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DriveWorks Concept – File Naming

File naming is an important consideration when planning an automation project and DriveWorks provides flexibility in how files are named.

This article describes how files are named in DriveWorks, and how the names you choose interact with the concept of alternatives and driven alternatives so that you can build up libraries of parts that can be used again and again without needing to be generated for each specification that is generated.

The following key concepts are described in this document:

Simple File Names (Suffixed)
DriveWorks decides file names for models in a very simple way, for example, if we have the following assembly structure and file name rules:

  • MyAssembly [=DWSpecificationId]
    • MyPart1 [=DWSpecificationId]
    • MyPart2 [=DWSpecificationId]

Then DriveWorks will generate a new assembly and parts for a specification numbered 8 as follows:

  • MyAssembly 8
    • MyPart1 8
    • MyPart2 8

Here you can see that DriveWorks has simply suffixed the original component names, with a space, and the result of the file name rule (in this case 8).

Absolute File Names
It is also possible to tell DriveWorks not to use the original file name at all, for example:

  • MyAssembly [=”*A-” & DWSpecificationId]
    • MyPart1 [=”*P1-” & DWSpecificationId]
    • MyPart2 [=”*P2-” & DWSpecificationId]

Would create the following for a specification numbered 8:

  • A-8
    • P1-8
    • P2-8

Prefixed File Names
The other possibility is to tell DriveWorks to use the result of the rule as a prefix, for example:

  • MyAssembly [=”*” & DWSpecificationId & “*”]
    • MyPart1 [=”*” & DWSpecificationId & “*”]
    • MyPart2 [=”*” & DWSpecificationId & “*”]

Would create the following for a specification numbered 8:

  • 8 MyAssembly
    • 8 MyPart1
    • 8 MyPart2

This article is just one of many online providing useful information on using DriveWorks Pro