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__patrick__
1779 Vistas, 10 Respuestas

Work "locally"over vpn, maintaining xref's

Installed AutoCAD locally and enabled a VPN to my office's server. Most cad files have a lot off xref's.

 

Is there a simple way to let's say, click  "local", so autocad copies used files locally in a temp directory correcting the xrefs paths, and each once in a while checks if there are changes on the xref ?

 

Then when you click "online" it uploads the file you are working on .... and that's it.

 

Doing this manually seems a stone age solution. Changing the xref paths, xref per xref, means losing a lot off time.

 

Looked into A360 & co but I am not keen on uploading all ongoing projects to A360.

 

Prefer to use my own server.

RobDraw
en respuesta a: __patrick__

The use of relative pathing will help with this.


Rob

Drafting is a breeze and Revit doesn't always work the way you think it should.
pietro.pedone
en respuesta a: __patrick__

Hi @__patrick__ !

Which paths are being used in these drawings? Are they absolute, relative, or a mix of them?

By default, external references are cached locally in the TEMP folder when opened. This location can be changed via the XLOADPATH variable. Does this answer your question?

You can find here additional info about how AutoCAD manages external references:



Pietro.P
Global Product Support
Autodesk Knowledge Network
__patrick__
en respuesta a: RobDraw

Tks for the reply.

 

Most of them are relative but not all. Some files are copied from complete other works to avoid doubles. So then its easier to use absolute.

 

The thing is. When you work at the office all works just fine, either absolute or relative.

 

Working at home all changes.

Absolute finds items over the vpn. But working over the vpn is way to slow.

Relative needs them to be copied locally. Following the original dir structure which needs to be recreated dir x dir.

 

Would appreciate an AutoCAD option that handles all this.

A "work local" button. Which saves all used xref files in some local temp cad directory, temp updates the xref locations to these folders, checkes each x minutes for updates on the original xref path over the slow vpn and at the end of the day uploads the single file you worked on leaving the orignal xref.

 

 

pietro.pedone
en respuesta a: __patrick__

Hi @__patrick__ , where are the master files that you're trying to work with?

Are they locally stored, while the xrefs are stored on the network that you're accessing via VPN?

Or is also the master drawing stored on the network you're accessing via VPN?

Did you check if the XLOADCTL variable is set to 2? This enables "Loading with copy", which should improve performance when using reference files stored in a network.



Pietro.P
Global Product Support
Autodesk Knowledge Network
__patrick__
en respuesta a: pietro.pedone

For the moment I tried working on the server side, i.e. all xref are found flwalessly but utterly slow...

 

Then i copied the masterfile locally. The relative paths cannot be found.....

 

 

pietro.pedone
en respuesta a: __patrick__

Thank you @__patrick__ -- if you're opening the master file from the network directly, then the poor performance is most likely due to this one being accessed.

The closest option available in AutoCAD at the moment is using Demand Loading as described here: About Improving Performance When Using Xrefs. You should be able to improve performance this way. You can test by comparing the same file on the network and locally after remapping the relative paths.

Another option is to use ETRANSMIT. If you choose to keep the folder structure when creating one, you should be able to replace the drawings in the correct location at the end of the day.

Hope this helps!



Pietro.P
Global Product Support
Autodesk Knowledge Network
chriscowgill7373
en respuesta a: __patrick__

what I have found has worked for me with local copies, is I build a makeshift version of my network.  This only works if you are utilizing mapped drives on your network.  You cant map to a local folder using the traditional interface.  Using the dos command prompt, you can use the SUBST function to link your folders.  I copy files to a specific folder that I have setup for work projects, then open the cmd prompt

WIN+R  CMD run 

SUBST P: c:\Projects\


Christopher T. Cowgill, P.E.

AutoCAD Certified Professional
Civil 3D Certified Professional
Civil 3D 2022 on Windows 10

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

__patrick__
en respuesta a: chriscowgill7373

Will do some testing. Hoped there was a quicker way.

 

In the cryptlocker period I decided to eliminate all mapped drives.  Now i use shortcuts which I believe (hope) are safer ?

__patrick__
en respuesta a: __patrick__

Made a simple file with some xrefs in different locations on the server.

 

One with relative paths and one with absolute paths.

 

Xloadctl = 2

Xloadpath = local

Will try indexctl=3 later on the complexer drawings

 

The absolute xref works great through vpn with .

 

While the relative ones need to be resolved by the "projectname" routine. But that does not include subfolders by default. So you have to insert path x path with the advantage that onces solved it works for all xref's with similar paths and other files

 

Anyway. Some progress is made.....

 

 

__patrick__
en respuesta a: __patrick__

Forgot.

 

If using xref over vpn or similar (or also without xref) it's important to set "recent' in open & save to "0".

 

Otherwise, in case the vpn is offline and you recently used a file on the server, autocad freezes on opening as it searches for the recent files which cannot be found.