Autocad preventing saving when another user opens a read-only copy

[mcampbell27]

Hi Everyone,

Just joined after looking all over for a solution to this issue. I found 2 other topics where the issue was brought up but neither was ever resolved.

I have one user (user 1) who will work on a drawing and while they have it open, another user (user 2) opens the same file and they are prompted it is in use and they can open a read-only copy. Once user 2 opens the read-only copy, user 1 can no longer save their drawing until user 1 closes the read-only copy.

User 1 gets the following error when trying to save:

"Unable to save to drawing X:\folderpath\filename.dwg as it is being accessed by another session. Drawing saved to X:\folderpath\filename.tmp"

This does not happen everytime either, so it is intermittent and very frustrating. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

[pendean]

>>>...so it is intermittent and very frustrating...<<<
That's the problem: you need to find out under what circumstances that happens, and when it happens, you personally need to see it in action at both workstations.
Your files are on a Server, or someone's PC used as a file dump? Server OS? Workstations OS? The issue is outside of AutoCAD.

[mcampbell27]

Thanks for the fast response. I have seen the issue first hand and checked both workstations. I made sure user 1 opens it first and then went to user 2's computer and made sure when opened it said it would be read-only (which it did), I then went back to user 1 and had her save and got the above mentioned error. I took a screenshot of it but it has project names so I just generalized the filename and path in the error message.

When I say it doesn't happen all the time I mean I tested the above situation several times and most of the time user 2 gets an unable to save message, but a few times it did save. Nothing changed between tests, using the same file, same users and same computers. 

The file is on a server (windows server 2008). User 1 is using Windows 8 and User 2 is using Windows 7. I checked to make sure neither user loses connection to the network, and they have full permissions too. I am willing to believe it is outside AutoCad that is causing the issue, and appreciate any more suggestions that might resolve this. Thanks again.

[ScottHodges]

Occassionally we get a similar situation. With us it is a network issue caused by our antivirus software causing delays between when windows says it has, or is doing something (eg completed saving a file) and when that has actually occured. Usually waiting a short time (less than a minute) will let the correct user save the file, though sometimes an Autocad crash occurs due to the lag in the system. Just a thought, are you using a GB/sec network or are on an older 100 MB/sec network ? Our server has a 10 GB network card with all the drafter workstations using the 1 GB/sec cards.