iLogic Event-Driven Rule: The Specified path, file name, or both are too long...

[DRoam]

Anyone else come across this error when an External iLogic rule is triggered by an Event Trigger?

"iLogic Event-Driven Rule

The specified path, file name, or both are too long. The fully qualified file name must be less than 260 characters, and the directory name must be less than 248 characters."

We have a filing system in place that works very well... except on the rare occasions that it gets deep enough to cause this error. The only solution I know of is to move the affected file further up in the folder structure, which kills our filing system.

The frustrating thing is, if I manually run the rule being triggered, it runs fine. It's only when the event triggers it that I get this error (it's a "Before Save Document" trigger).

Is there anything I can do to make Inventor willing to work with files with a long file path? In this case the directory name is actually only 209 characters and the "fully qualified file name" is only 241 characters, which is less than the error says they should be... so I'm not sure why it's even happening in this case. Any tips are appreciated.

[HermJan.Otterman]

hello,

do you save it on a mapped networkdrive? then you have to count the mapping folders as well

so if you store it on x:\inventor\.... etc where X:\ is the mapped network drive.

and x: = \\server\foldeA\FolderB\   => you have to count these as well.

I think this limit is a Windows limit.

[DRoam]

Thanks for the reply. We do have our files on a mapped network drive, and the address to the folder on the server would add 13 characters to the file path, maing the directory name 222 characters (still under 248), and the full file path 254 characters (still under 260). So there must be something else going on as well.

But regardless, it would be nice not to have to worry about this at all. I have heard before that this is a Windows limit. If so that's very unfortunate. I was hoping there was some way to work around it.

For right now what I'm going to try to do is create a local rule in my Parts which runs the external rule, and add that local rule to my Event Trigger instead. Doing it this way doesn't produce the error.

It would be nice if Inventor could use the same internal mechanism to fire the rule using an Event Trigger that it uses to fire it from inside another rule. That would be the best solution if there's not a workaround... @ekinsb and @MjDeck, I think you're a couple of the Autodesk iLogic gurus, any thoughts on the feasibility of doing that?

[MjDeck]

Is the external rule stored in an External Rule Directory that is named in the iLogic Configuration dialog?
Which version of Inventor are you running?

[DRoam]

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@MjDeck wrote:

Is the external rule stored in an External Rule Directory that is named in the iLogic Configuration dialog?

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Yes it is.

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MjDeck wrote:

Which version of Inventor are you running?

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I'm running Inventor 2017.3.

[MjDeck]

How many levels of folder names are in the full path?
(for example C:\Level 1\Level 2\...)

[DRoam]

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@MjDeck wrote:

How many levels of folder names are in the full path?

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After the drive letter (R:\) there are 10 folders, including the one that contains the Part.

[MjDeck]

Is the part file stored in a directory that is designated as an External Rule Directory in the iLogic Configuration dialog (or in a subfolder under one of those directories)?

[MjDeck]

If the part is stored in a separate directory tree (which I would recommend), please let me know how may levels there are for:
A) the part
B) the external rule
I think it's a combination of these that is causing the problem. If so, we should be able to fix it.

[DRoam]

Thanks for your help on this.

The part is stored in a separate directory, which is not an External Rule Directory or a sub-directory of one. All of our iLogic rules are in a central location, near the top of our mapped network drive. The path to get to the part is completely separate from the path to get to the iLogic directory (in other words, they're in separate sub folders of the root network drive.)

To answer your other question:
A) The part is 10 folders deep in our R:\ network drive
B) The iLogic rule is 3 folders deep in our R:\ network drive.

So the locations are separated by 13 directory levels.

[DRoam]

@MjDeck, did my answers give the info you needed? Do you think the fix you mentioned could work?

[MjDeck · Accepted solution]

Hi @DRoam,

 Yes, from your answers I was able to reproduce the problem. The internal issue number is 184115. We should be able to fix it in the next update to Inventor 2018.
Other than using shorter paths, I don't know if there's any other workaround. And although I asked about the number of levels, it's actually the total length of the two paths that's causing the problem.

[DRoam]

Thanks very much for looking into this and reproducing.

That would be fantastic if this were fixed in a 2018 update. I'd sort of resigned to always having this limitation, but it's been especially cumbersome this project. If there's hope for the future, that would be very encouraging.

Is there somewhere I can go to track progress on that issue number? I've seen those before but I've never found out where I can go to actually utilize it and track progress. It it somewhere on the AKN?

[MjDeck]

You can't track it directly, but you can ask anybody at Autodesk about the current status.
Those numbers often show up in the ReadMe's that are released with the updates.

[DRoam]

Good info. Thanks very much for your help on this.

[upwork.lz.works]

I have find out that Long Path Tool is very usefull with this kind of problems, you should try it and tell us if it worked.

[stevengross411]

long path file problem is common in windows 10, I prefer to use LongPathTool program.

[davidmcgowan001]

Try to use Long Path Tool, it really can help you with that. It will really help you to solve your problem.- Juan Miller