Monitor Drawings

[Anonymous]

We currently have a peer to peer network but are considering changing to a
server. The one concern that I have is the accountability of each person
that can access the drawings. If we have a project folder that 2 CAD
operators and 2 Engineers have full access to, and the file gets messed up,
noone is really accountable. Is there software out there that can monitor
who accessed the file and when?

How do other companies handle this?

Thanks,
Greg

[Anonymous]

really no one person should be held accountable. just backup the files on
the server everynite so that durring the day if/when someone erases a
bunch...you can just recover and redo what little work was lost.

here we work on the honor system...if you were working on a drawing and
screwed it up then you hunt down the it person and have it recoverd....but
with autosaving and autocad backup files and a server back...not really
gonna lose more then what 15 mins or work..

Jaime

[Anonymous]

Perhaps a File Manager for CAD dwgs is in order. There are several good ones, maybe somebody here can recommend one for you. It is really that difficult to manage dwgs with only 2 Engineers and 2 CAD people? You might get by with date-stamped dwgs or re-align the dwg review process you are now using. HTH

amry

[Anonymous]

On Thu, 13 Mar 2003 11:23:48 -0800, "Greg Barfield"
wrote:

>We currently have a peer to peer network but are considering changing to a
>server. The one concern that I have is the accountability of each person
>that can access the drawings. If we have a project folder that 2 CAD
>operators and 2 Engineers have full access to, and the file gets messed up,
>noone is really accountable. Is there software out there that can monitor
>who accessed the file and when?
>
>How do other companies handle this?

You might want to look into procedures that control revisions rather
than who is revising a drawing.

By this I mean, before a drawing is released it needs to be signed out,
and the person signing out (generally not the person making the change)
has documentation as to what was to be changed.

I set up QA procedures for a company where one individual used to
constantly change gauges because he could get them for a couple of
dollars less from a different supplier. It was always a problem as
operating and maintenance manuals did not seem to reflect what has been
manufactured. A system of controlling revisions was introduced and this
put a stop to these changes as before he made a change he had to get
approval. What started out as a saving of a few dollars for a gauge was
actually costing a lot more when all the documentation changes were
taken into account.

As for who has last saved a drawing, you can have an automated system
that adds their login name, date and time to a drawing using extended
entity data. This way, you can tell who has last saved it.

--

Regards,

Ian A. White, CPEng
WAI Engineering
Sydney 2000
Australia

Ph: +61 418 203 229
Fax: +61 2 9622 0450
Home Page: www.wai.com.au

[Anonymous]

Any server will
"Greg Barfield" wrote in message
news:20BBC67A97B11DFA7765234930F8F9B5@in.WebX.maYIadrTaRb...
> We currently have a peer to peer network but are considering changing to a
> server. The one concern that I have is the accountability of each person
> that can access the drawings. If we have a project folder that 2 CAD
> operators and 2 Engineers have full access to, and the file gets messed
up,
> noone is really accountable. Is there software out there that can monitor
> who accessed the file and when?
>
> How do other companies handle this?
>
> Thanks,
> Greg
>
>

[Anonymous]

To expand a little on this, most server software has the ability to see
which user opened what file (not just drawing files) when. It can also
track deletes and copies.

On a windows based server it is called "Audits". I don't know what it is
called on a Novell or Linux server. If you are going with a Windows based
server, you can check out microsoft's help files and their online
documentation on setting up Audits. They are surprising well written.

And as for how other offices handle it? Well the last office I worked at
had a problem with drawing mysteriously disappearing/moving/multiple copies
in odd directories and we implemented Audits. We tracked it down to mostly
one user. I confronted the user in a non-aggressive and non-accusatory
manner and he admitted that he may have done it by accident. I showed him
how to properly manage files, and the problem stopped. Remember, most of
the time drawings getting lost or written over tend to be accidental.
Therefore no one is really at fault. Just address the user(s) and most
likely it will stop.

Have fun Greg.

Cheers,
CMF

"Bill" wrote in message
news:A621D80F229BB4E0D1CB1C91CAB9789C@in.WebX.maYIadrTaRb...
> Any server will
> "Greg Barfield" wrote in message
> news:20BBC67A97B11DFA7765234930F8F9B5@in.WebX.maYIadrTaRb...
> > We currently have a peer to peer network but are considering changing to
a
> > server. The one concern that I have is the accountability of each
person
> > that can access the drawings. If we have a project folder that 2 CAD
> > operators and 2 Engineers have full access to, and the file gets messed
> up,
> > noone is really accountable. Is there software out there that can
monitor
> > who accessed the file and when?
> >
> > How do other companies handle this?
> >
> > Thanks,
> > Greg
> >
> >
>
>