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How do I save custom settings to Workgroup Library?


Christiaan

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Take for instance DXF/DWG and DWF export options. There's no obvious way to save these to our Workgroup Folder from within VW. Do I have to fish them out of my User Folder and transfer them to our Workgroup Folder manually? If so I can't find them. I've found a folder called 'DWG_DXF' and subfolders called 'Mappings' and 'Standard' but there's nothing in them.

 

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Edited by Christiaan
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@Christiaan

 

Based on some quick trials (and it is possible I have the files in the wrong location), the DWG-DXF settings are not recognized when they are in the Workgroup folder.

 

I even tried putting  them in the workgroup and putting an alias of the folder back into the User Folder. I still could not get VW2020 to recognize the saved settings.

 

When I have time I will see about using a Symbolic Link instead of an alias and see if that will work.

 

Enhancement Request time.  😞

 

 

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I think the hierarchy for same named Files was :

User > Workspace > App

So as long as there is a "DWG_DXF" in User Folder,

it will ignore the "DWG_DXF" in the Workgroup Folder.

 

But I keep only Library Files in my Workgroup Folder,

no Settings. I think they are fine in User Folder

(At least for single Users)

Each September I migrate basically all these Settings

automatically into the next VW Version.

Or if I am afraid, manually copy them over, like my Custom Workspace,

but especially "DWG_DXF" or "Select Similar " Settings.

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I've found consistent access to user setting across our network to be somewhat problematic.  It's likely a function of the network itself rather than vectorworks, but it exists, so we've developed an alternate strategy.

 

Our solution is to sync our user folder(s) with our office workgroup folder.  We use the mac based app "Chronosync Express" to selectively sync our resources based on whichever file is the most current.  That way, updated libraries etc. are populated to the central folder as well as our individual machines.  This works for us - as a small office where updates are intermittent, but if two different people changed the same library on the same day, one set of changes would be lost.  We haven't yet had that happen.

 

 

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17 hours ago, Pat Stanford said:

Enhancement Request time.  😞

 

I might have a go submitting it as a bug. Sounds like it's WAD though.

 

15 hours ago, Boh said:

We have everyone’s user files on the server.So it’s just a matter of copy and paste for those items that don’t work from a workgroup. There are not too many of few us so this works fine. 

 

Would love to do that but we're using Dropbox and what happens is that the constantly changing VW User Log.txt file clogs up the Dropbox syncing.

 

16 hours ago, zoomer said:

I think the hierarchy for same named Files was :

User > Workspace > App

So as long as there is a "DWG_DXF" in User Folder,

it will ignore the "DWG_DXF" in the Workgroup Folder.

 

Ah yes, thanks for that. It's a crude system. What happens if somebody saves a setting for instance. Or just active and default settings. Will that get saved to their own user folder, generating the DWG_DXF folder in the process and hiding the Workgroup one? Or does it get saved to the Workgroup Folder? Does a software update generate the DWG_DXF in their User Folder?

Edited by Christiaan
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15 hours ago, Taproot said:

Our solution is to sync our user folder(s) with our office workgroup folder.  We use the mac based app "Chronosync Express" to selectively sync our resources based on whichever file is the most current.  That way, updated libraries etc. are populated to the central folder as well as our individual machines.  This works for us - as a small office where updates are intermittent, but if two different people changed the same library on the same day, one set of changes would be lost.  We haven't yet had that happen.

 

Very creative. A solution I'd be reluctant to try though. From experience I've learnt to generally avoid solutions that require me to maintain and update third party software/settings on everybody's computers. I'm hoping there's a solution whereby all I need to do is update the Workgroup Library and I'm done.

Edited by Christiaan
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16 hours ago, zoomer said:

I think the hierarchy for same named Files was :

User > Workspace > App

So as long as there is a "DWG_DXF" in User Folder,

it will ignore the "DWG_DXF" in the Workgroup Folder.

 

Interestingly the help page on this topic doesn't mention this hierarchy

http://app-help.vectorworks.net/2020/eng/index.htm#t=VW2020_Guide%2FWorkgroup%2FSharing_custom_content_using_workgroup_folders.htm

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I've submitted a bug report (VB-165452) as follows:

 

Quote

 

Sharing settings via Workgroup Folder doesn't work as Help content describes

 

The following help page says I can share Settings via the Workgroup Folder but when, for example, I place DWG_DXF export and import settings in the Workgroup Folder no one can see them.

http://app-help.vectorworks.net/2020/eng/index.htm#t=VW2020_Guide%2FWorkgroup%2FSharing_custom_content_using_workgroup_folders.htm

Is there a step missing on the help page? Is there a hierarchy involved whereby I have to delete the DWG_DXF folder in people's User Folder for them to be able to see the settings in the Workgroup Folder?

If so how are we meant to manage this? Will that folder autogenerate under certain conditions and block access to the Workgroup Folder settings?

 

 

 

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4 hours ago, Christiaan said:

 

I went along the links and didn't find anything related too.

But it was discussed every once and a while in the forums.

 

But I found a hint for the new Path Syntax for Workgroup Folder instead :

Set the Folder Location to the top-level workgroup folder, not the content type subfolder. For example, do not set the Folder Location to [Workgroup]\Libraries, but simply to [Workgroup].

A change to this preference setting cannot be undone with the Undo command.

 

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5 hours ago, Christiaan said:

Ah yes, thanks for that. It's a crude system. What happens if somebody saves a setting for instance. Or just active and default settings. Will that get saved to their own user folder, generating the DWG_DXF folder in the process and hiding the Workgroup one? Or does it get saved to the Workgroup Folder? Does a software update generate the DWG_DXF in their User Folder?

 

I think by Default, such things will be saved in User Folder.

Like Workspace says, it was saved to User/....

 

And I doubt there is a way to say VW to use a Workgroup Folder instead.

AFAIK, as you can change the User Folder Location (?),

theoretically you could point all peoples User Folders to the same

(Workgroup) Folder on a Server ?

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If you are on a Mac it appears you can use Symbolic Links to accomplish this.

 

A Symbolic Link(SymLink) is like an alias on steroids and basically tells the operating system to treat a single file or directory as if it exists in multiple places.

 

During my test, I used a SymLink from the Settings:DWG_DXF folder in my Workgroup folder back to the Settings folder in my User folder. Then when I saved a DXF Export Setting file it showed up in my Workgroup folder.

 

This is a system level function and must be done from the Terminal. Make sure you make a backup before you start playing.

 

The command I used was:

 

sudo ln -Ffs Path/to/workgroup/folder/Settings/DWG_DXF Path/to/User/Folder/Settings

The sudo stands for Super User Do. This will require an administrator password and will allow a function that you do not normally have permission to do to occur.

 

The command to make the SymLink is ln.  The -Ffs are the options. The Fs allow an existing folder to be unlinked and deleted. The s makes a symbolic link and is required if you want to link folders.

 

After you type in the first part of the command you can drag the folder from a finder window into the terminal window to paste in the two paths.

 

With the source path on Dropbox or a server, and the destination in the User folder, any saved settings from any user should show up in the Workgroup folder and be accessible by anyone else in the workgroup.

 

You may want to set up an extra workgroup folder for this kind of saved settings rather than use a single generic workgroup folder for everything.

 

Sorry it took so long to make time to try this.

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