Trying to understand Content Center

[PAULBIELA6426]

Hello everyone!

I work at a small manufacturing company with only 2 engineers using Inventor and so far we have only been designing locally on our computers, ie no vault or server based file storage.

What we would like to do is move to a shared file system on our company's shared network folder. We would then set our inventor "Project location" to Z:\CAD_Files or something similar, where Z:\ is the shared network drive. Moving all of our parts and assemblies shouldn't be an issue, but I am concerned with how to use Content Center (CC).

Right now, if any of us "Place from CC" the default storage location is something like C:\Users\Paul\Documents\Inventor\Content Center Files\R2014

Current Project information

I've read on this forum to think of CC as holding the "ingredients" to make parts, which when Placed in an assembly become parts stored in the file path above.

QUESTIONS

-If we set the Project to have a default Content Center location of Z:\CAD_files\Content_Center, will Inventor be able to open the network stored assemblies if the CC child parts are using "ingredients" from our local computers?

-How do we move the CC "kitchen" to the shared folder?

I'm sorry if this is a confusing way to phrase my question but we are still learning over here. Thanks in advance for any help!

[cbenner]

I've never worked with Desktop Content Center, always Vault so take this for what it is worth... but I believe that if you set your Project to a shared CC location, and then also in your Application Options set the location of your Content Libraries to that shared location, as well as your Default Content Center files path... it should work.  The problem I see may be in all of the CC parts you both have already generated, which live on your local hard drives.  These would need to be reconciled to the shared location without creating duplicates, or overwriting anything custom either of you may have don in your own CC.

Then there will be the inevitable unresolved referense errors you will get as you open old assemblies which are looking for CC parts originally placed form your local CC.

IOW... expect a few hiccups along the way and make sure you have great backups!

[blair]

You will also want to include the new CC location in your Project Paths as well. So you really have to areas to set, as Chris stated, you need to change the location in the Inventor Applications. This tell inventor where to look for the CC libraries and then where you want Project File to look for files you save. If you use the "Custom" radio button they will then be stored in your Work Directory.

[Curtis_Waguespack]

Hi PAULBIELA6426,

I think you're close to having it. Here we use the Desktop Content libraries, but we put those on the network. So I would recommend these steps to get this set up:

1. Set your project file CC files path to a location as you mentioned (Z:\CAD_files\Content_Center). I would do the same for Ttemplatee files, and Design Data files, also.
   
2. Go to each machine and look at the current CC Files path (C:\Users\***Name***\Documents\Inventor\Content Center Files\R2014) and copy those files to a network path (Z:\CAD_files\Content_Center). Choose yes, when asked about merging / overwriting files and folders
   
3. Then on your machine go to the Tools tab > Application Options tab > Content Center tab > Inventor Desktop Content, and look at the default Location of Libraries path.
   
4. Go to that path and copy all of the *.idcl and *.idz files you find there to a network location such as (Z:\CAD_files\Content Center Libraries\).
   
5. Then go to each machine and go to the  Tools tab > Application Options tab > Content Center tab, and set the Location of Libraries setting to the shared network path (Z:\CAD_files\Content Center Libraries\).
   
6. While at each machine, set the intended project file to be used, as active, so that everyone is using the same CC files location.
   

This will give you the CC Libraries (recipes) and the CC Files (finished baked goods) all on the network where everyone can use the same files. This is how I currently have things set up, and it works well.

Edit: Just to clarify, most of what I typed is what cbenner and blair have said, I was just slow about getting this posted.

I hope this helps.
Best of luck to you in all of your Inventor pursuits,
Curtis
http://inventortrenches.blogspot.com

[cbenner]

And as usual, Curtis, very detailed and easy to follow... kudos my friend.

[PAULBIELA6426]

Wow thanks for all the responses! I'm going to mess around with these suggestions and 'll post back here if I have any other questions.

Thanks again!