Gordon,
I know exactly what you are trying to do - I've rolled out a system
that separates menus and keeps everything on the server, where it
should be.
Roaming profiles are part of the overall IT equation, but may or may
not enter into the situation here, depending on your preferences. I
don't use them to store any CAD related information like menus, I use
other mechanisms.
The problem with using a roaming profile is that they grow over time
as people add stuff; people may delete a folder under My Documents
without understanding that it might be really important. I treat the
My Documents folder as the user's playground, free to add/delete stuff
to it as they wish, as long as they don't (a) store ANY company
related material that would go in a project or admin folder, and (b)
go over about 150 MB and clog up my server.
The other problem is one of portability and ease of management by the
CAD Manager (that's me). Digging through a \\Server\Profiles share to
fix something in a user's menu is a bit of a pain. And when a user
leaves I have to usually wade through their stuff to make sure there's
no work related info on it. On the user's machine, to effectively use
MyDocs you would need to addd it to the support path - and typing in
"C:\Documents and Settings\[Username]\My Documents\acad\" is a real
pain. Also, since people may have Windows installed on D:\, you have
issues with support path consistency. Add to that the fact that
Windows NT uses the C:\Winnt\Profiles folder instead, and a mixed-OS
environment would have issues dealing with roaming profiles used in
the Acad configuration.
On the server I built a folder system using company folders for common
menus (e.g., ACAD, AECARCHX), and a set of folders that are named
after the users' Window Login Names, and everything pertaining to the
user's AutoCAD stuff uses the same name. So I have a folder structure
like
J:\Users\Matt
\Bob
\RBooth
\GMoore
etc. (some users have 1st initial+last name, some are first name only
- legacy type stuff). I used the user's login names because I can
directly get that through AutoLISP and repeatedly refer to that menu
group easily. It's independent of the computer system, operating
system and AutoCAD version. It's only username dependent.
I could have just used the word "user", but that's kind of impersonal
and there's no way to tie that directly to the user; and there's the
possibility of someone accidentally being configured to use someone
else's menu system.
Under each [username] folder, I have an \Acad folder, and under that
go a stock [Username].mns, [username].mnl file and some custom bitmaps
I made. I edit the MNS so the [username] is the menu group name. The
J:\Users\[UserName]\acad folder is in the AutoCAD support path, near
the top of the list.
This menu is strictly for toolbars and accelerator keys. Mostly
toolbars, because they can be edited through the interface. Being that
the stock ACAD menu is on the server, read only, people cannot make
changes to the ACAD toolbar, but they can easily copy a button to one
of their toolbars and create their own set of toolbars. Most people
here use very few toolbars, but the only ones they do use are their
own.
As far as item 3 is concerned, I put everything that is a company
standard on the server. The local machine is "disposable" in my office
- they can die horrible little deaths for all I care, because I've
made it illegal to store anything of company value on the
workstations. So I have a J:\Plot Styles folder, as well as a
J:\Plotters folder.
Matt
mstachoni@comcast.net
mstachoni@bhhtait.com
On Tue, 24 Jun 2003 13:08:57 -0700, "Gordon Price"
wrote:
>So we are getting close to rolling out R2004, and I am curious what other
>offices have done with regards to locations of content. We have some
>requirements, OK hopes, that suggest making use of the new folder locations,
>but some issues still make my head hurt.
>
>1: I want to use roaming profiles, not because people really roam that much,
>but because it allows those settings to be easily backed up as they really
>live on the server, and rolling out a new or trickle down machine become a
>cinch.
>
>2: I use customized standard menus. For example, I have pulled the
>lineweight & color pulldowns out of the standard menu. They take up space,
>and we are not using lineweights in the DWG, and almost never force a color.
>ABsically I applied the Woody Leanard test to the toolbars, and it has
>worked well. However, as a custom menu it seems like it should live on the
>server, or as part of a roaming profile, but read only. On the other hand, I
>don't want to limit users from modifying the standard toolbars for their own
>style of working. Or do I creat a custom menu for everyone, that lives in
>their roaming profile folder, and maybe has all or some of the standard Acad
>toolbars in it for them to tweak. So in the end, they might be using the
>office standard modifications of the Standard & Properties toolbars, and
>their own tweaks of the Draw & Modify toolbars. But all stored in the
>roaming profile? Argh, I just don't know.
>
>3: Shared or local versions of PlotStyles? Right now all the plot styles
>live in one shared folder. Has anyone played with copying just the CTBs the
>user needs to their roaming profile. The office standard stuff could be
>locked down for most users, while other files are available to tweak. If so,
>how do they get shared? Maybe there is a network resource by project, and an
>automated way to download to the profile? Hmm?
>
>If anyone has some insight on how they are actually using these new features
>I would love to hear about it. I know a lot of people have just left things
>on the server where they have been for ever, but I am wanting to wring as
>much out of the improvements as I can, even if it hurts my brain figuring
>out what to do and how.
>
>Best,
>Gordon
>
![Autodesk Design & Make Report](https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/1350519iCB55845EBFC43016/image-size/large?v=v2&px=999" "Autodesk Design & Make Report")