"Link to external file" variables .txt files are crosstalking

SOLIDWORKS SW General
1

I’m currently working on a project that has about 10 different variable text files (Tools, Equations, “Link to External File:”).

They are all different filenames in different folders. For example: Part_A_variables.txt.

(But from here forward, I will refer to the variable files generically as “variables.txt”.)

I am having a problem with some of the part files that use the variables.txt files crosstalking.

That is, I’ll go to open a variable.txt file and find the variables from another part overwrote everything.

I’m pretty sure the reason for this is that somewhere I have a part file that is mis-referencing a variable.txt file.

The question is: how would I begin going about finding the part file that has the incorrect variable.txt file reference?

Hope this all makes sense.

Thanks for any help.

2

If you are still having this problem you could match file modified times. Use last modified of the variables.txt. Then perform a windows search for assembly or part that was modified at the same time.
Example search: datemodified:‎5/‎13/‎2022 ext:.sldasm
other ways to narrow the search → https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/lwef/-search-2x-wds-aqsreference?redirectedfrom=MSDN

3

Are you working with a “start-up part” that is used to create multiple parts that you then switch to text files?

I’ve noticed that SolidWorks is rather bad at handling references, no matter what type they are, so perhaps this is what is happenning to you too:

To explain, i’ll post a screenshot.
image.png
In that picture, the part opened is GP504F-POUT-001, which was created from a file that was previously GP484A-POUT-001, 21741-POUT-001 and 170133-POUT-001.

If I happen to open up that 170133 file, while I have the GP504F file opened, SolidWorks then has both in it’s memory, and the properties of GP484A-POUT-001 will update themselves accordingly to 170133-POUT-001 rather then the file that they should be referencing(GP504F-POUT-001).

If GP504F-POUT-001 is opened without 170133-POUT-001, everything will be fine and it will update itself as it should to it’s host file.

You can imagine the P.I.T.A. we had when the issue started happenning on stiffeners that were all made from the same original file.

4

There are a couple of different ways you can do it…although if you have lots of parts, this will be tedious.


Way 1:
Open a part or assembly file and RMB on equations and selcet Manage equations
image.png
Then the box at the bottom tells you which text file it is associated with:
image.png
Way 2:
Run a Pack and go on any of the parts or assemblies.
In the list, it will include all the external files associated with it.
image.png

5

Update:

I discovered that an assembly, especially one that includes external variables, should always be opened as “Fully Resolved” before performing a Pack & Go. If it’s opened “Lightweight”, Pack & Go is not reliable.