Design Data and Templates - Upgrade Time

[iamerm]

We are storing our Design Data & Templates in Vault so that all users will have the same files.  This is particularly helpful for our custom drawing templates & one custom material library that we share.

One question regarding upgrading to a new version:  what's the simplest way to make sure that everyone gets the latest, standard (in other words, out-of-the-box) design data & template files?  This is somewhat of a pain, particlarly because we don't store those files in the default location.  The only way I can think of doing it is this:

1) Manually delete local copies (on each clinet PC) of the design data & template files from the old version

2) Manually delete Vault copies of the design data & template files from the old version, but carefully avoid deleting the custom files (custom drawing templates, custom material libraries, etc.)

3) Manually copy the new version of the design data & template files from the default install location to the Vault working folder location on a client PC

4) Drag & drop new files into the Vault

5) Have each user perform a GET on the entire folder(s) containing the new design data & template files

Is this the smart way to go about this?

[herrerh]

From a quick overview, everything looks correct in your steps and probably the easiest way.

[tahdesign1]

So I assume by your description that your are running the single Vault project environment where standard content is replicated on the client PCs.

That is also how I run things and I handle my Templates, Styles, and Libraries in a specific way.

For all 3 of these types of content I have a fake user named "Library" that keeps them checked out on my machine.

That way when a users "Gets" this information pulled down to their workstation it is write protected.

Also for the Templates and Styles (as well as for AutoCAD) I use directories that are specifically named for the release they are developed for.

That way when it is time to work on an upgrade I just temporarily undo the check out and make a copy of these directories.

I then work with them and rename them for the release I am working with. When I am done I push that into the vault.

So when users have to get these they are name for the release we are working with.

See the attached image for my simple setup

[loesche1]

Hi tahdesign!

Thank you for the description! We're close to go live with Vault 2015 Pro and also plan to manage the templates this way.

Some questions regarding this: How do you ensure that the user has got the latest version of the templates? Have you customized a workspace sync job? Is it possible to sync only the template folders automatically??

[tahdesign1]

Regrettably at the moment I am manually visiting workstations to push down the latest of my template/styles directories if need be.

I did try a long time ago to make a sch task to do this but much like a sch backup on ADMS it would only run if I was logged into the actual system.

Of course I could get IT to script that and I may at some point. However, my templates and styles stay pretty tight since I do so much development and testing before any upgrades. So it is not very often that I have to push this content down to the workstations after I have deployed the upgrade.

I am also in the process of moving to Vault Pro but have to step through the 2014 release first because we are still on 2012.