dwl dwl2 files

[jlamM43PX]

I did a few searches regarding dwl and dwl2 files, but I couldn't find an answer on how to disable the creation of these files.  It doesn't sound possible. 

I understand these files should be temporary.  However, our issue is that these files are uploaded to our Box cloud service.  As owner of the folder on Box, I get constant notifications for deletion of these dwl files whenever my new employee works on the associated file.  I can disable these notifications, but I'm wondering why the dwl has become an issue now and not before.

The new employee was recently assigned as my first managed user with ACAD 2022. He uses Box Drive. 

Note that I don't see dwl files from my other contract workers who use prior versions of ACAD.  They are working on the same Box cloud files/folder, but I've never seen dwl files from them.  Another difference is that they use Box Sync (predecessor of Box Drive).

Can someone advise why the dwl files have just now started to appear on our cloud site?  Is it because of ACAD 2022? Or Box Drive?  Or something the new employee is doing differently than the rest of us?  

Thanks for any help.

[Michiel.Valcke]

as far as I know .dwl files are allways created, so I would suspect either your employee is doing something different, or Box Drive has had one of its parameters changed to now consider these files 'prompt-worthy'.

What I can think of from the top of my hat is that your employee is working and editing the files directly from the box location (and maybe doesn't have it synced to a local folder) while the rest of you are working locally in synced locations.

[jlamM43PX]

@Michiel.Valcke thanks for the reply.  That all makes sense.  Question now is what to do about it.  The new employee is working directly from the Box folder.  So are the rest of us.  Example: The CAD file lives in the Box cloud folder which is synced on everyone's computer.  Everyone works on the file "locally" in the synced folder in their Windows explorer.  Not sure how to change how the employee works "directly from the box location".  I think he just sees it as a synced folder like the rest of us.  I suspect Box Drive has something to do with it, but Box Support hasn't offered any solutions.

[Michiel.Valcke]

Does the prompt appear on all the .dwg files that he is editing from the box location? and does it only happen with that employee / workstation?

Does it also happen if your employee uses a different workstation? if not than something in the workstation settings is causing that behaviour. 

Does it also happen if your employee is working on his workstation logged in with the account information of one of your other co-workers? If that is not the case it might be a matter of whether your employee's box account has the correct read/write rights compared to your other co-workers.

If that behaviour repeats not for all .dwg files but only for those in a certain folder or specific files, and you can replicate it with other accounts / workstations, than I would suspect the issue is with the permissions for those folders / files?

I know that is not a direct answer, I must say I have no first-hand experience with Box. But it might give you a better hint of what is going on and lead to a solution.

Also, just to be sure, make sure you have installed all available updates 🙂 

[brett.bendele]

A similar, if not the same thing situation happens with me.  I am editing dwg files in a shared Microsoft OneDrive business folder.  While I have a file open, I do not see the dwl or dwl2 file appear in the folder I am working in.  However, If I go online and visit the SharePoint / OneDrive folder that I am working in, the files do appear.  The notifications constantly appear "Created" "Deleted... .dwl file" on my OneDrive app. I suspect everyone else can see them in their folder but me (aside from web/sharepoint page)

I thought there was an option to hide them in Windows but do not know for mac

[pendean]

@brett.bendele As noted in your other identical me-too post, consider asking in the MAC forum about your AutoCAD For MAC type queries as users their are 100% likely to have the answers over this WindowsOS-centric forum https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/autocad-for-mac/ct-p/4051

OneDrive (and other cloud services) have special ways of hiding temp files too, you might just be seeing that. Their support teams can help you reveal them if you wish.

[jmcbride]

Hi Dean,

If we do ignore dwl and dwl2 files in OneDrive, for example, will we lose any abilities or functionality in AutoCAD?  I would LOVE to stop having thousands of conflicted files a day happening, but not if AutoCAD actually needs it set that way... If that makes sense?

Thanks!!

[pendean]

@Anonymous DWL and DWL2 files are just text files that WHOHAS command uses to identify who has the file open.

OneDrive (and other could services) has file versioning as a feature and on by default: you may be experiencing that as your problem more than anything else, 99% of offices do not have "thousands of conflicted files a day" happening otherwise Autodesk would have gone out of business years ago.

Consider hiring a CAD Management team for the short-term to work out your challenges with cloud services, it's the better approach.

[jmcbride]

The "thousands of conflicts" could have been better described as "thousands of Sync Issues" where the .dwl files are hung and not letting other files update, which is truthfully a better description. "Conflicted Files" means something totally different, if by it you mean when the file gets saved as a copy of a file with the users name or PC ID in the file name. Giving you 2 or 3 or more versions of the same drawing. I'm sorry for that. That is my confusion.

This "thousands of conflicts" terminology is coming from the mouth of the IT company we currently employ.

You would know definitely know better than I, but lets just say 5 Sync Issues a day is enough to see a major negative impact in AutoCAD. Truthfully, I open probably 25 to 50 files a day. We have 20-25 users doing roughly the same thing. I can see how they are telling us we have a bottleneck that might be slowing us down, even if were are all letting just a couple files hang.

I will definitely take your advice and see if we can work with IT to hire someone to help us out further with more CAD Management specific services, but if the Sync Issues in OneDrive are only caused because of .dwl and .dwl2 files, I'll just have IT add an exception.

What I would like to know is what is WHOHAS still good for if OneDrive is going to create a "Conflicted File" if two users have it open anyways? Or is WHOHAS still used by AutoCAD to create those and maybe the way it does that could be improved.

Thanks!

Thank you so much for your advise. 

[pendean]

@Anonymous In the interim reach out to Microsoft's OneDrive Support, and if needed loop in Autodesk Support through your accounts page: your issues are all related to using a cloud services, not much else.