Finding a data shorcuts folder

[WIZNICKARTS]

I'm running Civil 3d 2010

Okay this may be a ridiculous question and if its too simple I apologize. I have opened a drawing created by someone else and see that it is loaded with data shortcuts and they all seem to be working properly and displaying fine. The problem is that I would like to add some more  shortcuts to the project yet I cannot find the folder where they are located on our server. I have opened up source drawings for every one of them and there are no data shortcut folders located in the same path as the source drawings nor in my project file. They have been stored miscellaneously somewhere on my server. I have tried searching by name (*.xml) for the data shortcuts on my server but the names are too generic and I get to many hits to locate the one I need. Is there any way to list a data reference and the program tell you the folder where it is getting it from? Again I apologize if this question is silly.

[wfberry]

Is the folder not shown on the bottom of Prospector?

Bill

[troma]

If you are set to the same "Working Folder" as the person who created the drawing, they should show in prospector.  Since you've posted here, I'm guessing that's not the case.  You will then probably see in your prospector the shortcuts from whatever other job you've been working on last, which isn't very helpful.

My best suggestion: ask the person who created the shortcuts.  If they don't know (as happened to me) open the drawing on their computer, go to create a data shortcut and see where it defaults to.

[WIZNICKARTS]

Thanks for your suggestion, but that is unfortunately the problem. The person who created the drawing is no longer with us and neither is his computer. You would think that something as blatantly obvious as this problem would not be overlooked by autodesk. Oh well..........we find a workaround and move on.

[troma]

You can probably just put your new shortcuts wherever you like, and everything will work fine.  If you can, run a test by making a change to something and see if it updates.  It should all work, even if you haven't a clue where it's put the shortcut.

I know this is a stupid setup, and there should be a way to find them.  (Let me know if you find a method.)

But like I said, put your new shortcuts somewhere sensible, leave the old ones alone, and move on.

[troma]

Hey, how about this.  I'm not sure if it will work, but it's worth a shot.

Go open some of the drawings that are using the existing data shortcuts.  Close out of the drawing again, and then search the server for .xml, with a filter of "date modified".  (I'm in Win7, and I don't get on very well with the filters in its search.  Maybe there's a better search program you can find that would actually search by "date accessed".)  I'm pretty sure the host drawing accesses the shortcut file every time it opens, so this may help you find them.