Are semi-isolated master project and workspace totally obsolete?

[david]

Hi everyone,

I'm trying to sort out our file management and workflow using Inventor.

We are a rather small company (6 Inventor 2018 licences) having our files stored on a server and we do not use Vault.

We switched to Inventor some years ago and until now, we always have set our "single-user" projects on the server, one for each project (we are doing boats).

It does not happen very often as we hardly ever have several person working on the same project, but it sometimes occurs that we can't save a file because it has been saved by someone else while working on it.

I understand Vault is handling that pretty well (checkin and checkout) but it turned out being quite expensive when we asked for a quote (software + setting + training) so for the time being, we ruled that solution out.

I recently ticked the "enabled creation of legacy project" box in the general tab of application option and found out about semi-isolated master project and workspace.

Searching the web and particularly this forum on the subject, I see that it's a legacy from several years but I could not figure out whether it is still relevant to use it and if not what are the reasons why it is not advised.

Mark Lancaster wrote "I would recommend staying with either the “Single User” or “Vault” project type." in this document.

The final question being: should I explore that option or stick to single user projects even if we can be two, occasionally 3 working on the same project?

Thanks in advance for your answers.

David

[bradeneuropeArthur]

Hi,

Vault Basics is for free!

[david]

Hi @bradeneuropeArthur,

Thanks for your reply although it is absolutely not an answer to the question 

Are semi-isolated master project and workspace totally obsolete?

[bradeneuropeArthur]

Hi,

Sorry that I couldn't answer correctly.

But I only wanted you to notice that vault basic is for free.

So if the budget for your company is still the problem of not using Vault, this should be taken into review.

I think Vault will solve a lot of problems for your company.

Regards,

[chandra.shekar.g]

@david,

Hoping that following Inventor help would answer your question.

http://help.autodesk.com/view/INVNTOR/2018/ENU/?guid=GUID-34126F60-3093-4144-8AA5-809B4D35DCA1

Note: The legacy project types, Semi-isolated, and Shared project types, are unavailable by default. We recommend that you use Autodesk Vault Basic to manage multi-user projects. If you require legacy projects types, click Tools tab Options panel Application Options General tab. Select the check box for Enable creation of legacy project types. 

Please feel free to contact if there is any queries.

If solves problem, click on "Accept as solution" / give a "Kudo".

Thanks and regards,

[david]

Hi,

Thanks @bradeneuropeArthur, for pointing out that Vault basic is free, and thanks @chandra.shekar.g, I did find this help page in my researches.

I have to admit that "expensive" quotation I mention was made about 2 years ago and I have not spent enough time myself to understand clearly the difference between Vault basic, Workgroup and Professional and the way it works in general, however, the expert who made the quotation told me we needed Vault Professional for using it on our servers and occasionally through the VPN.

Again, my knowledge and understanding of the subject is very limited, the way we work now (single-user projects) is acceptable, using Vault would probably improve it but I can't figure out whether it's worse the expense.

This is why I wanted to start by exploring the legacy project types to see if it can improve our workflow, but first I thought it would make sense to see if anyone is still using it or if it really is out-of-date.

Although I did not get a proper answer to that specific question, I have the feeling not many people is using it.

Thanks for reading

David

[chandra.shekar.g]

@david,

Find Vault types and their respective features in below image.

For more details, you can go through YouTube Video in the following link.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_fLlujmmg4

Please feel free to contact if there is any queries.

If solves problem, click on "Accept as solution" / give a "Kudo".

Thanks and regards,

[cnewmanVIK]

We have 13 inventor users and have been using semi-isolated projects for about 15 years (or as long as it's been an option 🙂  ).  It isn't flawless, but it is 100% free.  There is a bit of a learning curve for new users, and the occasional hiccup, but it works well for us.   

Two reasons we have stayed away from the vault are: 1. Our server always seems to be low on storage.  And 2. Our drawings are always accessible to other departments for viewing.  They don't have to go through any sort of vault client and we don't have to have a dwf version saved of every drawing.  Having a dwf version of every drawing would be a lot of storage space we don't have.... (but that's a whole other problem here)

I think vault would likely be better for controlling the release of drawings, but most of that is taken care of through our erp software here.  And I think it's likely better for seeing older versions of a part/assembly.

Hope that helps.

[cnewmanVIK]

I've attached the legend for file status icons.  I don't know if they even put this in the help files anymore.  I can't find it today.

I've also attached a document on how to set up the project (I can't take credit for it though, I think Mark Flayler wrote it.)

And one tip I just thought of, be careful not to move or rename files when they are checked out, or the check out status gets broken.

[MechMachineMan]

If you just separately working on sub-components of a master general assembly, another option is to use multiple project files.

Have "sub-project" files which reference individual folders for the sub-projects, and have them reference the other components as libraries, so that edits cannot be saved.