topic Re: 2023-2026 upgrade, copy design behavior in Vault Forum

2023-2026 upgrade, copy design behavior

matthewvp — Sun, 19 Oct 2025 21:42:05 GMT

Hi guys,

We recently updated from 2023 to 2026 INV & Vault. No issues there.

I see that the copy design process has changed, and we're having an issue:

Our file structure is that we have part files in one folder, and the associated IDW files in another folder in the same directory.

Previously when we used copy design on a part, we renamed the part and it's associated drawing, Vault would remember the location of the associated drawing without input from us, but now it moves it across to the same destination path we've specified which we don't want.

I've looked through options but not had any luck, is there a way to force associated files to stay within the same directory they're in? I realize I could just copy the path to correct it, but if we have an assembly with hundreds of parts which is common for us, this is really problematic

See picture attached of our typical file structure, IDW drawings folder is within the same directory the parts are in.

Any help is greatly appreciated
Matt

Re: 2023-2026 upgrade, copy design behavior

andrewiv — Mon, 20 Oct 2025 12:08:43 GMT

I don't remember exactly how the old copy design process worked, but the new one just does the same changes to the drawing that you apply to the model if the link drawings with model option is checked. If you want to add a subfolder to the path of the drawings, I think you will have to uncheck that option and then manually change the destination path of the drawings. You could also leave it the way it is and then move the drawings after they have been copied.

Re: 2023-2026 upgrade, copy design behavior

matthewvp — Mon, 20 Oct 2025 21:54:03 GMT

Previously you would specify the new path for the part, and the associated IDW would stay in the same directory as where it's being copied (even if it's different)

Re: 2023-2026 upgrade, copy design behavior

rv43LSX — Wed, 10 Dec 2025 13:39:28 GMT

We're having exactly the same problem in Vault Basic 2026. Having drawings organized in subfolders has been an engineering staple for us for years. The old copy design tool respected folders relative to the 'copy design from' folder... We're screwed it seems.

Re: 2023-2026 upgrade, copy design behavior

matthewvp — Wed, 10 Dec 2025 17:30:06 GMT

Exactly the same, glad it's not just us. I'll add it to the Vault Ideas forum to see if it can get changed back

Change back copy design part subfolder behavior

matthewvp — Wed, 10 Dec 2025 17:36:59 GMT

For 10+ years in vault we've had part idw drawings in subfolders, not the same directory as the part itself.

In previous Vault versions during the copy design process, whether copying an individual part or an assembly, the copy design process would remember the subfolder and automatically direct copied drawings of copied parts to this subfolder.

In Vault Basic 2026, the copy design process ignores the subfolder and automatically changes the associated idw to go into the same folder as the part itself. This has to be manually updated, and if the assembly is large it can be a very time consuming and manual process.

Not sure if this is a bug or not, but can we please change this behavior back to the way it was?

See below forum post:

Re: 2023-2026 upgrade, copy design behavior - Autodesk Community

Re: Change back copy design part subfolder behavior

ihayesjr — Wed, 10 Dec 2025 20:24:23 GMT

@matthewvp

I moved this post from the Ideas board because I would like it treated as a bug.

Can you please create a support ticket for this issue and reference this forum thread?

Re: 2023-2026 upgrade, copy design behavior

rv43LSX — Thu, 11 Dec 2025 08:16:20 GMT

@ihayesjr
Would you be able to give some background information about the (new) Copy Design functionality? I Was wondering if the Vault 'Pro' Copy Design has perhaps always disregarded subfolder(s) like Vault Basic 2026 Copy Design now does and/or if this behavior is meant as the 'new' way forward so to speak. We'd prefer not to change our workflow, then again, if we have to then we'll have to...

Re: 2023-2026 upgrade, copy design behavior

matthewvp — Thu, 11 Dec 2025 08:24:22 GMT

FYI I've logged a support ticket and they said they're looking into it so I guess we'll see what comes of that

Re: 2023-2026 upgrade, copy design behavior

ihayesjr — Thu, 11 Dec 2025 13:27:52 GMT

@rv43LSX

I am not sure what background you are looking for. It was not intended for Copy Design to disregard the destination for the drawings folder.

Re: 2023-2026 upgrade, copy design behavior

rv43LSX — Thu, 11 Dec 2025 14:06:24 GMT

Since I was unable to find if the change was intended or not, that was exactly the background information I was looking for! 😉

Re: 2023-2026 upgrade, copy design behavior

rv43LSX — Thu, 08 Jan 2026 11:38:20 GMT

Has there been any updates regarding this topic?

On a side note, we noticed that the behavior is very irregular: For some assemblies Copy Design seems to copy most folder paths 'almost' correctly. When the assembly has corresponding .ipn files it puts those .ipn files in a subfolder named after the source/root folder (even though the .ipn files were directly in the source/root folder), and then all other subfolders come after that, in perfect order, even though they should have been placed in the target folder.

For other assemblies it just puts everything in a single folder even though the source design had subfolders (.iam's, .ipt's and .idw's)!

Re: 2023-2026 upgrade, copy design behavior

matthewvp — Sun, 11 Jan 2026 17:36:37 GMT

Nothing yet, they've made a support page about it, but there's no updates there yet

https://www.autodesk.com/support/technical/article/caas/sfdcarticles/sfdcarticles/In-Vault-Basic-2026-Copy-Design-moves-associated-drawings-instead-of-preserving-their-original-folder-locations.html

Re: 2023-2026 upgrade, copy design behavior

salvador — Mon, 09 Feb 2026 20:20:42 GMT

In Vault 2023 Copy Design, by default, you would specify a common root destination folder, and when a file was manually renamed, its destination folder would automatically be filled with the root plus the corresponding hierarchy folder name coming from the source. Is there no way to reproduce this functionality in 2026? Maybe with Find/Replace?

Re: 2023-2026 upgrade, copy design behavior

matthewvp — Mon, 09 Feb 2026 20:25:24 GMT

You've got it to do all manual in 2026.

It's a bug, hopefully they'll update it soon

Re: 2023-2026 upgrade, copy design behavior

salvador — Wed, 11 Feb 2026 16:00:18 GMT

Even though it is not automatic like it used to, you can now use Find and Replace to update the destination path

Re: 2023-2026 upgrade, copy design behavior

matthewvp — Wed, 11 Feb 2026 19:01:26 GMT

In the instance where you have a folder with parts, and a subfolder with the drawings, the find and replace won't help because it will try and overwrite everything to be in the new path.

Again it's a bug, I'm aware there's workarounds, but I'm hoping they'll just fix it

Re: 2023-2026 upgrade, copy design behavior

GosponZ — Sat, 21 Feb 2026 03:47:36 GMT

It is almost year they didn't fix. Working with Inventor and Vault 20 years never had problem. Now 2026 Vault and Inventor have so many bugs or whatever you want to call. Are they now more concentrate on 2027 release and they do not care about us who have problem. Hope will be fix in new release. Copy design is just disaster for us. Do those Test Eng's testing before release? Please do it is obvious you do not test. Ask AI what think about copy design in Vault basic. Lot people suffer and complain. Autodesk please do something we need our jobs to finish. Thank you.

Re: 2023-2026 upgrade, copy design behavior

softwaremanagement — Mon, 23 Feb 2026 07:21:42 GMT

Agreed, the unpredictable Copy Design behavior is unacceptible for production environment(s) and something has to be done.

Re: 2023-2026 upgrade, copy design behavior

Dylan-White-Con-form — Sun, 01 Mar 2026 21:49:38 GMT

Fix this please!