Adaptivity preventing cross-part projection

[jeff.noel]

Hello,

I'm having problems using the "Project Geometry" command when I'm editing a sketch on a part, and attempting to project geometry from an assembly on the part.

Now in this example, this is the structure of my parts:

Assembly 1

-Fabricated Part 1 

-Assembly 2

--Fabricated Part 2

--Fabricated Part 3

(Assembly 1 and Assembly 2 do contain more parts than what is listed, I just simplified it so I don't have to type out the hundreds of parts used)

Now, I want to project Fabricated Part 1 onto Fabricated Part 2.  I use the following steps to do this, starting out by working in Assembly 1:

1. Double click on Assembly 2
2. Double Click on Fabricated Part 2
3. Create sketch on Fabricated Part 2
4. Use Project Geometry command to Project Fabricated Part 1 onto sketch of Fabricated Part 2

This is where the trouble starts.  When I try to project Fabricated Part 1 onto Fabricated Part 2, it gives me an error message of:

"Cross-Part projection failed because the sketch is in a part which is adaptive in another assembly"

Fortunately this is about as intuitive of an error message as you can get, simply Fabricated Part 2 is already adaptive in another assembly, and when you use "Project Geometry" it automatically makes the part adaptive to the assembly you are projecting from, and you can't have two assemblies driving one part, so it gives me an error message.

Only problem is, this is a part I just made, that isn't used in any other designs, and isn't adaptive in Assembly 2.  Nowhere does it say which assembly the part is already adaptive in (I know it must have that info stored somewhere, as it needs to know what is adaptive where, I just don't know how to get to it).  

Now that Projecting Fabricated Part 1 in Assembly 1 to Fabricated Part 2 in Assembly 2 doesn't work, I tried to Project Fabricated Part 3 in Assembly 2 to Fabricated Part 2 in Assembly 2, which strangely does work.

Basically whenever I project geometry found in Assembly 1 onto Fabricated Part 2 it fails with the above error message.  Whenever i project geometry found in Assembly 2 onto Fabricated Part 2, it works.  Neither Fabricated Part 2, or Assembly 2 are adaptive.

Now I'm wondering if this is a workflow problem.  This is how these parts were made:

Assembly 2 is similar to another assembly found elsewhere called Assembly 3, the only difference is that in Assembly 3, I need to change Fabricated Part 4 to a different part, all other parts remain the same.

Therefor I open Assembly 3, do a "Save as/Save Copy As" and save it as Assembly 2.  Now I need to make my changes to Fabricated Part 4, so I open it, do a "Save as/save copy as" on it, and save it as Fabricated Part 2.  In Assembly 2 I then do a Replace on Fabricated Part 4 and replace it with my new Fabricated Part 2.  I now make the changes I need to make to Fabricated Part 2.   

I started at this company a couple months ago, and that was the workflow explained to me, and it seemed to work.  I wasn't aware of any damage it could cause, as I haven't used Inventor before, so I went along with it.  Since that time I'm helping to implement Vault, and my knowledge of Inventor has increased, and I've become aware of a program thats called Design Assisstant.  I'm thinking doing the "Save as/Save copy as" function is keeping some legacy information of my old part, making it think it is adaptive in another assembly, when really it isn't, it is the part that I did the save as from.

So two questions: is using Save as/Save copy as a valid way to quickly copy designs, or should all copying of designs be done with Design Assisstant?

Also, Is there any way to view where this part thinks it is adaptive in?  The trouble I see, is using Save As has been done for a very long time here, so the part I did the Save As from, could have been Saved As from another, then Saved As from another, etc. etc., and it would be almost impossible to track down (if that is what caused the problem).  

Sorry for the long winded post, but I would really appreciate any help, or insight into the problem, and a possible solution, it is starting to cause big problems.  Sorry I cannot post the assembly/part files, the models cannot be shared publicly.  Thanks for any help, 

[cadull_rb · Accepted solution]

Untick "Adaptively Used in Assembly" under the Modeling tab in Document Settings (Tools, Options panel), for Fabricated Part 2 and Assembly 2 if necessary. When I use Save (Copy) As, it clears the adaptivity. If you copy the file in Windows Explorer it would retain the adaptiveness. I'm not using Vault yet, but I understand you can also use it to copy a design.