How do I get rid of phantom FileDescriptors?

[dhaverstick]

We use BlueCielo Meridian as our Inventor document management system and I have some VB.net code that checks all the referenced documents of an assembly before that assembly is checked into Meridian's vault. Basically, what the code does is check to to see if all the referenced documents are already managed by Meridian or not. I do this by looking at all the FileDescriptor objects in AssemblyFileObject.ReferencedFileDescriptors collection.

Anyway...I have come across a couple of cases where a FileDescriptor object has the ReferenceMissing flag set to true even though the file it is pointing to had been previously deleted from the assembly and the assembly successfully saved since then. These "phantom" FileDescriptors are causing me fits and I cannot figure out how to get rid of them. 

Any suggestions? Is there some way to do a purge on the Assembly?

Darren Haverstick

Paul Mueller Company

[bradeneuropeArthur]

In the "Tools-Tab" in the Ribbon you will find the "Links" Command.

Here you can delete them!

Regards,

[dhaverstick]

Thanks for that answer but how can I accomplish the same thing through the API?

Darren Haverstick

Paul Mueller Company

[dhaverstick]

Actually, after looking into the solution you proposed, I don't think it applies to my situation. From what I have learned, that "Links" button is for listing OLE objects attached to a given Inventor file. That is not my situation at all.

Here is an example of what I am experiencing. I have an assembly with parts A, B, and C. I delete part C from the assembly. However, when I query the Assembly File object and look at the ReferencedFileDescriptors collection, part C is still listed. The ReferencedFileDescriptor object's ReferencedFile property is nothing, which it should be because the file isn't referenced anymore. But I do not understand why the ReferencedFileDescriptor exists in the first place. And I would really like to purge it from the Assembly File object.

Darren Haverstick

Paul Mueller Company