How to Lock/Unlock a project in Acad-e 2010?

[Anonymous]

I have a user who inadvertently locked a project. He's not sure how. Closing out of Acad-e unlocked it.

This showed as a padlock icon next to the project name. See attached image file. The padlock was in the drop down area indicated by the red arrow.

I can't figure out how to either lock or unlock a project to help him out.

How can you lock a project?

More importantly - is there a way to unlock one if closing Acad-e doesn't unlock it?

This is very puzzling.

We do not use Vault.

Thanks,

Scott

[Anonymous]

Ooops. Forgot to attach the image file.

[dougmcalexander]

Was you colleague trying to use Sheet Set Manager with an Electrical project?

[rhesusminus]

You will get this error if the WDP-file is flagged as read-only, like here:

THL

[Anonymous]

OK... I can see that. But would that clear once a person exits Acad-e? I'm thinking no?

[Anonymous]

To answer your question Doug:

No He did not use Set manager.

[Icemanau]

The read only attribute is set from within windows itself and is a persistant setting. To change the setting you need to use windows explorer or My computer. Go to the file in question and right click on it. Select Properties and on the General tab you will see at least two attributes that you can change. If Read Only is checked, remove the check mark and click OK.

Now try and open the file in ACADE to see if it fixed the problem.

Regards Brad

[PatMurnen_Adsk · Accepted solution]

In addition to what others have said - AutoCAD Electrical will put an internal lock on the project file and drawings when you run functions that need to modify them. For example, if you run project-wide numbering and select all drawings you don't want anyone else using AutoCAD Electrical to modify these drawings at teh same time. Or if you are reordering drawings within the project you don't want anyone else modifying the project .wdp file with AutoCAD Electrcial at the same time. So the internal lock prevents this.

Then when the function completes the internal locks are removed. If something happens and the function does not complete, the internal lock may not be removed. Exiting AutoCAD Electrcial will always remove this internal lock.

[Wheelie22]

No, its not the read only attribute !

I checked it, only the A is on, as a check I moved the wdp file to another location.

So murnenp does not give the solution but the reason !

The only solution I know is to copy the project (it works right after this) and copy it back.

During a AcadE command the project is locked, but if there is an error the project lock is not unlocked.

Please correct this (after the plot background fix):smileyindifferent:

W7 / AcadE2012

[Wheelie22]

I guess that depending how it goes wrong the WDP can be Read-Only or not. But AcadE saves the project lock data on a central point (registry / AcadE network installation place), Because other users had the same with tis project !

[PatMurnen_Adsk]

Exiting AutoCAD Electrical will always remove this internal lock.

There are many things outside of AutoCAD Electrical's control that can stop a project-wide function, such as a network issue, a computer hardware problem, etc. So if something happens and the project is locked, exit AutoCAD Electrical. This removes the internal lock.

Regards,

Pat Murnen

[Wheelie22]

exit AutoCAD Electrical.

And start again... No, even restarted the PC did not work. 2 other users had the same problem with this project.

So the lock project registration is not lokal but somewhere on the network. And the only way we got it working was to copy the project, delete the original, copy it back.

[PatMurnen_Adsk]

If the project .wdp file is on the network then the lock takes place there. 

Did all users exit who had the project open in AutoCAD Electrical? Even if the project is not the active one, if it is listed in Project Manager it is considered open.

I will log the issue that exiting AutoCAD Electrical did not clear the lock. I will add any other details you can provide.

Regards,

Pat Murnen

[Wheelie22]

Did all users exit who had the project open in AutoCAD Electrical?

Well exit, when I encounterd the lock I wend to 2 other users to test it, they tried to change the description and got the same dialog :

And I did not CLOSE the project, I just closed all the drawings of this project. We always have the projects (WDP) on the network.

[PatMurnen_Adsk]

When you receive this dialog it means that somehow the project .wdp file was opened and not closed. The only way to resolve this is to exit AutoCAD Electrical completely. Just closing the drawings will not resolve this because it is not the drawings that are locked.

So before I log an issue on this I want to confirm that you exited\closed AutoCAD Electrical and restarted it and you still got the dialog.

Regards,

Pat Murnen

[Wheelie22]

---

you exited\closed AutoCAD Electrical and restarted it and you still got the dialog.

---

Yes, I did test patern Delta :
-Close AcadE

-Opend it and got the same dialog

-Close PC

-Started PC and AcadE, same dialog

-2 other users only opend the project to get the same

And the copy project unlocked it.

[PatMurnen_Adsk]

Thank you for confirming that. I will include all this information in the issue when I log it.

Sorry for any inconvenience.

Regards,

Pat

[haiqing]

Hi Wheelie22,

May I check with you:

1. Have you closed all AutoCAD Electrical which open your project file? There is a possiblity that though you have closed ACE on your side, but still someone else open/lock wdp from their side, so I would like to confirm with you. 

2. Which operation you have done to locked the file? I have tried to open project on network drive using different ACEs and I can see the lock is removed if I exit the project file operation or close ACE, so this may related to some specific operations which lock the file and do not release the file after the operation. 

[Wheelie22]

1) I only check if there is a DWL in the project directory, and I always leave the project in the tree. Only use project close if there are to many in the tree and not if someone else has to use it.

2) I dont know, we have 15 draftsman here and all can open these porojects. I already edited all the drawings and can not find who used it before me.

- Started AcadE this morning and saw my project was locked, in fact every project in the tree was locked (select 1 and see the lock). I opend the first drawing of the top project and when I went to the next drawing the lock went away ? (for all projects) After this closed and started AcadE but no locks.

[haiqing]

Hi Wheelie22,

DWL is a drawing (DWG) lock file, so if someone is opening the project file in his copy of ACE but not any drawing files, the project file is still locked by his ACE though there is no DWL file in the directory.

If you hit this problem again, if it is possible, please help to ensure that no ACE is editing this project then try to use one copy of ACE to edit the project to see if this is still locked. Also, please ensure the wdp file is not in a read-only directory or has read-only attribute. 

If you still see the problem when only 1 copy of ACE is editing the project, it will be really helpful if you can let us know which workflow locks the project. I understand it will be tough given you have 15 draftman working on the same project, but any similar information will help us to reproduce the problem in-house. 

Thanks for your time.