keeping parts with assembly

[oldman]

Back on January 31st skyblue was wondering how to bring in parts from different directories, filesand save them in an assembly.


My question is: I bring in parts from different directories to make an assembly in my working directory. If I save that assembly in my current directory, doesn't it also save the parts I have brought into my assembly in that directory also?

Why would I need to create a path to the other directories?

 

[sip]

oldman,


An assembly is just a set of instructions that tell proe how the components are to be placed in the assembly. It does nothing to the parts. That way you have no duplicates(other than versions of the part). That is the reason it can't find the parts even after you save the assembly in a prior session. The assembly needs to be told where to look.


Sip

 

[oldman]

sip


Thank you for the reply. As you can tell. I am still fairly new to Pro E.


I am currenly designing brackets which use the same parts in the assembly, except for the different shaped bracket itself. I simply open the sameparts usedin each of my assemblies from other directories and bring them in to my current assembly and I never have any trouble with the assembly not finding the parts. Am I duplicating the parts each time?
Edited by: oldman

 

[EddyVE]

You are not duplicating the parts. The part continues to exist in its own directory.
Adding a part to an assembly merely adds a reference to that part, not the part data itself.
The fact that your assembly can find its parts is normally the result of :
- the parts are in the same directory as the assembly.
- the part directory is listed in your search.pro file.
- the part was already loaded in your current session.

Normally, you add all the directories you need in the search.pro file.
This is a simple ascii file where every directory must come on a separate line, like this:

d:\MyProE\Fasteners
d:\MyProE\Project1
c:\ProELibrary
...

 

[oldman]

Thank You very much for your reply EddyVE. I will print this out and give it a try.

 

[EddyVE]

PS. You must make sure that the file search.pro can be found by Pro/E.
I always place search.pro in the Pro/E startup directory.

I specify the startup directory in the Pro/E shortcuts on my Windows desktop. I have one shortcut for every separate project.
Right-click on the shortcut icon on your desktop, Select "Properties", select tab "Shortcut". In textbox "Start in:" you can specify your startup directory.
It is in that directory that search.pro should be located.

Eddy

 

[bunterhund]

Hi!


EddyVE wrote: "...You must make sure that the file search.pro can be found by Pro/E.
I always place search.pro in the Pro/E startup directory..."


To be shure that your search.pro file would be found by Pro/E you can give the following command in your config.pro:


search_path_file r:\3d\system\search.pro


for example. Then place your search.pro there.


To create the search.pro you can use this(http://proe.cad.de/downloads/search_pro.html) or write it by yourself with a simple text editor.


BunterHund
Edited by: bunterhund

 

[AHA-D]

Remember however that searchpaths slow down your system, especially when they are pointing to large networkdirectories. When parts are not found in the working directory ProE must load the directories present in the search paths and check if the part in question can be found there or not. The more you add, the longer it takes to get afull listing.


Alex

 

[wsylvester]

if you have the config option


display_full_object_path yes


and do a info>model>top level of the assembly


it will list where they came from, which you can use to set your search pro





Bunter...my german is a little rusty, do you think you could let these folks know it would help to have a in english page

 

[trillicomm]

oldman,

open the assembly and back it up to a working directory, it will save all the parts and sub-assemblies (everything)

then you only have one folder to deal with.

OR create a drawing and add the assembly, then back it up to a working directory

 

[bunterhund]

@wsylvester: well, I think my german is ok for this. I

 

[wsylvester]

No, I didn't, it look like the link was a d/l not a explanation


I gather this is done in VB... which I feel rocks

being a vb guy myself


I did backtrack to your homepage. I like the guitar stuff


here's a sweet one


[url]http://www.santacruzguitar.com/acousticguitars/details/archt op.html[/url]

 

[bunterhund]

hey cool ! here i found a descriptionfor thissearch.pro stuff: 2007-03-08_035449_search_pro_manager_description.zip

 

[dr_gallup]

oldman,

open the assembly and back it up to a working directory, it will save all the parts and sub-assemblies (everything)

then you only have one folder to deal with.

OR create a drawing and add the assembly, then back it up to a working directory

If you do this you will have duplicate objects of your data in your file system. Generally this is considered a very bad thing. If you change one of the parts it will show up differently in various drawings and assemblies depending on which model was retrieved. Generally speaking, setting the search paths is the proper methodology.

 

[trillicomm]

I suppose you don't have Intralink or PDMLink

 

[TrailBarge]

It would be nice if someone could back me up on this.... or perhaps I am not testing it properly.


I am running Wildfire 3, although I noticed this behavior in Wildfire 2 as well.


Regardless of search.pro settings, if I add a component to an assembly from outside the working directory, pro now seems to remember the path to that component. It only uses search.pro if I do something to make that path invalid.


Am I crazy or are others seeing this going on?

 

[jeff4136]

From outside working directoryAND any search path defined directories?
I don't see that behavior in WF2.

 

[TrailBarge]

OKay.... I guess working without PDM has ingrained working directory and search path discipline in me so well that it happens automagically.


I ran a test, copying parts to a test directory outside the search path. Then I used another clean directory as working to create an assembly, pulling components from the non-search directory. Saving the assembly, erasing all and retrieving the assembly threw a component missing error.


So much for my theory... now I'll probably screwed up my automatic directory discipline =

 

[jeff4136]

> directory discipline


Yeah. It becomes second nature.


FWIW, (don't see it mentioned often) I don't use search.pro files.
I organize 'projects' in directory structures with a 'project root'
directory and put a config.pro with search_path statements (vs. a
pointer to search.pro) in that directory. Launching Pro/E from that
directory automatically reads that config.pro and I'm good to go.
Going from one project to another requires shutting Pro/E down and
launching from the next project directory (which is going to be
necessary anyway; e.g. there is no way to "dump" a read config.pro
or search.pro and read a new one without shutting down?).

 

[wsylvester]

I organize 'projects' in directory structures with a 'project root'
directory


I go along with this method too. Not only does it keep your ProE files together, you keep all the other info in the folder, such as Word docs, images, html files, etc. Sure makes finding everthing 6 months down the road easier.