Hi Marc,
For your purposes, xrefs are much like linked OLE
files. For a CAD file to open, it's going to need to know paths
to several other files, or it won't work right. Autocad has
provisions for calling out which directories should be searched for the
externally referenced files.
Having the files that both operators are working on
residing on either workstation will cause nothing but problems. Here's a
budget setup that I've seen work: Grab a computer from somewhere to use as
a file server; it doesn't have to be fast or brand new, but it should
be beefy enough to run NT or XP Pro. Reformat the main hard
drive and install the OS. Stick a new, fast second hard drive in it for
data. You could simply get one big drive and partition it, but it's
nice to have OS and data on two separate drives. If anything
goes wrong, it's easier to fix. Install a good CD burner so
on-the-spot backups can be run. Get a dedicated router for the setup,
and hook it all up. If the printer is going to see a lot of traffic, you
might consider a second router for the printer, DSL
connection and the lines to the other company and the rest of the
network. That way CAD dept traffic won't get gnarled up in the outside
busy-ness. I'm not a guru with the network stuff, so someone will
doubtless correct me if I'm off-base there, but I've seen this type of setup
work well a couple of times. Depending on
how (dis)organized the CAD files are on the two machines, collecting and
organizing them, and getting them moved to the new data directories, and then
getting the workstations mapped (and the operators trained) to the new
system might be the hardest part of the whole thing.
Assuming you have a computer hanging around you can
press into service, all this can be implemented for just a few hundred
dollars.
Cheers,
Walt
