Windows to Mac: AutoCad references, drive letters

[andras]

There is a company, that has been using AutoCad on Windows for many years now.

Some of their users would like to switch to Macs, and being able to use their AutoCad documents is critical. 

We set up a Mac for testing, and we ran into the following issue. 

All their AutoCad documents are stored on a server, and everyone connects to the server to open/save the AutoCad documents. 

On the Windows PCs, the server's shared folders are mounted as drive letters: K, L, M, N, etc. 

The different letter mean different shared folders. So each Windows AutoCad user, has the same letter naming scheme on their local system. 

Within AutoCad, they use a lot of references to different files AutoCad files. 
So when an AutoCad file is opened, it will load other files , stored on the server. 

But the paths of these files include drive letter. 
So the AutoCad documents are full of references like this:

K:\Project1\File1.dwg

K:\Project1\File2.dwg, etc. 

OS X mounts network folders differently. It moutns the server's shared folders by their name. 

Instead of drive letters K, L, M, N, etc., the Mac will mount them as: "Common", "Projects", etc. 

When an AutoCad document is opened under AutoCad for Mac, it complains for references. 

So the AutoCad documents will not load comletely on the Mac. 

Is there a solution to this problem?

[maxim_k]

Welcome to the Autodesk Forums!

Hi,

Unfortunately at the moment there is no direct solution to this problem, but I'm aware that AutoCAD for Mac developers are working on this.

Actually the problem was already discussed here on the Forums, for example:

http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/autocad-for-mac-general/xrefs-in-a-mixed-environment/td-p/3598902

Plus I know that Chris Wade has some workarounds for the problem. I think you can try to contact him (write a private message), maybe he can resolve your problem in some way.

Maxim

[andras]

Hi,

I imagine that many users are using xRefs, and that mixed environments users see this problem a lot.

If we cannot load the xReferenced files, then we won't be able to use AutoCAD on the Macs. 

I hope that the AutoCAD developers can come up with some solution to is. 

I will also try to contact Chris Wade, and see if he can helps us with some tips. 

Thank you for your reply. 

Andras