Library file? In other words, could we automatically (or manually) make anything that came back as imported a Library file? If it is a library file, does that prevent overwriting the native file? I don't think we'd have a problem with keeping all imported assemblies in a library. I'd just like to make sure all parts automatically get written into that file and not our part file with native files.