Devices accessible for collegues

[Zak Hardy]

Hi everybody,

 

we are working in a team and would like to share our created devices between eacht other. At the moment if we create a new device only the one who created the device is able to reuse it because its stored in the personal user library. Is there a way to make the device accessible to all for example via the working group library?

 

Thanks!

 

André

[Charles Thompson]

@Conrad Preenthis would be really helpful. We have been having this conversation in the office at the moment as we are (3) users deep, and would be nice to share. 

[Conrad Preen]

Hi everyone

 

To share device symbols all you need to do is set up a Vectorworks document in a shared location on your office network, and use the Resource Manager to copy any new symbols you create to that location. Most people set up a favourite in the Resource Manager to easily access the shared folder. But let's go a bit deeper because you'll also want to share connector types and signal types etc.

 

ConnectCAD follows the general Vectorworks paradigm of user folder, (workgroup folder), and app folder. Let me explain:

 

Our plug-ins look for resources they need first in the user folder path (1) and then in any workgroup folders that you can add (2) in the preferences dialog. If the resource isn't found the default in the application folder is used. User folders and workgroup folders mirror the directory tree of the application folder so as a CAD manager you need to set up the user folder content the way you want it, then copy the user folder contents to the shared workgroup folder on your network.

 

Then on each workstation add the user folder path in the Vectorworks Preferences.

 

 

Hope this helps.

 

Conrad

[Ian5100]

@Conrad PreenThanks for the tip! I've had good success using a workgroup folder to share devices, signal types, and connector types with my teammates. The only trouble I've run into is that when I create a new device using the Device Builder, the new device is added to the DB document in my personal user folder, and not the workgroup folder. Is it possible to have devices added to the DB document in the workgroup folder instead of my user folder? Otherwise, are there any good workarounds that don't require us to manually add the devices we create to the workgroup DB file?

 

Thanks!

[Collin Klein]

@Ian5100For sharing signal and connector types, do you create them and then coping the connectCAD_Data folder from your local account to the workgroup? We are just switching to VW from cad and are getting the workgroup set up to share all of our resources. Any tips would be greatly appreciated! 

[Conrad Preen]

@Collin Klein Yes that's a good way to get things in shape.

 

More generally about sharing Device Builder stuff in a workgroup, it's a bit more complicated than it might seem at first. People work on site or on airplanes etc. and are disconnected from their office network for some of the time. So that creates an issue of how to re-sync everything when they re-connect. Meanwhile...

 

Vectorworks provides a perfectly good way of sharing devices as symbols by setting up Resource Manager favorites to point to a shared network location. Symbols let you save not only the config of the device in terms of sockets etc. but also any extra graphics, added records, in fact anything Vectorworks can be part of a device. As a workgroup wouldn't you be wanting to share your company look as well?

 

In my ideal world the Device Builder would be able to read the product spec sheet from a URL and create a ConnectCAD device from it. It would be the way new stuff gets into ConnectCAD - not the way we share it once it's already there.

 

Just my 2c worth

 

Conrad

[Peter Z]

On 1/11/2022 at 10:14 AM, Conrad Preen said:

Hi everyone

 

To share device symbols all you need to do is set up a Vectorworks document in a shared location on your office network, and use the Resource Manager to copy any new symbols you create to that location. Most people set up a favourite in the Resource Manager to easily access the shared folder. But let's go a bit deeper because you'll also want to share connector types and signal types etc.

 

ConnectCAD follows the general Vectorworks paradigm of user folder, (workgroup folder), and app folder. Let me explain:

 

Our plug-ins look for resources they need first in the user folder path (1) and then in any workgroup folders that you can add (2) in the preferences dialog. If the resource isn't found the default in the application folder is used. User folders and workgroup folders mirror the directory tree of the application folder so as a CAD manager you need to set up the user folder content the way you want it, then copy the user folder contents to the shared workgroup folder on your network.

 

Then on each workstation add the user folder path in the Vectorworks Preferences.

 

 

Hope this helps.

 

Conrad

 

 

Hey Conrad, one question to this answer of yours.

 

So I have created our own SignalTypes.txt and ConnectorTypes.txt files to meet our company standards. They are sitting in my user folder. If I want my colleagues to be able to use that same Library files, is it sufficient to add them to a workgroupfolder as you explained above or do my colleagues have to copy those files in their user folder?

[Conrad Preen]

You can add them to a workgroup folder. But, it might be worth thinking about what happens if one of your colleagues is away on-site and not connected to the office network. Maybe SignalTypes and ConnectorTypes are better distributed to the user folders? Just my 2c worth.

 

Conrad

[Peter Z]

Yeah true.

I tested it, as far as I can see it first displays (in case of Signal Types) the ones n the user folder and then the ones in the workgroup folder.

 

I guess if I only want to display the ones from the workgroup folder i need to delete the textfile in the user folder right?

[Pat Stanford]

If you use a syncing service such as Dropbox you can put your workgroup folder there and let all the users sync a local copy. This gives you the ability to only have to maintain a single Workgroup Folder but still allow all users whether online or off to access (a relatively recent) version of the Workgroup folder available.

 

OneDrive, Google Drive, Box and other syncing services should work as well.

[Peter Z]

Of course, that makes total sense. Thanks guys

[Collin Klein]

On 3/14/2022 at 5:48 AM, Conrad Preen said:

@Collin Klein Yes that's a good way to get things in shape.

 

More generally about sharing Device Builder stuff in a workgroup, it's a bit more complicated than it might seem at first. People work on site or on airplanes etc. and are disconnected from their office network for some of the time. So that creates an issue of how to re-sync everything when they re-connect. Meanwhile...

 

Vectorworks provides a perfectly good way of sharing devices as symbols by setting up Resource Manager favorites to point to a shared network location. Symbols let you save not only the config of the device in terms of sockets etc. but also any extra graphics, added records, in fact anything Vectorworks can be part of a device. As a workgroup wouldn't you be wanting to share your company look as well?

 

In my ideal world the Device Builder would be able to read the product spec sheet from a URL and create a ConnectCAD device from it. It would be the way new stuff gets into ConnectCAD - not the way we share it once it's already there.

 

Just my 2c worth

 

Conrad

@Conrad Preen We use OndeDrive to maintain our workgroup so syncing should't be a problem. 

 

So you would reccomend building our devices to our company standard and then saving them as symbols to that shared workgroup folder? Then that would allow for everyone to accsess them?

 

Thanks!