XRef on Sharepoint

[Anonymous]

We're a 6 person office, using AutoCAD LT, with current subscriptions (2017), Windows 10 Pro.

We're migrating to Sharepoint, more or less.  We've tried a couple small projects by syncing Sharepoint to the desktop, and it works okay.  Is this the best solution?  We haven't pushed it office-wide yet.

Is there a way to Map Xref's directly to Sharepoint?

How are other offices handling this?

Thanks.

[john.vellek · Accepted solution]

Hi @Anonymous,

Sharepoint can certainly be used for your project work but there are some things to consider.

The check-in/check-out feature is great but at some point someone will forget to check in which will require permissions inside Sharepoint to correct. External references and links can sometimes be tricky.

Recoverability can be a serious concern. Depending on how you back up your Sharepoint data store, a granular restore might be very time consuming.

Consider using some add-ins to make all of this more manageable.Here is a link to some applications available on the Autodesk App store.

Please post your results her to benefit others users in the Forums.

Please hit the Accept as Solution button if my post fully solves your issue or answers your question.

[john.vellek]

Hi ArchAndy.

I am checking back to see if my post helped you with your problem. Please add a post with your results so other Forum users can benefit.

Please hit the Accept as Solution button if my post fully solves your issue or answers your question.

[jggerth]

Hi John,

Considering that the OP is using LT, is there any reason to think that either of those add-ons will integrate with his setup?  LT is not exactly an extensible application.....

[john.vellek]

Hi @jggerth, You are quite right. I was looking at the forum name and missed that the post was in the wrong one.

The add-ins will likely not be of value to LT users but AutoCAD users might take a look.

Thanks for catching that.

[john.vellek · Accepted solution]

HI @Anonymous,

I am checking back to see if my post helped you with your problem. In Sharepoint there is an option to open a site in Windows Explorer. Using Explorer might give you the path name if you want to hardcode in the path for your Xref's. I would suggest just leaving all the xrefs in the same folder as the parent drawing so paths are not a concern. Another option would be to keep your files in a traditional file structure that is synced with Sharepoint. I would explore the options 🙂

Please add a post with your results so other Forum users can benefit.

Please hit the Accept as Solution button if my post fully solves your issue or answers your question.

[Anonymous]

Hi John,

I'm having this need now and I'm wondering if things have progressed a year on ?

I was intrigued by your saying : 

In Sharepoint there is an option to open a site in Windows Explorer. Using Explorer might give you the path name if you want to hardcode in the path for your Xref's.

Would you pinpoint the way to do that ?

Thanks,

Denis Charpentier

[john.vellek]

Hi @Anonymous,

Here is an article from Microsoft that explains how to view a Document store in SharePoint with Windows Explorer. Here is another one as well.

[Anonymous]

SharePoint uses activeX control 'OpenDocuments' on the client side to open any office docuemnt on the client side. this active x (OpenDocuments) control is installed with Office application on clients.

Mapping of whcih control to use for file extention can be found in DocIcon.xml file under 14 hive @ 14\template\xml folder.

[amacl]

Hi

As of Jan 2021 we moved from an internal server to Sharepoint.

All our jobs were held on a drive mapped to X: and now they did not download

It was possible to map the sharepoint drive to X: using the Windows Command Line and the subst command.

I found out how from https://www.computerworld.com/article/2694895/how-to-map-a-local-folder-to-a-drive-letter-in-windows...

To get the folder to be mapped go to File Explorer go to the OneDrive and the folder to be mapped.  Click on the address bar and copy the address beginning C:\Users\##username##\....

If there are spaces include inverted commas so at the command line

C:\...> subst x: "C:\Users\##username##\...."

Now all xrefs that were on the X drive appear in the legacy drawings. You may substitute another letter.

Hope that Helps someone.

Nick

[b_goossens]

Problem with mounting SharePoint as a drive is that it will load the local path 
C:\Users\bagoosse\..... and not  https://ugentbe.sharepoint.com/teams/...
This is giving problems when sharing drawings in a group.
Also changing to relative etc is not a solution.

[fatsmile]

Has this ever been resolved? I would love to know solution for that.

[pendean]

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@fatsmile wrote:

Has this ever been resolved? I would love to know solution for that.

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SHAREPOINT is still SHAREPOINT, AutoCAD is still AutoCAD: the tips above are still valid workarounds. HTH