generic expression for Shared Content Folder path?

[Anonymous]

My company uses Dropbox cloud storage.  Because of this*, my Plant3D coworker and I have a different Shared Content Folder path, which means that parts I add into a spec can't be located by my coworker when he uses the "Find in Catalog" button in Spec Editor.  I want to edit CatalogReferences.xml within the .pspx to replace the portion of the directory that is the Shared Content Folder with some generic expression, maybe some method like %<\SHAREDCONTENTFOLDER>%.

Is this possible?  A less ideal alternative would  be to insert multiple path references into the code, but I can't figure out how to do that either.

*FYI, Dropbox stores a copy of its cloud content on each worker's PC, then when a worker makes a file change on their own hard drive, Dropbox syncs the modified file to the cloud and pushes that change onto all other coworker's hard drives.  So my coworker and I work from separate .pcat catalog files in the most literal sense, but effectively, they are synced to always be the exact same by Dropbox.

[dave.wolfe]

Why don't you just map a drive to a dropbox folder?

[Anonymous]

If you're referring to Map Network Drive, our Shared Content Folder is not on a network (if you think this doesn't matter, let me know, because I don't know any better).  I'll be specific...

My path: C:\Users\M\Dropbox (ES)

Coworker's path: D:\Dropbox (ES)

Are you saying it's possible for each of us to map a new drive link to something random like "Z:\" on both of our computers, but on his PC Z: will be an alias for his dropbox path, while on my PC it will be an alias for my dropbox path?

By the way, many months ago I tried putting the Shared Content Path on a true network drive, but every time Plant needed to open a spec, it would take ~90s instead of ~3s.  I never figured out whether that was a Plant problem or a network problem; I just moved the Shared Content Folder to Dropbox on on each of our hard drives instead.

[TomislavGolubovic]

There's a DOS command you can use to make a 'network' drive for your computer, so making a Z:\ for you would be one path, and his Z:\ would be a different path, but you're still both looking at Z:\

[dave.wolfe · Accepted solution]

I do this with dropbox myself for development purposes. Hold tight there's going to be a bunch of screenshots.

Browse to the folder you want to share, and click Advanced Sharing.

Click share this folder, set the share name and then click permissions

Click Full control for Everyone, and hit ok for all the open dialogs.

Go your This PC (formerly known as computer), and choose map network drive.

Select your drive letter. When you pick browse, the shared folder should be available for selection.

Sometimes, drives may show up as disconnected or not be visible when browsing in Autodesk products, this may help with those issues.

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-networking/mapped-network-drive-is-connec...

[Anonymous]

Thanks, Dave.  Your solution worked exactly as you showed it.  The only slightly confusing thing was, at first, I didn't realize that after clicking Browse (your final step), the folder I just shared would be a subfolder underneath my PC's user folder (even though I your screenshot makes it fairly clear), so I didn't think it was there at first.

Anyway, now I have a network location under Computer (right next to my company's shared netwok external hard drive) that is called T:\, but points to C:\Users\M\Dropbox (ES)\15 - CAD.  After my coworker also followed the steps in your post, he now has a T:\ drive too, which points to his 15 - CAD dropbox folder.

TomislavGolubovic, I didn't get a chance to try your DOS command method, but that was the right idea of what I was looking for, so thanks to you as well.