Copy files from Vault to a network location

[Anonymous]

Hello all,

Does anyone know how to copy folders/files from Vault to a network location?

I have four medium sized folders that I would like to complete an "Automatic Get" from Vault to about a dozen different machines on a network. I'm trying to avoid using the Task Scheduler on each individual machine to accomplish this task because, I believe it will tax my system.

I was thinking of using the Task Scheduler to "Get" the appropriate folders from Vault to my local machine, then use XCopy to copy the folders to the network, then XCopy again to push the folders to the individual users.

Does this sound like a workflow that should work? I'm having trouble getting this to operate correctly.

Could anyone offer some advice on this?

Thanks,

[Neil_Cross]

Yea you can do this, with a 'but'.

You can override the local working folder mapping for any folder in Vault, but only if you disable the 'enforce consistent working folder for all clients' setting in the admin options.  If you have this enabled, which most people do, you can't change the mapping of folders and you're stumped.

But if you don't have the setting on:-

Right click the folder > Details

Under Working Folder click Change... and browse to where you want that folder to download it's files to.  I've never tried but I assume that can be a network path.

There's another option in there which sounds like it might be useful, but it doesn't seem to work.  And it has a typically unhelpful useless meaningless help article associated to it... Map to Shared Server:

"If the selected folder is a library folder, it can be mapped to a shared server. You can specify the location on the shared server by entering the location in the Map to Shared Server field" 

That sounds like whoever wrote the help document didn't know what it does either.  What is a 'Shared Server' ?! There's no such thing, if this is Autodesk terminology for something it isn't documented anywhere as far as I know.

[Anonymous]

Neil,

Thanks for your reply.
If I could, other than getting the files from Vault, I would like to leave Vault out of the process. I'm thinking, "Get" to my local then, copy the files to the network then, from there I could use the XCopy to push down to the users locals.

It also seems funny that Task Scheduler doesn't "GetLatestfromVault" to a network location. Maybe I need a new project file with the destination folder as the workspace?

Len

[karthur1]

If you change it in "Details" like Neil is saying, it will ALWAYS use this folder when someone does a "Get/Checkout" for the files in that folder.  That might be what you want...maybe/maybe not.

I sounds to me like it more like a one-time thing.  If so, you should be able to just point the files to you network drive during the Get/checkout of the folder.

In the Get/Checkout dialog, click the ">>" on the bottom right to expose where it will download the files.  In the drop-down at the very bottom, select the "Browse" option and you can then pick the network drive.

Even if you do as you say, and then use xcopy to copy the files, you are still moving the same amount of data across the network.  I don't see any advantage in doing it this way.

Kirk

[Anonymous]

First, let me thank you for your responses. I may not have been clear enough with my issue. I have 13 designers that NEED to "Get" files from Vault. Because I am constantly adding/updating standard files, I need this "Get" to happen every other day. The locations are very large and the designers complain that it takes too long for them to do this "Get" every day. It interrupts their productivity. So, I would like to automate this "Get" in the off hours at night. I understand how to do this on each individual machine, using the Task Scheduler. My I.T. Department doesn't want me to "Get" these files in this manner. I.T. says that it's too much of a drain on my network. That’s why I’m asking to copy files from Vault to my local and then out to the network. When getting files from Vault, Vault gets everything that you ask it to get, out to the destination folder. XCopy only copies files that are different from what's in the destination folder. It's not moving/copying the same amount of data across the network. Does this make sense?

[karthur1]

When you do a "Get/Checkout" from vault, vault will compare the local files with the Vaulted files.  If the files do not reside locally, or are older than the version that is in Vault, then it will download a newer file. Otherwise, it skips it.

To prove my point, make the update to the standard that you are referring to.  Now go to one of the users workspace, use windows explorer and find the local version of the file that you changed.  The date that you see here is the date the file was downloaded from Vault, not the date the file was actually created.  Also, while here find a file in the same folder that vault shows them being up-to-date (solid white dot in Vault explorer).  Notice the date on this file also.

Now in Vault, do a "Get/checkout" on the entire folder. When it is finished, the date on the file they were out-of-date on will change.  However, the file that they were up-to-date with will not change.  That is becasue the out-of-date file was downloaded, but the other one was not.

You might have other reasons for doing this, i dont know.... But I see no advantage in doing it with XCOPY.  Just let each user do a "Get/Checkout" every other day. Vault is no more taxing on the system than XCOPY will be.

Just curious, how much data are you talking about then having to download (in MB's).  What is your network connection speed?

Kirk

[Anonymous]

Once I had explained to I.T. that only the files that have changed would be downloaded (GetLatestFromVault) they finally understood that it's not a massive amount of data. I will be using the Task Scheduler on each individual machine (sigh...) and using the "GetLatestFromVault" preset task.

Thanks for everyone's input. I would still like a way to do this from one location. Placing the task on each individual machine is an issue if you have to modify the task in the future.