T-FLEX Parametric CAD. Fundamentals. 2D Design

Links. Managing Composite Documents
LINKS. MANAGING COMPOSITE DOCUMENTS
A T-FLEX CAD document can have links to other files: T-FLEX CAD documents (fragments), graphics
files (pictures), database files, etc. Working with such composite document, one can face some difficulties,
for example, when moving it to another computer.
To ease working with composite documents, T-FLEX CAD provides a mechanism of links management. A
link is a T-FLEX CAD object containing the path to an external file (the target of the link). Links are used
when creating fragments, pictures and other T-FLEX CAD elements for specifying the source of external
data. The same link can be used by different elements; for example, several fragments based on one file will
refer to one link.
The links management mechanism allows managing the way of storing the link targets. T-FLEX CAD
allows storing the link targets either outside a T-FLEX CAD document as a conventional external file
(“external link”), or directly within the file of the composite document (“internal link”). The internal storage
of the link increases the size of the composite T-FLEX CAD document, but allows dealing with it as with
one file. Links are managed by the commands located in the submenu “File|Assembly”.
The links management mechanism solves the problem of moving large assembly documents. By using it, you
do not have to search for all fragments files that may be located in different folders, on different disks, in
libraries, etc. All you need to do is to “zip” the assembly model into one file with a provision of future
unzipping, and move it to another place in the file system or into a storage of a document management
system (for example, T-FLEX DOCs).
Links Management
The command “AL: Links to other files…” serves for managing links in a composite document:
Keyboard Textual Menu Icon
“File|Assembly|Links…”
Upon calling the command, the links management dialog box is displayed, that contains the list of all links of
the current document. The list is laid out as a table that contains the link name and the location of the link
target (the file to which the link refers).
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