Sync Center in Windows Versus Vault?

[AnthonyPaul2010]

Hi All,

I've just used the Sync Center in Windows for the first time. Basically I syncronised an Inventor project that resides on a server with my laptop so I could go into the field. All seemed to work well until I returned back to the office and performed the sync again. For some reason now all of my projects don't appear in the projects list.

Has anyone else had any trouble with Sync Center and Inventor. Should I be looking at Vault. I'm not too familiar with it and as best I can tell not too many people use it however does anyone know if it can do syncronising better than the Sync Center shipped with Windows?

[VinodBalasubramanian]

Hi,

The Windows XP Sync Manager (mobsync.exe) has been replaced with the Sync Center in Windows 7 with some inherent differences.

So if you were able to connect to your drawings while offline when using Windows XP, the changes made to the Sync Center may be affecting your drawings, but this is not something that we can resolve for you.

You have probably already looked into any error messages in the Sync Center for any conflicts and to view sync results. Unfortunately, we don't have any information for resolving any errors encountered with the synchronization process. Typically it either works, or it doesn't.

We recommend not relying upon the Sync Center if it cannot connect your drawings while offline.

However some customers have used it and discussed about it in previous forum threads. You can do a search for it. 

If you want specifically some help to start with vault, you can go to the following links.

http://wikihelp.autodesk.com/Vault/enu/2012

http://wikihelp.autodesk.com/Vault/enu/2012/Help/01._New_in_Autodesk_Vault

http://crackingthevault.typepad.com/

Hope it helps.

[mikeincairns]

Thanks for your reply Vinod.  I am also interested in this topic.

Your response has prompted me to ask:

1.  Is it best paractice to keep Inventor files on a network drive anyway (we want to be able to share and colaborate on drawings)?

2.  If yes - what is the recommended best paractice to work with Inventor files off-line (when I take my laptop off site and want to continue to work on drawings)?

Mike

[VinodBalasubramanian]

Hi,

We always recommend our customers to use Vault while working with project files on a shared network. We have seen some data corruption issues when people work on the project in a shared network and copy backnforth to their local machines.

However if you use Vault, you don't have to worry about the revisions of your drawings and the lesser chance of data corruption.

The document below talks about some best practices on setting up your projects in Inventor,

http://wikihelp.autodesk.com/Inventor/enu/2012/Help/0073-Autodesk73/0684-Collabor684/0710-Design_A71...

Hope it helps.