Workgroup References Disappear

[James Milkey]

I'm working X-Platform between a G-4 Mac and a Pentium III Windows XP machine. When I create a workgroup reference on my PC and then I load the file on my Mac, the reference disappears. The layers remain as if they were still referenced but the reference itself is gone. It's almost no problem to go back and recreate that reference except it's a little time consuming due to file size. The files are on a Mac file server and the references do not move locations. Thanks.

[Matthew Giampapa]

James,

When you reference a file, VectorWorks has to store the full path to that file so the program can locate it again. Unfortunately, pathnames are not cross platform and will vary from machine to machine.

For instance, lets say you are referencing files on your local network. The path to the file from Windows will be something like "\\Servername\sharename\somedirectory\VectorWorksfile.mcd" On a Mac, the OS doesn?t know what a windows path is. Instead it would record the same location as "Servername:sharename:somedirectory:VectorWorksfie.mcd".

Now that may not seem like much of a difference, but that is just a very basic example. On many servers the entire directory structure is different if you are accessing it from a different platform. If you were using a dos based novel network, windows would see the something like "\\Servern~1\sharen~1\somed~1\Vector~1.mcd". You can also have shares mapped as drive letters to complicate matters further.

So for now, workgroup referencing will break if you move a file or change platforms. I will check with our engineering department to see if they know a solution that will work cross platform, but at the moment I don't know of one.

Matthew GiampapaNNA Technical Support

[James Milkey]

I assumed I would have to reselect the document when I changed platforms. My worry is that the reference disappears completely. Does the previous explanation also explain this?

[Matthew Giampapa]

James,

It sounds like I may have misunderstood your problem. When you open the file on the other system, you should get a dialog box with a message like "The referenced file "C:\somepath\somefile.mcd" was not found. Please locate it using the next dialog."

When you click ok, you should then get an open file dialog.

Since this does not appear to be the case, I think we have a lager problem at hand here that I'm not familiar with.

So, here are the standard questions...

Does this happen with just this one file?If you create 2 new files with a simple shape, then reference them together, does this happen again?If it does happen again with new blank files, try this on the other platform and see if it is repeatable there.

From your updated description, it sounds as if the reference section of your document has gone bad. Please let me know what happens with the two new blank files and we can start investigating the cause. In any even, I would be interested in seeing the problem files. Would it be possible for you to email them to tech@nemetschek.net?

Matthew GiampapaNNA Technical Support