Broken Reference

[genie]

Every time I open a file, it will require me to "manually locate the broken reference" even though the reference files have not been moved. What would be the reason for this and can anything be done to rectify this? Thanks in advance for any suggestions!

VW 2009 Architect

MAC OS X 10.5.7

[IanH]

Do you save the referencing file once the reference is fixed? Also, are you referencing relative or absolute and where and on what device is the reference file stored?

[genie]

Do you save the referencing file once the reference is fixed? Also, are you referencing relative or absolute and where and on what device is the reference file stored?

IanH,

I do save it after re-linking with all the references, and then after it has been closed for a while, it will happen again when I reopen it. All my references are "absolute" and all files reside in office server.

Thanks for your help.

[IanH]

Interesting that the files are on a server. The reason why I initially asked about location was because I had a theory (and only a theory) regarding files on a remote device.

I am wondering if, when you open the referencing file, that you don't at that point have a connection to the referenced file. Vectorworks can't then find the file, and brings up the lost reference. In the mean time, the OS reconnects to the office server, and all is then fine as you can see the file.

Whilst I have never seen this with Vectorworks (all my files are local), I get a similar thing happen with iTunes where my music folder is stored on a remote disc. Sometimes when I open iTunes, is says that it cannot find the library and I need to relocate it. When I relocate it, the network drive is available again, and it all links back up ok. The reason why iTunes cannot find the file is either that the network drive has briefly dropped off the network or, the drive has powered down in power saving mode and takes a few moments to spin backup to speed and come back online.

I wonder if this is what is happening to you, but with Vectorworks.

[genie]

I was hoping it may not be the server's problem. I guess no such luck. Files are never moved around and we have had that happened on almost every workstation, having to 're-link' broken references each time. Very annoying.

Thanks IanH!

[brudgers]

Network connections to remote files seem to be problematic for a number of Mac users...though certainly not all.

I suspect you've got an esoteric unix setting or two that need adjustment on the workstations, servers or both.

[IanH]

I was hoping it may not be the server's problem. I guess no such luck. Files are never moved around and we have had that happened on almost every workstation, having to 're-link' broken references each time. Very annoying.

If it is the problem, then you could possibly write a script on the Mac that kept the network drive 'alive'. At a very basic level, you could create a dummy file on the problem drive(s) and write some background apple script (or whatever it is now called) on one/all of the Macs that either opened for readonly&closed or directory listed the file then went to sleep for a period of time (maybe 10 minutes) then started over again. This may be enough to keep the drive alive. Its been over 20 years since I last programmed a Mac (well before OSX days) but its likely to be only a handful of lines of script. If this solved the problem, then you can either stick with the script, or investigate the root cause of the problem which may be something intentional, such as spinning a disc after a period of inactivity down to conserve power.

My server discs spin down on my NAS box after 30 minutes of inactivity and probably take 10 seconds or so to come back online, by which time, iTunes has concluded that the iTunes library is missing and thrown an error. For me this is a minor inconvenience compared to the power that I save by having the discs not spinning 24/7, but in an office environment, this may not be a consideration.

[brudgers]

Just for giggles, have you called NNA tech support?