Part files getting cross-linked unintentionally - devastating! How can I avoid it?
Suppose I create a part in Solidworks and save it as MyPart1.SLDPRT.
Suppose, using Windoze Explorer, I navigate to the directory, select file MyPart1.SLDPRT and copy it into the same directory with a new name MyPart2.SLDPRT.
Suppose I want to experiment with the newly created MyPart2.SLDPRT, deleting some features, adding new ones and modifying dimensions. All I want to do is play with some options just to see if I can improve upon my design. So I open it in SWX and do all the above.
Suppose I abandon my pursuit, deciding that MyPart1.SLDPRT was OK after all. So I close SWX and delete MyPart2.SLDPRT from the hard drive.
Later, I launch SWX and open MyPart1.SLDPRT only to find that all the changes I made to MyPart2.SLDPRT - all the deletions, additions, modifications - literally everything I tried and attempted to throw away in MyPart2.SLDPRT - even deleting the file from the hard drive. I now find that everything I did in MyPart2.SLDPRT was incorporated into MyPart1.SLDPRT and that the original MyPart1.SLDPRT is gone. Indeed it is a carbon copy of MyPart2.SLDPRT which I did NOT want.
Why is SWX so tightly integrated with the Windoze OS to do something, pardon me, but to do something as stupid as that - w/o warning? That's a rhetorical question. What I really want to know is how I can prevent that from EVER happening again. Short of copying everything to a completely different computer, how do I prevent that ridiculous behavior. I know of no other OS or application program that takes such liberties. How can this be prevented?
1 Answer
What you described is not how SW works.
IF you also said you were working in an assembly. OR, were making use of External References in the design, then it would make a little more sense.
1. Be sure the files are not open in SW (i.e. loaded in memory)
2. Avoid External References in parts/designs until you understand how they work
3. Use a better naming strategy than MyPart1, MyPart2. Picking the wrong file to work on is very easy
4. Working in Windows Explorer to copy files is fine, but you have to understand how SW treats files in folders, vs. files in memory, vs. files with External References.
5. Try using the SW File Save As option, it provides three options, pick the one that meets your requirement
6. Turn on the option to enable multiple (i.e. 2) backups of files you work on. Then you'll always have a model to fall back to if something goes wrong.
