Sharing libraries between 2 users

[throwaway_222223]

My boss and I both use Frame Generator and create our own custom extrusion profiles. I publish my profiles locally in a library called "Custom Library". He does the same but to his local "My Library". 

We want to be able to combine our profile libraries and access each other's profiles. How can we do this? What's the best strategy for keeping it organized and not losing anything?

We do have a NAS (Network Attached Storage) but I'm not sure we can access profiles from a non-local directory. I might be mistaken, but I think they have to be stored in C:\ProgramData\Autodesk\Inventor 2024\Content Center\Libraries . Is this the case? Or can we change this to a network path so we both can work out of the same libraries?

What happens if we are each publishing profiles to the same library?

What I'm wondering is this: will we lose profiles if I publish a new one to that library, and then he publishes a new one to the same library? Or does it just push published profiles to the library rather than save the state of the library with whatever is loaded? (Hope that makes sense)

[blandb]

Why not just make a company project that you both look at with a common file share location such as "T" drive or something? That way you can have a common Content center location with a common custom content center share as well. Then there is no need to transfer back and forth?

A single project file can be used between multiple users. All it does is tell INV where to get and save files. That way if your boss makes an assembly and uses a specific fastener, and then you go to open his assembly, but you don't have that particular fastener he used on your machine, the software wont throw a bunch of errors for missing files. If you make a title bloc, you dont need to share it with him as your project states where the title block is and if you change it everyone gets the change.

[Frederick_Law]

How often you change or update the library?

If not often, just update and send the files.

You can setup daily sync with NAS.

Put files you need to share in same folders as in IV setup.

Setup sync to sync PC and NAS on each PC.

I use this: https://freefilesync.org/

This is not ClickBait 🤣

I've set this up for 7 PC to sync all their IV files to network at work.

I've setup mine to backup daily, weekly and monthly to another drive on my work PC.

You can combine both.  Copy the library files: .idcl .idz. to your library.

Edit CC and copy from one to another.

You might need to rename if there are same name items.

[SBix26]

At my last job we kept our "Desktop Content Libraries" on a network location.  Everyone had access, though I'm not sure that anyone besides me actually made any modifications.

Use the Application Options > Content Center > Location of Libraries field to point to the shared location.  You can combine your two custom libraries into one new one, or just keep them separate in that location.

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Sam B

Inventor Pro 2024.1 | Windows 10 Home 22H2

[throwaway_222223]

Good advice all around! Thanks everyone.

I'll see what we can come up with. I like the idea of using a network location, just not totally sure how to combine or organize the libraries properly. I'm guessing we do this in content center via "Copy To".

[throwaway_222223]

Are there any potential problems with this setup?

I'm testing now to see if changing my default library location to the network location causes older projects to stop working properly. Also going to see if there's issues when moving profiles between libraries. 

[throwaway_222223]

Edit: I see what I did wrong. 

[johnsonshiue]

Hi! If possible, please share your findings. It will benefit other users.

Many thanks!

[throwaway_222223]

Thanks @johnsonshiue , will do. 

So followed the advice, and while it does let me access the custom profiles in my custom content center library, for use in Frame Generator, it doesn't allow me to publish or write to the library located on the network attached storage anymore.

I tried to publish a new extrusion profile to that library, which is on the network location on drive "x:\" but it said it was read-only. I switched back to using the local one on drive "C:\" and I can still read and write to that one. So for now, I'll just keep using the one on drive "C:\". 

I checked both that network attached storage folder, and that library file in Windows Explorer for permissions, and both have full permissions including read/write for my user. But I'm guessing this is still some type of network issue.  

Has anyone encountered similar difficulties with this?