Using Unique File Names option

[mikazakov]

This option is working or not?

If you set "Yes", you can create files with the same name in the project anyway.

Why then this option?

[Curtis_Waguespack · Accepted solution]

HI mikazakov,

I'll jump in here and add what I know about this setting, and the Autodesk folks can correct me if I'm off base.

I typically recommend setting this to No even if you are using unique file names (which I also recommend). This setting doesn't really enforce unique file names, it merely searches for them. So I find it to cause more problems than it solves.

Where I find it to be particularly problematic is when I rename a file in order to purposely break a link so that I can resolve the link to a different file. For instance when working with derived parts and trying to point the part to a new revision of the derived part file. If Using Unique File Names option is set to Yes, Inventor searches every folder/file in the project and takes a long time to tell me what I already know: the file can't be found. However, if I set this option to No, Inventor immediately throws the resolve file dialog and allows me to redirect the link.

I've not noticed any problems with setting this option to No.

The Help files do not document this setting well at all.

I hope this helps.

Best of luck to you in all of your Inventor pursuits,

Curtis

http://inventortrenches.blogspot.com/

[salariua]

As Curtis has mentioned I would only use this in special cases like if you decide to move the folder of content center generated files and you temporarily change the project, "use unique filenames" to YES so that you don't have to browse for each and every component. However this is a solution only if you have unique finlenames indeed, otherwise Inventor will stop at the first filename that matches his search which might not be what you are after.

Good Luck.

[jgoetsch]

Older post, but still important in 2020.

So this has caused are company a great deal of grief. Many of our older assemblies have unresolved files in them. This causes inventor to search for each un resolved file in the entire vault, every folder..... every missing file..... When opening a rather large assembly, with 30 plus missing reference files, it takes inventor 30 min + to open the file. It may have found some of the files but most are no longer available because they have been renamed. Also we do not have unique file names (yet!) so who knows what it actually found. When I turn this to "no" it take about 10 seconds to open. Now, it is completely unresolved! but, I made my bed and I will lie in it!

I have attached a video of the process monitor showing the background searching going on, in hopes of helping the next person. Thanks for your posts!

[craig_embry]

Very useful information.  I would rather direct Inventor where to go myself.

[phlyx]

Just so everyone knows we're not using Vault.  We open files directly off the network server drive and we save back to it.  We do not copy files local.  We have done process monitoring before but other than saying, yup, it's seeing a lot of network traffic, not sure what else we'd say and not sure how to flag if it's too high or not.

[phlyx]

And I had cleaned up all the paths in the project that I have been dealing with and the assembly opened in 3-1/2 minutes.  I just set Unique Files Names = NO, restarted Inventor and opened the same file and it opened in 4:15, 45 seconds slower than Unique File Names = YES.