Icon Menu Wizard Multiple Users Issue

[AMBram]

I have my wd_menu.dat file on a network drive with multiple users editing it at the same time thru the Icon Menu Wizard.  When two people are using the Wizard at the same time and the first person saves and exits and then the second person saves and exit, only the changes from the second person are saved.  How can I make it so that all changes are saved?

Thanks

[jseefdrumr · Accepted solution]

AFAIK, you can't. All you can do is find a way to keep multiple people from using it simultaneously. I only have one other person to worry about, but our rule is that only I edit the Icon Menu. If we were a larger outfit, it would be the same, except that the responsibility would fall to whomever the CAD manager happened to be. IMO this is the way it should be handled in any event, for the sake of consistency if nothing else.

Hope this helps,
Jim

[AMBram]

I do not consider this an acceptable solution.  AutoCAD Electrical supports multiple users for many aspects such as adding new components to the database, updating pin lists, adding footprints, etc.  As part of this process, you are generally creating new smart blocks and circuits, and adding these to the Icon Menu Wizard is the easiest way to keep track of what has been created and to make them available for everyone to use.  This should be a real time process, not something that is done when the CAD manager or someone else finds time to do it.

[jseefdrumr]

Aaaaaactually, ACADE does NOT support multiple users, technically. (It doesn't even support multiple paperspace layouts.) Right out of the box, it is a stand-alone, single-user environment. There are tools provided that enable you to set up the software for multiple users, but unless you employ them then the software by default puts everything onto the local hard drive. You have to make your multiple user environment conform to ACADE, not the other way around.

If you want management for multiple users, you could use Vault. That's what it's for. But it still won't let you do what you want.

IMO, you're expecting a lot here, not just from ACADE, but from most any software. Think about it from a software programmer's point of view: how can you preserve the edits made by two parties, working in a single file simultaneously in real time? With the temp files related to those edits being kept on two different hard drives? I can't think of a software, any kind of software, that does this. Not even our $9,000 inventory software. Always, one user will take precedence over another. That's why you see 'this file is locked for editing' boxes in Windows. And don't forget, ACADE coordinates with other programs: Excel, Access, Notepad, etc. To do what you want, all of those other programs would also have to support the same functionality.

Bottom line is, a person will have to step in and manage this.

Jim