>> Well I think it all depends on how you setup your directories on if the project is managed well.
No, that's not it.
>> I do not use vault, but I setup a prototype project directory and when I start a new project the same things happen as in LDD just I have to manually copy and paste the directories first.
Same here. The manual stuff is annoying - that's part of what I mean when I say there's no PM support in C3D.
By PM, I mean that C3D should internally support the creation of new projects. The project information that you enter when you create the project should be automatically accessible in the Sheet Set Manager. You should be able to jump to the "project home" directory from ANY dialog box that asks you to select a file. You should be able to quickly and easily archive an ENTIRE project. It should be possible to link mulitple projects together, similar to the PROJECTNAME stuff, but better. And, if "following standards" is deemed important to you, there should be a way of specifying which standard this project should follow. That should determine which templates are accessible, which tool palettes are visible, etc. There's a ton of other stuff. If Autodesk added all that, they're product would be much better.
But in order to get it all working right, they would have to pull PM out of the Vault. The Vault does not hook into the product in the right place to make it all feasible. Or at least, it's one of those "messy designs", that causes so many bugs and problems that the development becomes increasingly costly, and the end result will never work as well as if the design is clean.
PS: A lot of peole say "Project Management" when they really mean "Model Data Management". "Model Data Management" is actually a completely seperate problem. That's the part that data shortcuts address (poorly). Autodesk is using the Vault to handle this problem, too. But just as with PM, the Vault does not hook into the product in the correct way to handle this problem correctly. That's why the user must pay so much attention to which drawings design elements are created in, and why the user must constantly check-in and check-out files in order to do work. A clean solution would be largely transparent to the user, allowing the user to concentrate on the project, rather than on the model data management. It would be FAR nicer.
But the Vault is probably better than the lack of support in the C3D base product. We aren't currently using it, but we'll probably start, just because the capabilities in the Vault are at least SOMETHING, even if they are rather stilted and awkward.
Sinc