We have a bunch (100 plus) fittings that the vendor has changed to take up less space.  These fittings are inserted multiple times into hundreds of assemblies.  Because of how long we have been using SW and the different people modeling lib parts over the years some parts are dumb solids and some are not.  The dumb solids will have to be replaced or use FeatureWorks.  In either case the faces will change which will end up affecting the mates in hundreds of assemblies.  Also depending on how they were mated the models that do have features could cause problems as well.  We have our vault set to "Always use latest version".

What I would like to do is obsolete and move the fittings that will cause errors because of the changes and leave the assemblies created in the past still point at them. I would then like to have the new or changed fittings in our library for new assemblies.  The issue with this will be when a users searches for a part number they are going to get two returns and may select the old fitting.

One method that was proposed by our Var was add a "hide" variable to the file data card and the search data card.  I was good with that until I realized that in order for the existing .sldprt  and .sldasm in the library (7,000) files in the vault would all need to be checked out, saved, and checked back in to have this variable set in the database. I would also like a couple of other folders in our vault outside of the library which would mean I would need this variable added to 110,000 plus files.  Not only does that amount of checking out, saving and checking back in come into play but now we have another variable entry for each file and each one of thier configurations.

You would think that it would be fairly simple to exclude a folder from a search.  Does anybody have any suggestions?

Thanks,

Bill

SW2012SP4

EPDM2012SP4