Inventor Files Duplication using OneDrive

[stefanMac]

Hi, we are currently using Microsoft OneDrive to store all of our inventor parts & assemblies. We are experiencing continuous syncing problems with our files.  This results in multiple duplications as OneDrive tries to sync.

For example, 2 people are able to open the same drawing, which results in a copy of a part as "Part-PCNAME-12.ipt/iam".
Any recommendations to solve this issue? 

[CCarreiras]

HI!

Always work locally and use Onedrive only for final storage.

[johnsonshiue]

Hi! Carlos is right. Inventor is a traditional CAD system. It is not designed to have multiple people edit the same files. To facilitate such collaborative workflows, a PDM system like Vault works the best.

Using a cloud drive like OneDrive may enable seemingly collaborative workflows. The trouble is you never know when the change occurs and how made such change. It is because the syncing process is out of users' control. Also, files are available to be edited at any given moment. There is no concept of ownership.

If you want to achieve collaborative design on a cloud drive, you will need to plan it and also have well-defined rules. For example, each user should work on the isolated portion, which is available only to the user. At the end of each day, a systematic process needs to kick in to consolidate the files and update accordingly. Otherwise, you will run into missing changes or reverted changes persistently.

Many thanks!

[stefanMac]

Hi Johnson, thank you for your reply. Do you suggest, we use Vault and OneDrive together or completely move over to Vault? As we continuously need our files to be uploaded.

Regards Stefan

[CGBenner · Accepted solution]

@stefanMac 

I'm not aware of any workflows using both Vault and One Drive.  Vault is a typical Server / Client application.  A user opens a checked in file from the Inventor Vault add in, and checks it out to lock anyone else from being able to edit it.  Doing so puts a copy of the file in their local workspace for editing.  Once they are finished working on it they check it back in, with the option to leave the file in their workspace (for more editing the next day as an example), or deleting the local copy.  The Vault server maintains version control and history, as well as revisions.

This is all a long-winded way of saying that I personally would suggest Vault only.  There are a lot of people in this forum, and our Vault forum, who could help you decide what level of Vault would be the best for your needs (Basic or Pro).  In the Vault forum you can get tons of help on getting a Vault set up.

[johnsonshiue · Accepted solution]

Hi! Yes, I agree with Chris. There is no point having OneDrive and Vault to manage the same files. It will make the workflows unnecessarily complicated with poor performance. You may use Vault or OneDrive to manage Inventor files. But, not both.

Many thanks!

[stefanMac]

Hi guys, this helps a lot. Thank you for you time.