circular reference loops

[DarylWolf]

so my assembly gave me the old yellow light.  telling me I have a bad situation and it says to view the .crc file.   I used notepad to open it and it lists the 3 circular reference loops found.  Can anyone explain how to use this info or a simple way to figure out what is wrong.  I get the idea and what the circle means but I cant figure out what is wrong.

I am making a cutout on one piece and it has no link to the other parts but this .crc files is telling me it does.

and what is the .crc file and why do I need to use notepad to read it.  seems odd.

I do not have advanced assembly.

any help would be greatly appreciated..

Thanks.

Daryl

[dschenken]

The usual way to make this is to create an assembly that has a part; use the part to create a matching cut (such as mounting holes) in the assembly context, and then assemble the part to the holes.

Reading through this - the part is located to holes cut at the assembly level to match the location of the part which is located to holes cut at the assembly level to match the ... and so on.

Not sure what made your circular reference, but the main thing is to look at the way the items are placed and look to delete some reference and replace it to one that is not circular.

The crc file just lists the sequence, like the "Reading through this" section, just with more specific references.

[dgschaefer · Accepted solution]

The *.crc file gives you an idea of what's causing the circular reference, but it doesn't tell you what's wrong.  It simply lets you know what the problem features are.

In my experience, circular reference are almost always solved by reordering the assembly or sometimes in a part.

The *.crc file tells you the order of the loop.  When it says "refers to" in the file, it simply means that there's a relationship where the item referred to must come first.  This isn't a parent child relationship necessarily (but it may be), but simply may be the order of features or components. Think of it kind of like this:

• Before I can do A, I have to do B.
• Before I can do B, I have to do C
• Before I can do C I have to do A

The likelihood is that you can reorder something and get rid of the loop.  For example, if you could reorder A to be after C in my example, the circular reference would be solved.

I hope that helps.

[StephenW]

You can also use the reference viewer to help diagnose circular references. The .crc text file is the old school way that us old school guys are used to seeing.

Restructure has also been know to create circular references. I usually create them using Dave's method as I am working on a new design and it evolves and I haven't gone back in a cleaned up my "unintended" or "undesired" external references as my design changes.

[DarylWolf]

thanks guys.  I will see what I can do.  sometimes its nice to bounce issues off other users and see what comes from it. 

[un-o-fod-0x]

hey, I had the same problem and finally fixed this 100%. Not certain if this will be relevant to you but  it has to do with file location - folders and sub folders. Once i placed all of my .prt files, .asm files into the same folder..no more problem !!  As i said i'm not certain if this will be relevant to you as you may already have your files in one folder ..otherwise give it a go 😉