Vault Copy Design - too many related files

[Anonymous]

Hi All,

First off, I am currently using Vault / Inventor Professional 2014. Not sure if this issue's been solved on more recent program versions. If so, then maybe that's a good argument for my group to get updated software. 🙂

The problem I'm having is that when I use Copy Design on an assembly or drawing file in Vault, the list of files that comes up includes a large number of other assembly files which are (supposed to by) completely unrelated to what I'm trying to copy. Here's a picture for reference (hopefully it helps):

Copy Design Window:

Settings window:

For whatever reason, I have no way to exclude these files (even after un-checking all settings I'm allowed to), so, every time I want to copy design of an assembly which should be a few hundred MB max, Vault decides it has to download up to 2 GB or more of unwanted "related files" and then re-upload them, which takes a decent chunk of time on my computer. It's at the point now where myself and others here are finding it easier to just use "Save-as" on an assembly / drawing file because it's much faster than using "copy design" in Vault.

The cause for this may be user-originated, I'm not sure. I'll be the first to admit that many people at my work started out with little knowledge of Inventor or Vault, and had to learn through experience / trial and error.

What I'd like to know is - how do I get Vault (and / or Inventor) to stop thinking these assemblies are related when they have nothing to do with eachother, and how does this unwanted relationship get created so I can stop it from happening any further? Is it caused when you do a save-as instead of using copy design?

I apologize if this has been answered in another post; I tried searching, but was unable to find an answer. Any help from you guys would be greatly appreciated. Let me know if you need more info.

Thanks,

Chris

[swalton]

If you change the view in the Copy Design window from List to Design View, you should see the relationships between the files.  That should help you see why these extra files are showing up.  Are they childeren of a drawing file? Or are the assemblies derived into part files and used in the copied assembly?

What does the Vault Browser in Invnetor look like for the file in your screenshot?  How about the "all levels" BOM for the top level assembly?  Do the dependancies in the Copy Design command match the dependancies that Inventor sees?

[Anonymous]

Thanks for your reply Swalton. I apologize for the long time period since my post, but the email notification of response got stuck in my junk filter apparently... >_>

Thanks for your suggestions. I found out that when I change the Copy Design view to "Design View" then all of the extra files don't show up. They only show up in "List view" and "Folder view" views. These extra files don't appear to be children of the target assembly, nor do I have any derived parts at all (much less related here specifically). Having the Design View up when using Copy Design doesn't seem to prevent the CD wizard from downloading and uploading all those extraneous files though.

The Vault browser in Inventor for the target assembly matches the Copy Design - Design View window, where it only shows parts / assemblies which are actually being used, and the same is true for the top level BOM, so I think Inventor's got it right. As far as I can tell, it's Vault which seems to have created some other relationship between certain files, and I can't figure out how it happens or how to break it.

I've heard that in the Vault 2016 Copy Design wizard, you can choose to exclude certain files that older versions wouldn't allow, so upgrading might be one way to solve the issue. Is this my only solution though?

Chris

[Anonymous]

I have been havin the very same issue with copy design views ever since.

I always stick with the design view, while i do a design copy ,  where only the related parts are displayed.

Vault (i think) is trying to relate the assembly,  to previous design copy instances in the " folder view" as well as "list view"

To check of any real links i would do a "pack and go" from vaulr to a seperate folder and check the folder structure , i have never seen any  of the links that  appear in the  " folder view" or "list view"  copied out in a pack and go. 

Vault 2014 professional

PDS P 2014

[Anonymous]

Hi hpmithun, thanks for your input on my issue. It sucks to hear someone else has the problem too, but there's a small part of me that feels a little better knowing that I'm not the only one having it. 🙂

I believe you're right, in that Vault is somehow adding extra relationships that aren't there according to Inventor. I'm not sure if this might be a glitch in the programming perhaps? However, doing a Pack & Go is just based in Inventor, I think, so it shouldn't include all the extras that Vault comes up with.

For me, at least, it doesn't seem to matter which view I use - CD wizard will still DL and UL all those extraneous files and I can't deselect them. Does it exclude them for you if you use Design View, versus folder/list view?

Currently, I've been getting by doing everything using "save-as" instead. I've pretty much boycotted Vault Copy-Design, except for with parts or simple assemblies that don't seem to show the issue. This can be a pain in the neck for some of my larger assemblies, but, with my internet connection at least, I can usually do all the file and field updates before Vault would have downloaded and re-uploaded all the extra unneeded data (sometimes many GB worth)...

So far, I think the only real solution to the problem is to upgrade to a newer version of Vault (2016+) which (hopefully) allows you to manually de-select these files. I'm hoping that my company will invest in a software update soon!

Chris

[Anonymous]

Hi Chris,

Inventor 2014 Professional , the "design view" works perfect .

When I meant pack and go , I would do it from vault not from within inventor ,
As you said , the Vault still has few glitches which they keep improving over the new releases.
Save as is a laborious option, defeats the purpose of having vault , hope you won't have to do that once you have the 2016.

Regards
Mithun

[t_fransman]

Still having this issue in 2019 myself it really sucks the time up

[t_fransman]

It seems they have fixed the different views, however the more serious issue is that I am copying a small assembly around (50) files, and it is still retrieving 12600 plus files, and taking an hour and a half to copy. I need ti fixed before i get fired here guys. 

[nathan_wostrel]

My testing has shown the issue not to be so much a program error, rather, improper use of the programs.  For us, it was showing more than a single model per drawing.  This linked all drawings that contained that part or assembly.  Some of our copy designs are pulling in as many as 120 full size models (200 Mb to 1.4 Gb per model) every time.  Fortunately, the issue can be resolved by removing the drawing views that are not the original model.  Unfortunately, this means more smaller drawings and more clerical work to ensure all drawings are passed to the next group.  Look into this as a solution, although it may take a lot of work to implement in the workflow.  Best of luck!

Nathan Wostrel

Inventor Professional 2020

Build: 373, Release: 2020.3.3

Vault Basic 2020

Build 25.3.22.0  2020.3.1 Update

[t_fransman]

Thanks Nathan,

A vault update/patch was made and resolved my issue. I did not have the multiple models attached problem you describe. It was programming issue and resolved a while back. I haven't noticed it in 2021 yet, though it may return, hard to say. Thanks