Tech Tip: DXF/NC file naming conflict in Advance Steel

If you are running into an issue with Advance Steel overwriting certain DXF or NC files, here is how to handle the situation.

Issue:

Advance Steel is overwriting DXF/NC files for parts that have similar part marks with different prefix cases (example, P1000 and p1000).

When Advance Steel creates DXF/NC files, it creates files in the Windows environment. The Windows files system is not case sensitive; this is by design. So, file names, for example P1000.dxf and p1000.dxf, are considered the same file. This is the reason why the DXF/NC file creation overrides files.

Solution/Workaround

It would be best to use different numbering series for single parts and main parts, if possible. For example, single parts can start numbering from 1000 and main parts can start numbering from 1.

Another solution would be to add an additional token to your file name convention that would be able to differentiate the two parts.

Go to NC Settings under the Output tab. In the File Name section, click on << to see the possible tokens you can use to add to the file name.

However, if you cannot change your part marks or modify the file names, following are the steps you can take:

1.     Run your DXF/NC files with your initial NC Settings behavior first.

2.    Copy out the conflicting DXF/NC files to a separate folder. You may need to delete the conflicting DXF/NC files in your projects folder if you find that it is not able to create the other version of the file after the next couple of steps.

3.    Go to NC Settings under the Output tab and change the behavior to the other setting. For example, if it was run based on single part numbers, change it to be based on main part numbers

4.    Rerun the DXF/NC files.

You should be able to get DXF/NC files for all parts using workaround – DXF/NC files split between 2 separate folders to account for Windows file system not being case-sensitive.

Wondering if you should be using Advance Steel? Check out this information.