Benefit of keeping local copies

[tfuhrmann]

My understanding was that by keeping local copies in my working folder, Inventor assemblies would open faster from the Vault. We are looking into new workstations and I was tasked with keeping track of the time spent waiting for models to open. I took a sampling of .ipt's, .iam's and .idw's. I opened those files through Vault when I had the most recent copies of files in my local working folder and recorded the time taken. Files were then checked into Vault and local copies deleted using the Vault checkbox. When I opened those same files again through Vault without local copies, my speed increased by an average of 60%. Granted there may be a small bit of error due to checking dialog boxes. I've run this timed test twice now with very similar results.

So I have to ask.... What is the benefit (if any) to keeping local copies of files?

[tmoney2007]

It depends on your network configuration and the number of files that you interact with on a daily basis. I have heard that 2015 significantly increases the performance of file downloads by way of an architecture change.

If you have a slower network (LAN or WAN) between you and your ADMS server or if you interact with very large assemblies, you might see a slowdown. I'd imagine the hardware that the ADMS is running on could affect the performance as well.

[mikel_martin]

Another thing that can have an impact is the I/O speed disk on the local computer and the server Vault has its filestore on. In some of my testing I have found that read and writing from the disks are a sigificant part of the time for file transfers. This also means that at times when the server is being used more heaviliy, you will see a difference in performance. If all the files are stored on the server and everyone is opening them directly from a server, this will put a much heavier tax than when users are only downloading when needed.

Another thing to consider.

When you have files local they are not being transfered over the nextwork when you open them. Vault knows not to download files again that dont need to be. This is important because that means that every time you are opening a file, you are not clogging up the network with downloading mulitple files (assembly and all its components). For example storing them on a network drive, those bits are still being transfered to your machine via the network on everyone open  and save even though they dont end up on your disk.

My point is that you should be seeing a lot less network traffic when files stored local and updated as needed. Which in turn then causes other operations using the network (including donwloading when needed), to be faster.

Also, depending on the release of Vault the method that you use to Open files in Vault can have an impact on speed for varisou reasons. Try your test scenerios by Opening In Inventor through the add-in and also by right click Open in Vault Explorer. If you are using a newer release you will likely see a difference between the two.

Hope this helps

[tmoney2007]

I believe that vault will actually compare the checksum and modified date for the file to determine if the user needs to be prompted.

If your assembly has a ton of parts in it and your hard drive has a high seek time (say an older 5400rpm drive that is heavily fragmented) the process of gathering that info from each file could be pretty time consuming. Random access is generally the slowest process for a mechanical hard disk. This could contribute to the time as well.

I can tell you that with an SSD, I have found that the downloading portion of a get and open is the slowest portion of the process sometimes. I haven't used 2015, which pretty much completely overhauled the get/checkout process.

There are many factors to consider.

I also keep a bunch of stuff in my workspace because I spend part of my time resolving broken references (long story). Its more convenient to already have the files downloaded.

[tfuhrmann]

I did notice that opening files from Inventor as opposed to Vault Explorer was quicker. But often that time is negated by searching if the file location is not known. IT installed a SSD last Friday. Didn't notice all that much improvement in regards to accessing files in the few I tried. Still need to try with file samples used in previous time test.

[mikel_martin]

My test have shown that opening from Vault Explorer is faster. This is almost always true, except when Inventor is not already running.

I usually keep Inventor running in the background, because if I do an open from in the app i also have to pay the cost of starting Inventor. Most people don't include that time in there comparison, but do when opening from VE.


Mikel Martin
User Experience Architect
Autodesk PLM/DM