External Link Manager

The External Links Manager gives you the full control over all linked files in a scene.

The command has to be dragged to an empty area of the scene.

In dialog box there are three buttons with which you can either unlink a specified part or unlink all files in the entire scene (also with the possibility of unlink the children parts), or save with the name all parts.

The other four buttons allow you to: save the selected link file to another location (or rename the linked file), exchange the link with another file, open the linked file, save the selected part. These buttons are enabled only if you select an item in the tree view.

In the bottom of the dialog, we have three tab to view the parts, those Linked and Not Linked

Also in the Not Linked tab there is a tree view to select which parts you want to save externally, there are also three controls to choose how to set the file name:

• same as the part name,
• or equal to part number,
• whether to save all files in one folder.
• and a check if you want the exported part to be moved (based on the element’s own anchor) to the origin of the new file.

And the tab Linked Files with a list of all files linked.

In the tab Linked, the command Save all to New File, open a new dialog where you can manage the save of the linked parts, setting the new name and new part number, the destination folder and the file name.

This data can be changed individually for each part/assembly, selecting the relative cell within the grid and entering the new data, or by adjusting the controls placed on the top of the window you can automate some procedures like: export all the files in the same folder, assign the file name matches the name of the part, the part name the same as the part number.

Furthermore, if the source folder contains the 2D files of relating to linked parts, you can copy and update the links to the new file and the new folder.

Besides, with the search and replace button you can rename in bulk: name, code, file and folder.