Vectorworks 11 / network file troubles

[twheeler]

Hi folks,

We recently made the decision to implement VectorWorks in our office. We've run into something of a glitch and need some assistance. I'd really appreciate any help you can offer.

Here's a description of how the problem starts and what follows:

User "A" in on a Mac w/ OS 10.3.5. User "B" is on a Windows XP (SP2) PC. The files reside on a Snap Appliance server which uses a variant of Linux as the OS. Network authentication occurs via SMB on a Windows NT 4 server (PDC).

So, User "A" opens the VectorWorks file called "floor plan.mcd".

User "B" tries to open the same file and gets a message saying that the file is the wrong version or an older version of MiniCad. The file won't open. Furthermore, subsequent files can not be opened from User "B"'s computer, regardless of whether or not User "A" has had them open. User "B" then has to reboot his computer to be able to open any VectorWorks files.

Note that if User "A" is replaced with another employee on a Windows PC the problem does not occur.

While the obvious easy answer is for a PC user not to try to open a file which is already open on a Mac, we need to figure out how to make the problem go away. It is sometimes inevitable that more than one person will try to open the same file.

Any thoughts?

Best Regards,

Trey Wheeler

TWH Architects, Inc.

[RickBern]

Trey

Sounds like a server side problem.

Not being able to open a second copy of an open file is expected and correct behavior. However, on either Mac OS X server or XP/2000 a user will be able to open subsequent files without rebooting

Hope this is helpful

Rick

[twheeler]

Rick,

Thanks, but I kind of already knew that. What we're seeing isn't "correct" behavior. Yes, it might (just maybe) be server side, but I kind of doubt it. It isn't that I'm asking how we can have two folks opening the same file, but I need to know how to avoid the problems we're having when somebody accidentally tries to do so. Read on - see if this makes the problem more clear:

The issue is that if the Mac has a file open and then the PC tries to open it, we do not get the correct message saying the file is already in use. Instead, the PC tells us it is a file created with the wrong version of Vectorworks. The PC, of course, will not open the file. What's really a problem though is that no subsequent files can then be opened on the PC until it is rebooted.

If we try the issue with two PCs (taking the Mac out of the picture), everything works as we expected it to.

[twheeler]

Any thoughts? We'd sure like to resolve this problem.

Am I being clear about what the problem is?

Thanks!