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Inventor project file structure

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Message 1 of 6
3DAli
1366 Views, 5 Replies

Inventor project file structure

Hi,

I am about to move my inventor files from D:\ to E:\, and I'm not going to change anything else, just simply the local hard drive, but this cause problem, all the work search pads needs to be modified manually from D:\xxxx to E:\xxxx,

is there any way around this to do it automatically?

 

Thanks

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5 REPLIES 5
Message 2 of 6
blair
in reply to: 3DAli

You should only need to edit your Project File as long as you maintain the same directory structure in the new Drive. I do this all the time when the new release of IV comes out. All our work is done inside a main Project directory. I create a new main directory called TEST and copy all the sub-directories into it. Copy my existing Project file and edit the directories to point to the new TEST directory. Everything works fine.


Inventor 2020, In-Cad, Simulation Mechanical

Just insert the picture rather than attaching it as a file
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Message 3 of 6
3DAli
in reply to: 3DAli

Hi there,

thanks a lot for the input, ofcourse I figured my self this is the way to go, but imagine you are dealing with tons of project files (*.ipj), can you imagine how big of a deal it would be to edit them one by one, I have developed a tool "lil application" if you want to call it, so that it does it for me, but I'm wondering if IV provides you with something more professional or something for this kind of senarios.

 

Regards

Ali

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Message 4 of 6
blair
in reply to: 3DAli

I'm sure you could use write a Macro to do it, but suprisingly we don't have that many Project Files. All our stock manufactured items reside under a single Project file, all Customer or Custom work resides under another Project file and any of our our custom production equipment and jig/fixtures reside under a separate Project File.

 

I'm sure if we did a lot of custom customer work, we might have a separate Project file for each customer.


Inventor 2020, In-Cad, Simulation Mechanical

Just insert the picture rather than attaching it as a file
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Message 5 of 6
SBix26
in reply to: 3DAli

We have thousands of project files, since our projects are relatively small, and entirely self-contained.  They do not require any editing at all, no matter where they are used, because all the path references are relative to the .ipj file location.  The Workspace path is defined as ".", which means "right here where this file is".  All the other paths are defined relative to the Workspace, so they are completely portable.

 

If your project files have references to external libraries, Template locations or Design Data locations, then those paths would have to be edited for each project if they are relocated.  On the other hand, if they are referenced to a mapped drive letter, and the new location has the same mapping, then you're still good to go.

Message 6 of 6
3DAli
in reply to: SBix26

No unfortunately my projects are not self contained, it means, I have to define search paths in defferent locations so that I could use those assemblies/parts,etc in my new project. for example, I have desined a base plate, it being filed under D:\Inventor\Projects\Base Plates\BP1 , the project file for this lives under D:\Inventor\Projects\Base Plates\BP.ipj

now, I have another project, let say "Post" that uses this base plate as well as bunch of other bits and pieces that are coming from other projects (due to being Generic). so I have defined workgroup search paths within my new project "i.e. Post"  that refers to D:\Inventor\Projects\Base Plates\. here enlies the problem, if I relocate D:\Inventor\xxxx to 

E:\, the main workplace doesnt cause any issue since its defined relative, but all those workgroup search paths needs to be modified to "E:\Inventor\Projects\Base Plates\" for example. unless I dont know how to define them originally , so that they are relative to workspace. 

 

I hope I made it clear enough this time, so any help is very much appreciated in advance.

 

P.S. my solution for this so far has been using a quick/search/repalce software to edit all *.ipj file and change "d:\" to "E:\" at push of a botton, thanks GOD that ipj files are text base and editable that way.

 

Cheers

Ali

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