Updating large amounts of DWG files in Vault 2013 Pro

[BSchubring]

Hello! We have what might be a somewhat unique situation.  Here's a workflow we find ourselves in.

1) We download a weekly update of 100+ dwg files from a vendor via FTP.

2) We XREF these files into files of our own that we work on in Vault, but we don't modify the files they send to us (they are essentially read only as far as we are concerned)

How can we effectively update these files without spending hours opening each one in AutoCAD to check it in?  We currently mass check out the entire folder, copy the new files into the local Vault folder to overwrite, then... open each drawing and check it in. One. At. A. Time. 😕

Have we overlooked something simple, or a buried feature?  As far as I can tell, we can't use Check in folder, as that's just for initial addition of a folder to Vault, not for updating the entire contents of a folder that is already in Vault. We had considered not keeping these files in Vault, but since they are XREFed, we'd need to either detach before Check in, or not store our working files in Vault either.

Thanks for any ideas/assistance this community might have!

[Cadmanto]

Unless I have missed what you are saying, once you have these files in the vault, what exactly are you updating on them in Autocad?  Partially sounds like this might want to be posted on the Autocad forum depending on what you are updating.

If this solved your issue please mark this posting "Accept as Solution".

Or if you like something that was said and it was helpful, Kudos are appreciated. Thanks!!!! 

     

[BSchubring]

We are receiving updated versions of the file from a third party. We make no changes to these files ourselves, but we receive updated files that we want to keep in Vault and XREF into our Vaulted files.

To do so, we must check out the files that are to be replaced, overwrite them with the updated files we download from the vendor, then check them back in one by one. (unless there is another method for updating files which are changed by a 3rd party that does not use Vault.)

[olearya]

Hi There,

You should not have any problem here using "Add Folder" - simply follow the procedure you outline above of checking out the entire folder - overwrite with the new copy of the files and then from AutoCAD select "Add Folder" 

YOu should see as long as you are adding the folder from the correctly mapped workspace that the destination location is preset.

If you find this is not working for what ever reason we can also look at creating an ACAD script to do this (as we can access Vault from the command line) - you could simply open each drawing and check in via the script.

Hope this helps.

[BSchubring]

Thanks,

I could have sworn we tried the 'Check In Folder' option (Is that the option you are referring to from withing AutoCAD?) from the Vault toolbar and it behaved as if it would only check in new files and folders.  I'll forward this to our CAD team and ask them to give it a try again on Monday.

[jparks_79]

Another option would be to use the task scheduler. That is if the "Check in Entire folder" option does not work for you.

I have used that in the past in a very simliar situation.

[BSchubring]

Bumping an old thread if that's OK.  Our team had a need to try this technique today, and it didn't work as expected. Here's what happened, I'm simplifying the example to a 4 file test situation. (the reality is we have 319 files to update in production)

Here’s the setup.  There’s 4 files involved in this example.

File1 is in Vault, but not checked out.

File2 is in Vault, and is checked out

File3 is in Vault, and is checked out.

File4 is placed in Vault’s working folder, but was not added to Vault.

I used Check in Folder with the options listed in this pic. Note the destination folder is greyed out. It’s detecting that we're uploading from an existing Vault folder. That's good.

Here’s the result.

File1 remains untouched.

File2 is in Vault, is unmodified and still checked out

File3 is in Vault, is unmodified and still checked out

File4 is successfully checked into the correct folder in Vault.

Not checking in currently checked out files in that folder doesn't help our cause. is there a way to have Vault check these files in?

[jparks_79]

As far as i know, if you want to update a vaulted file, you must check it out first. Are all the files you want to checkin in a single folder?

If so, I can think of 2 options.

First, look at using the autodesk task scheduler to upload the files.
You will have to check out the files first from vault, then overwite those files with your new files. Then lastly run a "check in" task from the task scheduler

Second, there is an option from vault you can turn off temporarily. Disable check in of design files. If you disable this option, you can check out the files from vault, overwrite the files from vault with your new files. Then from the vault explorer, you can write click, check in.

Both of those rely on the fact that you can easily find the files in vault first off. I.e. they exist in 1 or 2 folders. Otherwise it becomes very time consuming. Judging by what I have seen, I don't think you are going to find such functionality in autocad without writing a script. which could be an option if you feel comfortable. Do a search for scriptpro on the autodesk website if you are interested. It is fairly easy to use especially if you are comfortable with Excel.

Goood luck

[BSchubring]

jparks_79,

Option #2 (Disable check in of design files) is exactly what this user needs for this task. His whole task is to just update this large pile of files from a vendor, not to interact with them in any meaningful way.  I didn't realize the design file block was something that could be disabled.  

I just tested this on my machine, and now instead of getting the familiar error telling me that design files must be checked in through it's engineering application, I get, after a few seconds pause on check-in of a DWG through Vault explorer:

"The underlying connection was closed: A connection that was expected to be kept alive was closed by the server."

Undo checkout and checkin of non-dwg files through vault explorer still works. I performed the test as the Vault as both a regular user and the Vault Administrator.  Any ideas? Are there settings that need to be changed on the server, I only ticked the option off from the client side as the Administrator.

[jparks_79]

what is the file type of "your" file. What is the file type of the xref? I will see if I can duplicate it. I tried with 2 dwg files and everything worked fine.

Can you screenshot your vault check in settings as well?

[olearya]

FYI - there was a known issue with the worker process failing under heavy load during add file operations in some instances - please ensure that you have the latest service packs applied.