Civil 3D "Working Folder"

Should you map the Working Folder locally, or should you point it to your server where your files have been located for years? Tough question, but I’ve heard Autodesk recommend we place it locally. While that may work well in the Mechanical world with Inventor, I just don’t agree it makes sense in the Civil world – not that the mechanical world isn’t civil

If you point the Working Folder to the location on your server where your files have always been, your current folder structure can remain unchanged – all your text files, e-mails, legal descriptions, images, GIS data, etc., they’ll all still be there. The Vault will take over your drawing management, you’ll have versioning control – all the Vault goodies will still work – and anybody in the office can open any other type of document as they always have – they’re still located in the same folder.

Think about it – maybe someone adding trees to a site plan needs to access a file and has NO knowledge of the Vault, maybe a landscaper, maybe someone doing a sprinkler plan with Intellicad, maybe a quantity takeoff with Terramodel – who knows… I’m relatively confident you don’t want to redo your entire folder structure and effectively split up your project files between several users on several systems. And backing up your files shouldn’t need to change either (with the exception of backing up the Vault database and filestore).

If one of these users (someone using something other than AutoCAD, or someone without Vault capabilities) tries to edit a drawing in the working folder that’s currently Vaulted (it may be read only, but that all depends – and the attribute is easily removed via Windows so anyone can open the drawing) – again, that’s okay, the Vault will let you know the file in the working folder is out of sync with the Vault and its filestore.

The Vault lets you know a file has been edited “out of turn” (meaning outside the Vault Data Management realm). So let’s say someone DOES edit the file “out of turn,” that’s okay. Check the file out when the user is done (you’ll be given an icon showing the file was edited out of turn), but don’t “Get Latest Version.” Complete your work in Civil 3D, and check the file back in – all is good, files still in tact.

If the working folder is held locally, you’re hosed… You’ll need to rethink your backup strategy, the partners won’t have ANY idea where files are located or how to access them – you’ll need to retrain the entire office – it just doesn’t make sense.

MHO

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