Saving with "Duplicate" files

[ecoology]

Saving with "Duplicate" files

This is a recurring problem.

I export to a new folder a complex assembly with many parts, some duplicated several times.

I then import the file from the folder having only the one export [.stp] file.

When I try to save the assembly in this empty folder [except for the .stp file], I get many "DUPLICATE" files. I cannot save the file until these duplicates are eliminated. This time, nothing I do will get rid of the so-called duplications.

What causes this?
How do I eliminate the problem?
Where do I get a good hair transplant from pulling mine out over this?

 

[swertel]

When you export an assembly as a step file, each instance of the assembly is coded as a separate file in the step data. Once you translate that back to a native file format, each instance gets saved back to its original file name. Since it does this in in a serial fashion, an instance later in the tree duplicates the one(s) above it.

So, what you have to do is go through the assembly, which you have been doing, and replace each recurring instance with a single definition.

Second, log this with Alibre because they may be able to improve their translator to give each instance of a part a unique coding so when it gets translated from step, they would be named part1, part2, part3, etc. instead of all being named part.