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October 2, 2018
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Pack and Go (packing designs)

  • October 2, 2018
  • 3 replies
  • 15518 views

Hello,

 

I am a new user to Creo Parametric having come from inventor.

Inventor used a function called pack and go which took and assembly and all its referenced parts and documents and saved them to a new location, it maintained all links.

 

Is there a similar function in Creo 4.0/5.0?

 

Thanks,

Sean

    Best answer by dgschaefer

    Martin's correct, Save As > Backup will save almost everything needed to the target location.

     

    A couple of things to keep in mind with the backup command in Creo:

     

    1. The newly saved model becomes the active model, much like a "save as" in MS word works.  So, you'll want to save your assy, then do a save as >: back up to the new folder, then close Creo and re-open the original.
    2. Some external references are not saved.  For external copy geometry features, they will be if the source part is in memory, but others won't.  Make sure you look for those.

    Lastly, Creo itself doesn't keep track of links. Windchill does, but Creo itself does not. It only looks for needed parts in very specific places in a certain order.  First in memory, then in the folder the parent came from, then the current working directory and lastly any defined search paths.  If it can't find it then, it gives up and asks you to find it.  Save as > back up should put all of the needed parts in the target folder, so everything should be found.

    3 replies

    23-Emerald III
    October 2, 2018

    Nothing like Pack & Go with Creo.

    Your best option is to do a save-as to a clean folder. If you make that folder your working folder and then open your assembly from that new folder, it should find all of the components.

     

    24-Ruby III
    October 2, 2018

    Hi,

    maybe Save a Backup is the right command.

    21-Topaz II
    October 2, 2018

    Martin's correct, Save As > Backup will save almost everything needed to the target location.

     

    A couple of things to keep in mind with the backup command in Creo:

     

    1. The newly saved model becomes the active model, much like a "save as" in MS word works.  So, you'll want to save your assy, then do a save as >: back up to the new folder, then close Creo and re-open the original.
    2. Some external references are not saved.  For external copy geometry features, they will be if the source part is in memory, but others won't.  Make sure you look for those.

    Lastly, Creo itself doesn't keep track of links. Windchill does, but Creo itself does not. It only looks for needed parts in very specific places in a certain order.  First in memory, then in the folder the parent came from, then the current working directory and lastly any defined search paths.  If it can't find it then, it gives up and asks you to find it.  Save as > back up should put all of the needed parts in the target folder, so everything should be found.

    21-Topaz II
    October 2, 2018

    Another feature of the save as backup is if you have parts that are used by lots of designers, like a library family table model of cap screws or some other hardware, it puts a copy of that family table part into the directory you are saving to. This can be problematic if someone later opens up the backed up assembly, since these "common" components are no longer the ones from the library, but from the copied file. If changes are made to the library part to comply with new requirements or to fix an error, the changes will not be reflected in your backed up assembly.

     

    21-Topaz II
    October 2, 2018

    @KenFarley wrote:

    Another feature of the save as backup is if you have parts that are used by lots of designers, like a library family table model of cap screws or some other hardware, it puts a copy of that family table part into the directory you are saving to. This can be problematic if someone later opens up the backed up assembly, since these "common" components are no longer the ones from the library, but from the copied file. If changes are made to the library part to comply with new requirements or to fix an error, the changes will not be reflected in your backed up assembly.

     


    Absolutely, this is an issue.  One way around this is to start Creo in such a way that it has no access to the library parts.  For us, that means temporarily commenting the line that pints to the search path file. Then launch Creo and open the assy. Creo won't be able to find the library parts, so when you do a Save As > Backup they won't be put into the target folder.