topic Re: .rcp file in Navisworks keeps original file location after file relocated in Navisworks Forum

.rcp file in Navisworks keeps original file location after file relocated

matthew.ard2F7G4 — Thu, 26 Jan 2017 14:26:09 GMT

Hello everyone,

I have been stumped. Maybe someone can shed some light.

We have been working with ReCap, Plant 3D and Inventor, and we use Navisworks Manage to bring our models together. We utilize Vault and have offices in separate locations.

I first processed my point cloud and checked it into Vault with its supporting files from it's original location on one of our network drives. (X drive)

I pulled an .nwd file down from Vault and it was located in its working folder on my C drive.

I pulled the .rcp file down from Vault with all of the supporting files so that it was located in its working folder on my C drive.

I opened the .nwd file and appended the .rcp file into from its location on my C drive.

When I look at the properties of the XREF, all of the .rcs files are still located on the X drive!

Why does this happen?

Doesn't this make it so that the files will lose their link when users at our other location try to pull it from Vault and view it?

Shouldn't the link change since the file location changed?

Can anyone help please???

Thanks in advance.

Matt

Re: .rcp file in Navisworks keeps original file location after file relocated

Patrick_Aps_9121 — Fri, 27 Jan 2017 06:27:32 GMT

I'm not sure what you want to accomplish, but i may suggest the following.

1) In case every user of the overall model has access to the same network, do not use mapped drive letters like X: but use UNC paths like \\servename\share\ when appending files in Navisworks. Unfortunalty there is no other way to correct this then to delete the files from your NWF and append them again.

2) The Recap files work a bit different than normal CAD files. The way they behave is controlled by the Options -> File Readers -> Recap -> "On Publish Embed Xrefs". Press the Help button when you are there.

3) But also, there is a big difference with Recap files beteween a SaveAS NWD and a Publish NWD.

3a) With Save As, only the reference to the Recap Project is saved in the NWD and when a Freedom tries to open the NWD, it needs access to the original location of the Recap Files. My guess is that this is your current problem.

3b) When you Publish an NWD, the Recap files are also included in the NWD. This may cause your NWD to become larger than 1GB or even 8 GB, which causes it very difficult to transport to others. But then, you are always able to see the complete cloud also in Freedom.

4) Also the Navisworks reader of Recap Projects is not as good as the Autocad or Inventor one: You cannot have access to the Recap Regions or Scan Postions which are saved in the Recap Project.

5) Finally I have had also the issue when I tried to copy the complete Recap Project over to the 😧 drive of a workstation that was going to need the cloud a lot. I found out that when you copy over the complete Recap Project from the network drive to the 😧 drive, and then attach the Recap Project on that machine, that it still would use the support folder from the network drive. This also may be your issue. The way to solve this is: do NOT copy over complete Recap Projects. Only use Save As from within Recap to "move" of "copy" a Project from a local drive to a network location or from a network drive back to a local drive.

6) And finally, Always update your Recap to the most recent version. Currently we are on 3.1.3.4. There is however no difference in the Recap data: all versions still can use and handle the oldest and the newest Recap Projects

Re: .rcp file in Navisworks keeps original file location after file relocated

matthew.ard2F7G4 — Fri, 27 Jan 2017 14:00:02 GMT

Thank you very much for the response Patrick.

I am aware of the difference between a publish and a saveAs in Navisworks. I want to avoid publishing because of the issue of file size. The problem has since been solved, although I am still puzzled by the things that were taking place. I wanted to have the .rcp file located in a common place amongst all Vault users in both locations. The problem I was having was that the .nwd file was retaining the links to the original .rcp file. You see, I created both the .rcp file and the .nwd file originally on our X drive here at our location. I then checked the .rcp file along with supporting files into vault. I created a new .nwd file and checked it into vault. I pulled the .rcp file and the .nwd file down from Vault which placed them into their working folder on my local C drive. But when I attached the .rcp file to the .nwd file again, using the local C drive location, it still linked back to the X drive. We are in a transition currently and are attempting to move from working on our X drive to working strictly from Vault locally in both locations. Doing the work from the X drive is not the way to go and I know what you mean about that. The good thing is that once I deleted the .rcp file from the X drive and reattached it from the C drive the links were put right. Not sure what kept it hanging on to the original file even though it was a clean .nwd file. It really threw me for a loop for a while.

Thanks very much for responding and have a great day.

Matt