I am not a SolidWorks user so I apologize if there are any inaccuracies in what I am asking you for. To quickly explain the context: we have a large number of solidworks assemblies and for commercial reasons, we have to rename certain product lines and therefore naturally want to harmonize the designations of our catalog, our ERP and our plans. I asked our design office for this, who told me that it was a titanic task because for an assembly, you have to rename:
Components in SW
Windows folders and files
The information of an excel which lists all the plan numbers with their designation
The URL that is in this excel and that connects the line of a given plan number with the windows location of its folder.
Would you be able to tell me if it is indeed impossible to perform these 4 operations by an automated action or if it is entirely feasible by a macro or a solidworks tool?
Typically the kind of 'tech debt' topic. It's so cumbersome to update the 3D and 2D info, the CAPM, the documentation... that in the end almost no one ever does. For us, the 3D files have a number included in the name of the configuration (but with additional letters/numbers) and we have a mill that injects the configuration names into the CAPM to set up the nomenclatures. What you would like to do would require us to take over the entire 2D/3D database as well as all the CAPM This is the kind of thing you can do the day you decide to change your CAPM and drawing software at the same time (a rather rare decision given the associated costs). If you are embarking on this problem, you also need to know how to manage the daily life in the modification phase (half-converted base). The easiest way is probably to duplicate your database: you can recreate new files as you go. You can possibly continue working on the old one as long as the new one is not complete enough to be up and running.
In your case (which seems purely commercial): a small old / new name board would be enough to manage the existing one. You may be remaking new customer plans according to this new code (even if it means pointing to the old numbers). And you can always name new products according to your new rules. Unfortunately, this will create a real mess of names and may complicate everyone's work on a daily basis.
Hello; To facilitate this kind of transition, I would be on the advice of @froussel :
This will be less painful for your Designers... to caricature this long and tedious work, they (Solidworks users) would " just" "replace " your old references with the new ones (parts, assemblies)... The advantage of this method is also that it keeps a history of your old data.
Indeed, a program (to be developed) could do the job. I say program because we are moving away from the simple macro since we have to attack Windows, Excel and SW.
If the existing database is perfectly clean, it can work, but since it's unlikely, the management of special cases is going to be hell.
If you find someone who does this program (plan a substantial budget...), the ideal would be to launch it during a period of closure (having made and tested a backup).
I would add that trade names are rarely compatible with the naming rules for files in BE.
Another point specific to SW: it doesn't manage file paths so any change of directory name will make a mess when opening assemblies (and plans if the plans are not in the same directory as their part/assembly). At the first opening of the asm, you will have to give the way to the part/SE, and that will be easy to automate.
I believe that the solution proposed by @froussel is therefore the most suitable.
Small additional comment: EPDM allows you to rename the parts files (for the configs I'm less affirmative) without necessarily having to reedit the assembly (it's EPDM that manages the name change when the assembly is opened). WARNING : the above does NOT work in virtual assemblies (because SW/EPDM cannot access the virtual file to change references). Switching the database to EPDM could therefore possibly save time (plan the budget that goes with EPDM on the other hand: license cost + installation/configuration cost and especially the annual maintenance cost)
Another point specific to SW: it doesn't manage file paths so any change of directory name will make a mess when opening assemblies (and plans if the plans are not in the same directory as their part/assembly). At the first opening of the asm, you will have to give the way to the part/SE, and that will be easy to automate.
It is possible by Excel macro to change the paths of ASMs and DRWs without even opening the files (I did it on our EPDM database by attacking the archive database directly because we had a problem during a migration that corrupted part of the database and the links no longer update on the affected versions). After that, just use the task scheduler to save the change (it saves users from having to do it). For the rest I am of the same opinion as @froussel , EPDM is the best able to manage this kind of situation (we changed ERP a few years ago and therefore the codification of our files has changed). I also agree with @stefbeno on the clean side of the database, if this is not the case, automated processing is more than hazardous.
