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"Read only" vwx files on windows server


peterlukejenkins

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Hi all,

 

Our IT support team have posted about this already with no response, so I'm going to try again with a little more detail.

 

We have 7 iMacs, OSX 10.12.6, running Vectorworks 2017, SP5, and previously all files were accessed over a local network from a Mac Server. We were having intermittent issues with file access permissions that we could never quite resolve on all machines at once, so we took the plunge and have switched to Windows 2016 server.

 

Using the latest SMB protocols we find that all vwx files located on the server are marked as "read only". The issue is exclusive to vwx files; all other file types have full read and write access, so that would appear to rule out this being a permissions problem.

 

As a temporary measure we have switched to SMB1 protocol for file access, however this is very slow and we are now having regular vectorworks crashes, for no consistent reason that we can isolate, but has only started happening since the switch.

 

Obviously we have invested a lot in switching to a Windows Server in the hope it would improve speed and stability; so far it's only made things worse.

 

Does anyone have a similar setup (Mac workstations with Windows server)? And/or has anyone encountered this problem and know how to fix it?

 

Thanks all

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  • Vectorworks, Inc Employee
On 6/1/2018 at 5:52 AM, peterlukejenkins said:

Using the latest SMB protocols we find that all vwx files located on the server are marked as "read only".

How are you determining that the file is read-only? Are you looking at the permission from the server? Could you please attach a screenshot?

 

When you "Save and Commit", VW uses "safe save" mechanism, which will create a new file on the server. It is imperative that all users have "Full Control" to the folder containing the PF. You need particularly need the new files to inherit permission from the folder. If you do not, following User1's commit, User2 might see the PF as a read-only file if permissions are not properly configured.  

 

On 6/1/2018 at 5:52 AM, peterlukejenkins said:

As a temporary measure we have switched to SMB1 protocol for file access

I am not sure who suggested this, but it is a terrible idea.

 

1. SMB 1 and SMB 2 are very buggy on macOS. You should be using SMB 3 (or the latest version available on the Windows Server).

 

2. Disabling SMB2 and SMB3 has huge side effects on the server. You can read more about that here:

     https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/2696547/how-to-detect-enable-and-disable-smbv1-smbv2-and-smbv3-in-windows-and

 

Regards,

Tolu

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On 6/13/2018 at 6:22 PM, Tolu said:

How are you determining that the file is read-only? Are you looking at the permission from the server? Could you please attach a screenshot?

 

On attempting to save the file, a dialogue opens which states that the file is read only. Screenshot attached.

 

On 6/13/2018 at 6:22 PM, Tolu said:

When you "Save and Commit", VW uses "safe save" mechanism, which will create a new file on the server.

 

Please note this is not a problem exclusive to project sharing files (vwxp or vwxw), it is any kind of vectorworks file. "Save and Commit" was not the command attempted in the screenshot attached, it was simply "Save".

 

On 6/13/2018 at 6:22 PM, Tolu said:

It is imperative that all users have "Full Control" to the folder containing the PF.

 

All users have full read/write access to all folders; we have tested this by creating, opening, deleting and saving files of other types (non Vectorworks files) within the folder without any problem. Also, again please note this is not a Project File issue, it's all Vectorworks files.

 

On 6/13/2018 at 6:22 PM, Tolu said:

You need particularly need the new files to inherit permission from the folder. If you do not, following User1's commit, User2 might see the PF as a read-only file if permissions are not properly configured.

 

As above, permissions are inherited for all other file types without issue, which suggests this is not a permissions issue.

 

On 6/13/2018 at 6:22 PM, Tolu said:

I am not sure who suggested this, but it is a terrible idea.

 

Thanks, we are aware it's not a good protocol; everything is slow and buggy, but at least we can access our files. We don't want to use SMB1, but currently it is the only protocol that allows us access. We don't really need more information on how bad SMB1 is.

 

I assume there must be other users out there who have a similar setup to us (Mac workstations with Windows server)? It would be good to know if there is anyone with it working that way, which would at least tell us that it should be possible?

 

 

2018.06.14 14.22pm Vectorworks Error .jpg

Edited by peterlukejenkins
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  • Vectorworks, Inc Employee

We have this setup in-house here at Vectorworks - Mac clients to Windows Server. We do not have this issue. However, we are not using SMB1. 

 

Could you:

1. Set your "Error Reporting" level to "Send crash details and verbose usage patterns" (if not already done)

2. Repeat the steps that cause this error on Save

3. Then send me your user logs (via direct message).

     These logs are located here:  

     /Users/<your name>/Library/Application Support/Vectorworks/2017/VW User Log.txt

     /Users/<your name>/Library/Application Support/Vectorworks/2017/VW User Log Sent.txt

 

Thanks.

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On 6/15/2018 at 6:38 PM, Tolu said:

We have this setup in-house here at Vectorworks - Mac clients to Windows Server. We do not have this issue. However, we are not using SMB1. 

 

Could you:

1. Set your "Error Reporting" level to "Send crash details and verbose usage patterns" (if not already done)

2. Repeat the steps that cause this error on Save

3. Then send me your user logs (via direct message).

     These logs are located here:  

     /Users/<your name>/Library/Application Support/Vectorworks/2017/VW User Log.txt

     /Users/<your name>/Library/Application Support/Vectorworks/2017/VW User Log Sent.txt

 

Thanks.

 

Afternoon to you, I now have logs from a client on this network exhibiting issues.

To link things togeather, i also asked the same quiestion here >

and we have a support case open with vector works support "support case: 00038553, RE: VWX files read only on SMB2 (having to run SMB1) "

 

I will PM you these logs shortly and al submit to vector works

 

 

 

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@peterlukejenkins

 

You were wondering for people with this setup.

We've migrated to a windows server 2016 this week, and have had non-stop issues accessing the vwx files from the file shares.

When the user copies the file to desktop, he can edit and save without a problem.

It can then be uploaded to the shares (with another filename), but can't overwrite the old file (still read-only).

After uploading the next .vwx file, the same happens again: marked as readonly.

Other files can be edited without a problem (.xlsx, ...), it seems to only happen with .vwx files.

 

We've fiddled around with security on the files, but they have the same settings as the files which can be accessed.

Our server has SMB 3.0 enabled, I don't feel like disabling this for obvious reasons, so I haven't seen the access work on SMB 1.0

 

 

So in short, you aren't the only setup experiencing these problems.

We're awaiting further result of the logs Vectorworks seems to be investigating.

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Thanks for noting this Terry.

 

They only thing that resolved (ish) it for us was to downgrade all mac user accounts to standard users (no admin rights). Seems random to me, but it does appear to be working most of the time now.

 

Generally we found the VW support to be very poor; we had to threaten moving to another platform before we got some proper action.

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Hi Jonathan, yes see my post just above yours; downgrading all user accounts to non-admin seemed to work in the main, I’d say 95% stable now, whereas before it was about 95% unstable. 

We went through a whole host of configuration changes before that, including completely rebuilding the server, and some workstations had to be wiped & rebuilt with a fresh, downgraded account (as opposed to simply downgrading the existing account), but overall it seems to have worked.

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  • Vectorworks, Inc Employee
5 hours ago, jonathanmonitor said:

Did anyone manage to get a solution to this from Vectorworks? - Currently experiencing the same problem.

Could you please provide more information on your setup - the version of VW you are using, server type and version, connection, etc.? 

 

Thanks

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Still experiencing the same problems, downgrading the user account on the MAC causes problems with other software.

Up untill now, the fileshares on the server are working perfectly on all MAC's, except for vwx files.

 

Setup:

Proliant Gen10 server

VW version 14

Default network (router = gateway, server = dhcp+dns server, default LAN)

All devices have a wired conenction.

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