Nested Virtual: Virtual Subassembly with Virtual Part(s)

[Tom G]

I had a strange error today, and I think it has more to do with software changes than design flow, but I ask for feedback.

I have a stable large assembly, with external subassemblies and one virtual subassembly to connect piping discharges across the ceiling to exit the opposite wall. The virtual subassembly contains virtual parts for its tubing and piping. This was stable for a long time. I judge this in comparison to earlier large projects which were not organized as well into subassemblies.

Lately, I widely changed my workstation. I upgraded (in-place) to Windows 10, and had some VAR troubleshooting which led me to uninstall and reinstall DraftSight and Solidworks.

Today when I opened this large assembly, the virtual part within the virtual subassembly "could not be found" in a location found in a subfolder of AppData in a Temp folder - note this is not where the assembly is saved. Attempting to browse for a virtual entity is futile, because it is not a distinct file. I tried opening it in Large Assembly Mode as well as Resolved, both with the same error.
Thankfully, it was able to be fully restored to previous version saved earlier this month before I know that I had only added one external component in a prior process. That could have gone much worse.

So, should I avoid nesting virtual components in the future, or is this mostly because my temp directories changed through Win 10 upgrade?

[MJuric]

I tend to avoid virtual parts entirely because I've run into issues like this in the past. I've had it just loose a part and as you point out it's not stored anywhere else so you're kind of SOL when it happens.

I'm sure 99.9% of the time it's fine and even a good practice but that .1% is a real bear so I just avoid it.

[jcapriotti]

@Tom G What version of SolidWorks? Virtual components were a bit buggy a few versions back.

[Tom G]

@Tom G What version of SolidWorks? Virtual components were a bit buggy a few versions back.

Running 2018 SP5.
I use virtual weldment parts in nearly everything I make, which is extremely stable compared to Premium Routing. That's what leads me to believe that my system changes are to blame.

Thank you.