Options for "scrubbing" Scene files

[Mike Twining]

I've got a few files that are acting... "funny". I feel like I need to exorcise them of their demons. There are several ways to go about this... and I was wondering if there was a difference in the end result, or a preference as to which method is the best:

 

1. Save As Part/Assembly of a Top Level Assembly:

This involves creating (if you don't have one) an assembly at the top-most level of the drawing, and doing a File->Save As Part/Assembly on that upper-most assembly. The resulting file appears to be the same (it includes all the parts/items from the original drawing, along with all of their part properties) and in an identical order.

 

2. Copy/Paste of a Top Level Assembly:

This would be pretty much the same as above, just using the Ctrl-C / Ctrl-V commands, and pasting the TLA (top level assembly... not to be confused with "Three Letter Acronym") into a new scene file.

 

3. Copy/Paste of individual Parts

This is just copying and pasting the individual parts from one scene to the other. This takes longer, and you need to re-assemble and re-order all of your parts/assemblies. Kind of a pain.

 

4.2, 4.3. Use the Catalog

Similar to 2 & 3 above, but dragging items into (and out of) a catalog instead of using the Copy/Past commands.

 

 

I can say that the first option has been recommended to me, and has worked fine for a while, but the scene files will eventually start acting weird again, requiring another exorcism.... so which method produces the "cleanest" result? Is there even a difference?

[Cary OConnor]

Well a save as will reduce the file size since it can clean out some data that is stored for memory and other reasons. I suppose this would happen when you do the copy or catalog approach into a new scene as well, but the save as is better when you have external links since it can manage the relations better (and can perform a save as on those as well - the other approaches will not do a save as on the links).

 

Cary