Re-using parts and assemblies

[Anonymous]

I am new to inventor & learning things the hard way.  I copy & pasted an .iam file into another project.  I made modifications to this file & it changed my other project.  How can I fix this & what is the proper way to re-using .iam files.  

Thank you!

[Anonymous]

When you insert an .iam into another .iam (or an .ipt for that matter), that assembly (or part) is adaptive, meaning any changes you make to the parent file will be reflected in every instance of that assembly. 

If you want to have differences in the representation of the .iam, but not the parts in the .iam, use Positional Representations (I'll explain how to use them if you aren't familiar)

If you want to have different parts in each .iam, make different .iam's. At that point, it's a different assembly, even if it is one small part change. So it should be different .iam files.

[Anonymous]

Aaron, any quick way to get my old version back?  I tried going to the old version folder & recover it but it still shows the updated one.

Thank you!

[Anonymous]

It really depends on what you changed, can you tell me?

[Anonymous]

I am creating a 3d sketch of a platform.  I've changed the size of the platform, the columns down to the ground & guardrail locations.  I am guessing I will have to re-do everything.  I need to figure out how to save or replace the components in each assembly so it doesn't screw both my platforms up again.

[Anonymous]

Yeah, you may just end up having to redo it. 

Given parts are changing, they should be different assemblies all together.

If you want to know how to replace a component with another, right click on the part in model browser, or the window, go to component, then replace or replace all. The replace and replace all icon is also in the assemble tab. Constraints may get messed up, so you may have to re-assign constraints. 

[SBix26]

Can you give a little more detail about what happened?  The way I'm reading your original post, you used Windows File Explorer to copy an assembly file from one project folder to a different project folder.  But I'm not clear on how you "made modifications to this file".  I'm afraid that you made modifications to the components of your assembly, which you didn't copy along with the assembly.

So, here's how it should work.  You should have a project file (.ipj) that defines the workspace where that project's files are located.  When you want to copy to a new project, you make a new folder and create a new .ipj file in that one, then copy your assembly and all its components to that folder, then change your active project to that new project file.  Now when you open your copied assembly, it can't "see" its original component files in the old project folder, it can only see the copied ones in the new folder, because the project file determines what folders are available to it.

Post back if I'm misunderstanding, or if I what I wrote isn't clear.  Unfortunately, learning things the hard way is often the most effective way to learn!

Sam B

Inventor Professional 2017 R2
Vault Basic 2017.0.1
Windows 7 Enterprise 64-bit, SP1
Inventor Certified Professional

[johnsonshiue]

Hi! It sounds like you are not using any data management software to manage the data. You may want to consider using Vault Basic (free) to Inventor users. You can recover last saved files from OldVersions folder at the same level as the files you want to retrieve.

Thanks!

[salariua]

If you don't use vault which can provide an older version then STOP everything and talk with IT.

They might have file history turned on and you might be able to recover from there.

If they don't then tell them to get a data recovery software and tell them to search in the OldVersions folder for any previous files. Each old save will get a unique name and therefore they might be recoverable. But you can't use the computer for windows might override the files in the folder (they are deleted after all).

Good Luck.