Inventor add in, Check in only top level assembly that has "dirty" children

[Richard-D-Henderson]

When we create a plant layout in Inventor (or any other large assembly) we often struggle to check that new top-level assembly into Vault due to it having what Inventor sees as an unsaved change or “dirty” file. This caries on after the initial check in with every subsequent check in making it very frustrating to check it in later. Most of the time the files that Inventor sees as "dirty" are because they are sub-assemblies with flexible positional representations, these assemblies are also in a released state so we couldn't check them out to save them anyway.

This causes our team working with very large layouts a lot of headaches. Most of the time that team will only have the very top-level assembly checked out as that is the only file that they need to edit. For initial check in we have been forced to check in an empty assembly with the name we want and then saving over the top of that so we can fool Vault to let us check it in. For subsequent check-ins we have been getting around this partially by either saving the files out of turn or saving only the top level that is checked out and then closing the assembly so we get the prompt to check in on close. This works most of the time (80%) but when it takes up to 30 minutes to open an assembly to just close it again to check it in, we lose large amounts of productive time! This also doesn't work if you have other assemblies open and just want to update the layout in the Vault.

We need a way of being able to check in just that assembly regardless of the state that Inventor thinks its children are in. If all the child files are the latest version in the Vault I can’t see why this isn’t possible.

[ihayesjr]

@Richard-D-Henderson 

What version of Vault and Inventor are you using?

Have you modified the Inventor Options in the Save tab so that certain updates are ignored?

[Richard-D-Henderson]

Hi Irvin,

Vault is 2021.1 and Inventor is 2021.4.x

"Migration", "Mass Property Update" and "Implicit Update" are set to "Don't Save":

@ihayesjr 

[ihayesjr]

@Richard-D-Henderson 

This is Inventor 2023 Options. I am not sure if they are all available in 2021. This has been a long-time challenge with dirty files. Stop telling me I need to save something I haven't changed - Autodesk Community

[Richard-D-Henderson]

@ihayesjr 

The addition of "Model States Updates" seems to be the only difference (see image below).

Would it be possible to add in a global setting that enables a user to check in a file that has "dirty" children? We obviously can't have missing references or anything, but if it is not a "real" change is it mission critical to have it 100% clean? There may need to be some rules setup around that, I understand why in an ideal world everything should be clean and tidy, but in reality if the sub assembly that has a change due to it being adaptive it is not really something that will ever go away, unless there are certain rules that can be put in place in Inventor.

Maybe this is a setting that can be controlled by Vault user groups. Maybe you have a group (in my case machine designers) that can only check in a 100% clean assembly and another group (project management and layout engineers) that have a rule that allows them to check in assemblies (and drawings) that contain children with unsaved changes to only assemblies that are not checked out to them.  

[ihayesjr]

@Richard-D-Henderson 

My concern would be showing a wrong representation of the file in Vault because of the dirty files. We would have to research what it would take to maintain integrity of how files are represented and maintained in this scenario.

[Richard-D-Henderson]

@ihayesjr 

The updates I am talking about are mainly driven from a selection of sub assemblies that are in a flexible state, these will always want to update when you open an assembly with them in. We have two types of assemblies that are present in almost all of our equipment that are in a flexible state. One being a foot with an insert which could be at any length (often different lengths in the same assembly) and conveyor head drum tensioner assemblies. I know the Inventor development team has added information in the save dialogue box about why the component needs saving, maybe there is more that can be done around that with the check in dialogue box?

I understand what you are saying but effectively we are already doing this with the close and check in function, or saving the files out of turn and then checking in. We are just having to go about it a different way that can be very time consuming.