Autodesk & Spreadsheets

[DennisPerkins]

First of all let me start by saying I'm not an Autocad / Autodesk person.  I'm an IT person.  We recently moved Autodesk to a new PC and upgraded from 2011 to 2012.  Since that is a function of IT I'm now very much involved with all the associated issues that have resulted from the move of the existing installation and how it was implemented. 

We build cabinets and use Autodesk for our cabinet designs.  We have 2 licenses and had 2 PC's setup with a share for doing various drawings and this seemed to work OK at the time. We are currently using only once PC with a spare PC to be configured and possibly placed into use in the future.  After moving the data I have removed the share that from the old machine so that we could be sure the data was not being pulled from when editing the drawings on the new machine. 

We were trying to work through some of the issues we were having with this move and we removed the reference to a spreadsheet that is used for parameters in the left hand column.  When we went to link the spreadsheet back in there was a linked spreadsheet showing under the User Parameters in the Parameters Dialog window.  When we attempt to remove this reference via the right click button nothing happens.  If we link in the spreadsheet we actually want, it ignores the data in that spreadsheet and used the information from link we cannot remove.  Is there another way to remove this reference and further more is there a way to find where all the references to the old share exist?

Another issue with these parameters and spreadsheets is how the references are setup and how the interact when pulled into other assemblies.  Right now from what the CAD people tell me any part files that use a variable length values that link in from the spreadsheet, have to be put  in every project folder and then they link the same spreadsheet that the assembly uses.  Same thing goes for the assemblies, parent assemblies, and cabinets The only thing that ever really needs to change in these part files or assemblies are values for variables that are fed from a linked parent assembly spreadsheet.   Placing copies of part files and assemblies in every project folder is concerning to me, because if there is a change that needs to be made to a part or assembly, it will have to be made in every project.

We are considering using ILogic components since they make copies of the included assemblies and place the project folders for you, but again this seems to be an inefficient way to mange assemblies when the only difference in the assembly form one project to another is a variable value that we assign at the parent level. Also I notice the when you place assemblies using ILogic, the spreadsheets are not copied to the project folder. 

Any suggestions on how to better manage these files would be appreciated.

Dennis Perkins

[mercerc]

On the Excel spread sheet, to see that the correct file is switched out (having exactly the same parameters) you may want to rename the file first. Then you can in the browser on the left (default location) expand the 3^rd Party and RMB on the excel spread sheet and select the Change Source option. Then browse to the file you renamed. Once connect you should see the update button (lightning bolt) highlight select it and the file name in the browser should change. This is the recommend practice to switch spread sheets.

Spread sheets for new projects and linked to assembly and parts. If you are doing what I’m guessing at, copying a existing project to a new folder and starting or modifying a design from there. There is nothing wrong (in fact encouraged) that the assembly and parts have the same spread sheet link to them all. This guarantees that only on spread sheet controls the assembly and hence the parts. The only issue here is that a new project file be created and points to only the folder where the new design are. You don’t want to have the project file encompass any folders from other designs. One of the save guards from this is to rename the spread sheet the drawback is it needs to be changed in all the files its used in. Please look at iCopy ribbon menu Tools tab and Design Assistant (Program Files, Autodesk, Inventor 2012, Tools) for way to rename files with links.

iLogic, This is a great tool but if you are presently accomplishing your tasks with the linked spread sheet then I (personal opinion) would leave it as it is. iLogic is a great tool for when a choice like a if/need choice is needed (hence the terminology of rules).