SW writing files to random directories on crashing.

Discussion in 'SolidWorks' started by kellnerp, Oct 2, 2003.

  1. kellnerp

    kellnerp Guest

    Has anyone seen SW putting files in unintended places on crashing or saving?
    I had a crash today and found many files written to my install directory
    that shouldn't have been there. Yesterday they ended up on a mapped network
    drive. This has me really scratching my head.

    SW2003 SP4.1 Office Pro
    XP Home
    XP2000+
    1GB ram
    FireGL 8800
     
    kellnerp, Oct 2, 2003
    #1
  2. kellnerp

    kellnerp Guest

    Found the problem. Somebody didn't check in a referenced file with an
    assembly. So when PDMWorks checked out the assembly SW dutifully went
    through its routine for finding files. There were a couple of copies of the
    offending file in various places and somehow SW latched onto them and also
    set itself to write to those places.

    The directories weren't as random as I had thought. One of them was probably
    the absolute address for the referenced file stored in the referencing
    document. In fact two of the directories probably were.

    The writing of files to the SW install directory still has me a bit puzzled
    though. I can see why SW might search there, but not why it would put files
    there without user instruction.
     
    kellnerp, Oct 3, 2003
    #2
  3. I think a lot of programmers use "app.path" as a path of last resort in
    their logic to avoid the uncomfortable position of having something to do
    and no place to do it.
     
    Brenda D. Bosley, Oct 4, 2003
    #3
  4. kellnerp

    kellnerp Guest

    SolidWorks has a rather complicated way of dealing with looking up files. It
    is documented in the PDMWorks manual but it should be drilled into users in
    the Essentials manual. The algorithm is quite complex with about six or
    seven possible ways it can go to find a part. For a single part a person
    can just about grasp it, but for a thousand part assembly there is just no
    easy way to see where SW got its information for each part. I suppose a
    little macro could be written to display the saveas directory for each part
    in an assembly to let the user know these things.
     
    kellnerp, Oct 4, 2003
    #4

  5. File/Find References works for me. A bit hard to follow sometimes in a
    complex assembly.

    Jerry Steiger
    Tripod Data Systems
     
    Jerry Steiger, Oct 6, 2003
    #5
  6. kellnerp

    kellnerp Guest

    Thanks Jerry,

    I found a bit of VB in the API help that traverses an assembly and I added a
    path printout to it. Then I can dump that information to a file.

    It still remains a mystery as to how the paths to some of the locations I am
    seeing were first established. It is pretty easy to tell if a part is
    located in RAM, but the rest of the steps in the algorithm happen
    automatically and invisibly.
     
    kellnerp, Oct 7, 2003
    #6
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