Auto Syncing Inventor to cloud

[michael.shelley]

HI Guys,

Is it possible to set up a project in inventor that when you save it locally it will also back up to the 360 cloud location?

Or must you set up a project with save paths directly to local 360 partition? Then syncing is done automatically from there?

Michael

[NathanLos · Accepted solution]

Hi Michael,

Syncing occurs between the cloud and the local Autodesk 360 drive, accessible in the locations panel of the Open/Save dialogs and typically mapped to drive letter X:. If you save an Inventor project file to the local Autodesk 360 drive and use relative paths to describe the workspace and workgroups, then the dataset will be cohesive and resolvable once copied to the cloud. (In short, Inventor uses the second option you described.)

If you have existing files that you'd like to store in the cloud, I recommend using the Autodesk 360 drive in Windows Explorer. Make sure the appropriate existing project file is active, and then drag and drop a top-level assembly or drawing file icon into the Autodesk 360 drive window. All referenced files will be found and copied into the cloud so the dataset remains cohesive. References to linked files will be updated to point to the new cloud locations. At this point, it's best to treat the cloud copy of the files as the authoritative version.

As an experiment, you may want to try uploading a small assembly to see where the files are located once copied to the cloud. Most of the files will be mapped to a folder named after the project, which in turn will be located under the "Inventor" folder. Saving the top-level assembly or drawing file into a location that matches this structure will improve the robustness of the dataset.

Best regards,

Nathan

[rikit1912]

NathanLos, thanks for the specific answer to the Ops Question.

I've only used Inventor as a FIRST and now VEX mentor, so consider me a rookie.  This is my first time using Autodesk 360, but I'll say that this appears to be the prefect solution for our data sharing needs, if i can get it figured out.  (and yes, I've been reading... lots)

If I drag and drop the top level assembly (and sub assemblies not yet used) into the 360 browser importer, then it will find and copy all needed files.  Got it. Then what about the Project file?  It's not in the cloud, so what do we do on the other computers that are getting brand new installs?  Create a new Project in the Inventor folder of the users and add the 360 drive path to it?

I've had troubles, so I tried a Pack and Go to the 360 folder, and I believe that's copying a bunch of files and structure there I don't need.  Honestly, it seems to be working at two locations now, but really want to do this correctly.

Thanks

RikiT