Specifying the Scope of the Search for Associated Files

Define the scope of the search for referenced documents by specifying folders to search, file types to search for, and whether or not to limit the search to direct references only.

To specify the scope of the search for associated files:

  1. Select the folders and types of files you want to update:
    1. Click Add.
    2. Browse to the folder that contains the files to update, then click OK.
    3. Under File Type, click in the row that contains the folder you just added, then select the types of files to update.
    4. Repeat steps a, b, and c to select additional folders.
  2. Select or clear Update direct references only:
    • If selected, updates only files that are directly referenced by the seed file.
    • If cleared, updates all files associated with the seed file, even if they are only referenced indirectly.

    Example of Update direct references only

    You have an assembly A1, that uses a part P1. The part P1 is also used by a second assembly A2. You make a change to A1 that affects a feature of P1. You schedule an Update Associated Files task and specify A1 as the seed file.

    If you select Update direct references only, the seed file, A1, updates when the task runs. P1 also updates, because it is directly referenced by A1.

    If you clear Update direct references only, A2 also updates when the task runs, because A1 references it indirectly through P1.

  3. Click Finish.
    The task and its title, scheduled time, scheduled date, and status appear in the Tasks panel. The status of the task is Scheduled.
    To run a scheduled task, your computer must be on at the scheduled start time. The SOLIDWORKS Task Scheduler window does not need to be open. If your computer is off at the scheduled start time, the task runs when you turn your computer on.

    At the scheduled start time, the task is initiated. If the task acts on more than one file, a sub-task is generated for each file. If you selected Backup task files in Task Options, a backup copy of each file is saved to a .zip file. Then each file is updated. When the task completes, the status changes to Completed.

    After the task completes, click Completed to see the SOLIDWORKS Task Scheduler Report.
    If your backup files include Unicode file paths, use a zip file extraction application that supports UTF-8 encoding.