Vault Mass Rename

[travward]

I am looking for a way to mass rename content center files. The issue is that I can't do this because I need to perform an "update file reference" to all of the where used for these files. I can do this one hardware file at a time but that would take a long time...

This is an idea, not the only one, so I am open to suggestions. The reason I want to do this is, we have recently disabled "duplicate file names" in vault. At some point in time content center was not set up right, and content center files were dumped in a different ($/library/) location than what we intended. Now we have our content center files managed on a network server and managed by vault. So there is an intense amount of duplicate content center files. The bad or unwanted files reside in this "$/library/" location.

I want to be able to rename all of the files insides this "$/library/" location, I know I can get a list of all duplicate files and filter it down to only the files located in this location. But, I don't know how to implement a mass "update file reference" of the where used assemblies that use these files.

Does any body follow? Or have any suggestions?

Thanks,

Travis

[travward]

... That is.... If I were able to extract a list of all of the "where used" files I could perform a mass update file reference to these and let it run. Then I could mass rename all of the $/library/ located files.

[scottmoyse]

renaming the files will re-reference them all to the assemblies which use them automatically. But I think you will only be able to rename 100 files at a time.

Once renamed, you can use the replace command in Vault, so it will replace the selected component with which ever one you select. So the Old (renamed) file with the correct file (which has the same name as the newly renamed one did previously).

Does that help? You would have to replace each one in individual steps though unfortunately. You could write a Vault extension to take care of that if you have thousands of files to replace.

[travward]

Thanks for the reply.

When I rename a content center file I get a "warning" (See attached Vaultimage1.jpg), telling me I can't do this function until I perform an '"Update file reference" to these files... ' Then vault asks be, after closing out of this warning, if I want to update the file references to the said files... That's a couple clicks that I don't know how to implement in a "mass" form. Although, I have noticed, if I am renaming an amount of files, it will mass update all of them at the same time.

I have noticed that if I open a file that contains these "$/library" files (I know a file contains these through vault explorer) the content center file will auto update to the correct file location set up by the project file or app options. Perhaps that's just the nature of how content center files work? I don't know. I also notice that there is no difference if the files are renamed or not. If we migrated the files after correcting the set up issue I don't think we would have any "update file reference warning issue, because the files would have updated themselves, I think... Thus renaming would be an issue.

You reply did help, I didn't know that you can only rename 100 at a time.

If I had a list of the duplicated files I want to rename, Is there a way to upload that list into vault, where I can rename a 100 at a time, then eat at that for a while? One thing I was trying to do was use the find tool in vault to find files by location or path, but I couldn't figure out how to do that.

Perhaps there is a way to do this in Task scheduler...

Thanks,

Travis

[scottmoyse]

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@travward wrote:

If I had a list of the duplicated files I want to rename, Is there a way to upload that list into vault, where I can rename a 100 at a time, then eat at that for a while? One thing I was trying to do was use the find tool in vault to find files by location or path, but I couldn't figure out how to do that.

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No that I am aware of, I've wanted to do that a number of times myself. Are they any common properties you could use? With Task Scheduler I think you would have the same problem of figuring out how to get a list together. How did you collate the list in the first place?

Unfortunately there's still no file path property in Vault. It would be really handy for categorising files based on folder location without having to run scripts/iLogic in the CAD application.

For the installation of Vault 2013 SP1, it required you to perform a reference repair prior to re-enabling Purge. http://help.autodesk.com/view/VAULT/2014/ENU/?guid=GUID-FD3F1E67-337A-4893-B7E6-C731D5C5FE4C It's a lengthy process done on the server, but it might be what you need to sort out all the file references in one hit.

Otherwise you can update references by folder using this method

[minkd]

You can search for files in particular folders in the find dialog. Use the "Look For" pulldown and switch it to Files (from Any), and then press the Browse button next to the "Look In" field. You can check which folders you want to search in. -Dave

[travward]

I can get a list of duplicate files in Vault under tools, administration, vault settings, press "Find Duplicates". I can then copy this into an Excel spread sheet and filter it to find all of the $/library files (or content center files) that apply to me.

Since this, I have actually gone through all of the folders in vault (piece by piece) and updated file references. Took a while, but now when I try to rename a content center file, in vault, I don't get that warning anymore.

As a possible work around to the "Mass vault rename" for duplicate file names, I can edit the content center custom families to change the filename. Then I would need to use the "refresh" tool, under manage to have all of the content center files refresh to the new file name, which will not be duplicate to anything in vault anymore.

But the new problem I have that gets in the way of this idea is this: I mentioned before that if an assembly uses hardware mapped in the wrong directory, when opening the assembly the file will "auto update" to the right location. THAT DOESN'T SEEM TO BE A TRUE STATEMENT, ANYMORE... : /  I have assemblies that open now from vault, that have content center files that are mapped to the $/library directory and even in another directory all together C:\Users\[user name]\Documents\Library (the working folder). The refresh tool will not pick these files up as needing update. I notice that if I manually "right click" on a piece of hardware, and "change size" tack "replace all" w/o actually changing the size of the hardware, it somehow remaps that hardware to the right location.

So the new question is: Is there a way to auto regenerate the content center files in an assembly so that it is using them from the correct library location?

Thanks,

Travward

[scottmoyse]

Library paths are hardcoded from the library path down (so the relative path is hardcoded), since they are outside of the workspace. Files within the workspace have 'loose' paths, in the sense that it's not fussed if it doesn't find the file where it was before, it will scan until it finds one with the correct filename, then use that & move on.

You are in a situation where, unless you can use replace tools inside Inventor or Vault, your only option is to manually re-reference the files as Inventor requests their location.

[travward]

"Disclaimer" I don't think the subject for this post applies anymore. Mass rename was an idea to resolve the problem that I am having. I don't know how to change a thread subject so please forgive me if this seems to go off "topic".

@scottmoyse wrote:

Library paths are hardcoded from the library path down (so the relative path is hardcoded), since they are outside of the workspace. Files within the workspace have 'loose' paths, in the sense that it's not fussed if it doesn't find the file where it was before, it will scan until it finds one with the correct filename, then use that & move on.

Scott, can you explain this more? I am not following completely. Does the assembly file (in the working folder) search the local drive or does it scan the server?

There was a time, btw, we used to have our content center files stored on the local computers. We made the switch to have a server location for the hardware and vault manage this at the same time. There was a time period in between this that the server wasn't set up right. Any files created on or before this issue has content center files that are not linked to our "CAD Resources" server directory.

Experimenting: If the assembly file was created before the switch to the server, it will have the "c:/library" directory. I deleted my entire working folder, the old library directory (c:/library) and deleted the "c:/user/[username]/documents/" directory. I re-loaded the project file. When I open an old assembly that is referencing a "c:/library" from vault, since that files is not on my c drive anymore the library file is automatically created in a "c:/user/[username]/documents/" file directory. Which is bizzare because the library files in vault reference the "$/library" path.

And a reminder, regardless to the file being in "c:/user" or in "c:/library", if I right click on the file and change size, w/o changing the size, it will re-reference itself to the correct file location; and I think this is because it's recreating the file from the content center database, which is programmed to route the file to the correct file location. At this point, my only option is to perform this for every file in my assembly.

Any ideas on this?

[travward]

I started a new thread on this topic, http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/Inventor-General/Content-Center-files-Wrong-directory-Re-reference/m-p...

[bbartlam]

Hello,

  I have several thousand files that need to be renamed. What is the current process to change multiple files at one time with an Excel sheet or pasting? Thanks for your time.