Consolidating shortcut folders

[Neilw_05]

Up until now I've been creating my shortcut folders in the folder for my project drawings. So for project A, the shortcut folder is in A\shortcuts. The reason for doing this was to make it more intuitive for finding the shortcuts down the road and to avoid having project components located outside of the parent folder.

The problem is it is becoming a nuisance to browse to the project folder to set the working folder whenever I need to switch projects. I'm now considering consolidating all the shortcut folders into a main C3D projects folder (the way C3D was set up to work), though I'm not liking having to resort to redundant folders. For now it seems the lessor of the 2 evils.

I'd like to know what procedure to follow to make this work and what problems I'll encounter.

I don't have a lot of projects at this time (maybe 20).

P.S. One of the big downsides to having the shortcuts stored outside of the project folder is when the project gets archived. Unless special precautions are taken, the shortcuts will be overlooked in the archiving process. How are users addressing this?

[Jay_B]

"The problem is it is becoming a nuisance to browse to the project folder to set the working folder whenever I need to switch projects."

Once the data shortcut working folder has been set for Project A one initial time per computer we are able to open files in Project B, Project C etc. without setting the working folder each time.

Perhaps you may be skipping the Civil 3d Project folder step? This will automatically associate new drawings under the project folder location to a specified project so to speak.

We keep shortcuts folder with Project A and use individual per project working folders but rarely have to manually associate a drawing to the project. We always set the project folder when creating the _Shortcuts folder.

Here's some info from Being Civil on getting drawings to remember Data Shortcuts association functionality.

http://beingcivil.typepad.com/my_weblog/2010/04/preview-2011-new-commands-in-civil-3d-data-shortcuts...

[Neilw_05]

You know, I've been aware of those options for a while but have haven't been judicious in applying them. Civil 3D does a good job managing the paths once the drawings are created. Where I've had problems is when creating new drawings or opening legacy projects. I think I can improve my workflow by associating folders to projects so that any new drawings are automatically linked.

I'll run some tests to verify the workflow.

Thanks for the reminder Jay!

[Neilw_05]

Well this isn't working as I expected. I opened a file that was already linked to a project. I then used the Associate Project to Multiple Drawings tool and assigned the files folder to the project. I then closed all drawings, created a new one and saved it to the folder, then closed it. I then opened a drawing for another project, which changed the shortcut working folder to that project. I closed that file and re-opened the file I created earlier, expecting the working folder to be set to the project I assiged to it's folder. It doesn't happen.

So what is the proper way to associate folders to a project so that all files in the folders become associated? I'll start doing some research but feel free to offer advice.

[Neilw_05]

Perhaps I should be more specific about how my project shortcut folders are set up as it may be a factor. It's not as simple as I first indicated. Since we are still using Land Desktop for production I'm having to use the Land Desktop folder structure for any C3D related work. Thus my C3D data is stored in a subfolder under the LDT DWG folder. So for a typical C3D project my shortcuts folder would be Proj\DWG\C3D\shortcuts.

This is obviously not the recommended folder structure suggested in the help documents. Does it matter?

[jmayo-EE]

I don't have to change the folders nearly as much since they gave us the ability to associate a project to a file. Once our surveyor sets up a base file with xref's, d'refs and the sort for the project we use this file for all designs in that project and the settings carry through. The only time I think about shortcut paths is if I am setting up a new project or if I need data from another project. We would dread having all shortcuts for all projects in one folder as recommended.

[Jay_B]

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@Neilw wrote:

This is obviously not the recommended folder structure suggested in the help documents. Does it matter?

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No it doesn't matter the naming is arbitrary. Ours doesn't match the help either.

In our workflow when we create a new Data Shortcut Folder for a given project we use the following hierarchy (and there slight variations from this that will function just fine AFAIK).

Civil\cad\civil 3d\_Shortcuts

In the above our working folder is set as "cad", Data Shortcut Project folder as "Civil 3d" and _Shortcuts is automatically created directly under "Civil 3d" . We don't use the "Use Project template" option.

All of our Civil 3d source drawings are kept under the "Civil 3d" folder. The Civil 3d folder is existing in our structure and specified in "Name:" field of the "New Data Shortcut Folder" dialog.

[Neilw_05]

So Jay and John, what is your workflow when creating a new dwg for a project?

In my process I'll start a new file from a template, add some data and save it to a folder in the project. I don't always remember to check or set the shortcut path before doing so. Then if I want to associate the file to the project I have to browse through numerous folders to get there. Since the orignal saved file is not automatically associated to the project, the shortcut path may be set to some other project when I open it, and if I'm not careful I'll create shortcuts to the wrong project.

It would really help if I could associate the folders to the project so that any files saved to the folders automatically become associated, but it doesn't seem to work that way.

What am I doing wrong?

[Neilw_05]

One more part of my workflow is how I create the shortcut folders. As I mentioned, the C3D files are stored in a subfolder of the LDT DWG project. When I set up a project I'll create a C3D subfolder, then when creating a shortcut  folder, I'll point to that C3D folder and the shortcuts folder is created within. I don't use a shortcut project template.

[Neilw_05]

After playing around a bit I think I have a better handle on how folder association works. When you associate multiple drawings to a project, it will associate all EXISTING files within the folder to the project. It does not automatically associate new files added to the folder. Thus I'm still left with having to manually associate the drawings, which in turn means browsing through a bunch of folders.

One workaround is to first open a drawing that is already associated (which then sets the folder path) and then create or open the new file and associate it to the project. Since the current path is already set, I don't have to browse to find it. It's a clunky solution at best.

[jmayo-EE]

Ok all project subfolders in one main project folder. This main project folder also has a d'shtct folder set up by the surveyors. 

The surveyor places parcels and field data in separate files in SUR subfolder. Call them Cogo.dwg and EG.dwg.

He sets up D'Shtcts to EG. Creates a few separate base files for plans. Par.dwg (lots) and Gro.dwg (topology) one for existing trees and perhaps one for protected lands/easements. All these files are created new from template.

He then creates a final base.dwg file for the project. He XRef's the EG Surf, Xref's parcels, topo and other base files, sets and saves the UCS for the plot window and then associates this file to the project and saves.

When we go to do design or stakeout we just open the Base.dwg and save to a new name. All of the project settings, EG srf and basemaps are ready for my FG.dwg, TreeRemoval.dwg, SoilErosion.dwg, SoilMovement.dwg and so on. Once that base is set up. Everyone can do there work without reproducing what the surveyor had to do to publish a parcel survey and a topographical survey. 

[Neilw_05]

Ok..your surveyors are doing all the dirty work for you 🙂

Since I'm a one man shop when it comes to C3D, I am the one that has to set up all the associations. Also our workflow is a bit different. We don't make copies of the survey base files and edit them for our design. We instead create new blank design files and use XREF's to the survey base files. That way our design files reflect any updates to the survey base files.

So it seems with our workflow we'll have a to use a different strategy.

[troma]

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@Anonymous wrote:

 We would dread having all shortcuts for all projects in one folder as recommended.

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Why?

We have one "Working Folder" for 2011 projects, and one for 2013 projects.  Each project has it's own "Data Shortcuts Project Folder" as a subdirectory.  The name of that folder then appears [in brackets] at the top of all associated drawings.  (Each "Data Shortcuts Project Folder" then has its own _Shortcuts directory within it.)

[Neilw_05]

I think I misunderstood your workflow John. I think it is really the same as ours. The difference is your surveyor sets up your design file (base.dwg) for you, which has all the survey files XREF'd in and also the DREF's.

[jmayo-EE]

The most important thing is the project association. Note that we do not associate all of the files with the project. We probably should but I think he just associates the base.dwg to the project and we carry that association along when we start new files with base.dwg. This is how I and the construction stakeout crew rarely have to set project paths.

[jmayo-EE]

It's a long standing thing here. Everything in one location so folks don't need to search multiple places for data. Every project has a folder. There are subfolders for correspondances, proposals, deeds, scanned maps, cad files, presentations, etc. The cad files a smalll part of the whole scheme.

[troma]

Yep, very same setup here. But when we realised we could avoid the headaches that Neil described by setting and forgetting our working folder to one location, we jumped at it. When you think about it, all the data is still in the project location. What is outside of the project location is just a note telling one drawing to look at another drawing for a certain piece of that data.

[Neilw_05]

I'd definitely prefer to have a single project folder for shortcuts but I'm concerened about having it isolated from the project files. How do you manage the link when archiving old projects, and are you not concerened about users knowing where to find the links as time goes on? Too, what about keeping project names synchronized when they are stored in 2 separate places (the project files folder name and the shortcut project name)?

[Neilw_05]

One more concern about having a separate DS folder, what prevents users from pointing to a folder on their local machine or to an unauthorized folder on the network? (I know there is a variable that can be set in the user profiles but that could easily be overlooked).

[troma]

We have the working folders set up on a separate network drive to where the drawings & project data is. Like I said, set it and forget it, so there is less to go wrong. Users shouldn't need to know where to find the working folder, you just open the drawing and everything works.

Synchronizing project names? Do you change project names half way through? All our projects have 5 or 6 digit numbers assigned to them for all our internal filing and billing, so that's what I use for the "Data Shortcuts Project Folder". Very rarely, near the start of a project, the number might change. But I've never needed to change the number after creating data shortcuts.

It's not been too long here, so nothing archived yet from this system. But the plan is that the individual "Data Shortcuts Project Folder" for a project can be moved to the archive directory with the project. If we needed the project again it could be restored. Either that or it could just get left where it is in perpetuity. We will start a new Working Folder for each release of C3D, and the old ones can stay where they are and be considered 'archived' when no-one has an installation of that version anymore.
Do you often resurrect projects from an archive? We don't. We might go back and copy something out of it, but typically we would just copy what we need into a new drawing from a new template, and leave the old stuff alone. So I may be looking at this from a different perspective than you.