I’ve found recently that the way I organize Pro/E files (eg, not very much) really upsets Pro/E. I have been naming files fairly arbitrarily, usually with some sort of vaguely descriptive name (rx_lid, top, etc). I have also been using the “name” field and neglecting the “common name” field. This has caused a lot of problems because if there are two different files in different projects with the same name, Pro/E will see them as the same file when it stores them in memory. For example, the FSR assembly will have a top to the discs which may be named “top”, and the doorminder assembly will have a top to the box which may also be named “top.” If the two assemblies get opened in the same session, you may close Pro/E and come back later to find that when you open the doorminder assembly, the “top” file will be replaced with the “top” file from the puck assembly. In other words, it seems like Pro/E creates a trail to the file that is identified only by the name and not by the folder or assembly you put it in. This also causes problems when we have separate revisions of the same part file, or when we delete a file that is bunk and start it over with the same name.
So going forward, we need to make absolutely sure that every part we make has a completely unique “name” field, even if it is a different revision of the same thing. For example, the name field might follow the form of [Project]_[Part]_[unique ID], where the unique ID could be any sort of identifier, a string of letters/numbers, etc. This follows for any file we create: parts, assemblies, drawings, etc. The “common name” field can be more descriptive or the same as other parts.
If you must delete a file and start over, make sure the new file still has a unique identifier. Also, any file operations (copy/paste/delete/rename, etc) must be done in the Pro/E file dialog or with File>Rename, this can not be done in Windows Explorer: Pro/E uses this dialog to create it’s trail files. If you try to simply use Windows to copy a part file from one project or folder to another, there is a good chance that Pro/E will not be able to see/open it.