new vs old file issue

[Anonymous]

I have witnessed and proven to the Beta team an issue where vault explorer (basic 2013) is declaring a 2 week old file on my hard drive as newer than the 1 day old file in the vault. 

I am told that the program compares by date and checksum. If the checksum is different, then the files are considered to be different, and the one on my hard drive is considered to be newer by default (regardless of date).  BUT all modified files always have a different checksum, so that's ludicrous.

This problem is now running rampant in my projects causing much trouble.  Has anybody else seen this, and or found a solution, work around, or know of a hotfix/patch/service pack that addresses this issue?

Thank you,

jvj

[olearya]

Hi Jamie,

Can you provide some more information - when you say "beta team" are you talking about someone from the Autodesk team you spoke with last year during the 2013 Beta program?

Are the file types we are talking about relate to Inventor? 

I would say this seems highly irregular and we would really need to understand more of what you are seeing.  

My only thought is that you have users modifying files without checking them out, which could be breaking the workflow.

[Anonymous]

2013, sp1 beta team this year. Inventor files, of any kind: idw, iam, ipt. See below: jvj HI Jamie, I understand your concern and again I will log this info as well. We are trying to get a solution to this issue. I will keep you updated once I hear back. Thanks again for these feedback. Regards, Senthil. From: Jamie Johnson [mailto:jamie.johnson@railengineer.com] Sent: Monday, September 17, 2012 9:40 PM To: Senthil Kumar Subject: RE: Inventor file date issue. Just tell the developers this. "It doesn't work." As a add on tools developer and SQL /.Net developer, I can understand the desire to defend one's code, but in the end if the idea doesn't solve the problem, then it is a bad idea. The problem is simple, I have a file that is old on my hard drive. Check sums can be deceptive and should not be used as a standard for file comparison, because it is possible for two totally different files to have the same checksum. It was only good for comparing files for transport. Good luck with solving this one, because lots of companies rely on and trust Vault to keep their data organized. This situation violates that trust. Jamie V. Johnson CAD Manager Description: TTS_FINAL-12 - For Signatures 175 Westwood Drive Southlake TX, 76092 Phone: 817-421-3535 Fax: 817-421-9292 email: jamie.johnson@railegineer.com From: Senthil Kumar [mailto:Senthil.Kumar@autodesk.com] Sent: Sunday, September 16, 2012 10:37 PM To: Jamie Johnson Subject: RE: Inventor file date issue. Jamie, I checked with the team and this is the reply I got. "We use the create date and checksum to match a file to a version of the file in the Vault. If we do not match the create date and/or checksum to any version in Vault, we consider the file 'newer' because it matches no version. The comparative values of the create date do not matter, it only matters if they match." Hope that helps. I will still forward this concern to right people. Regards, Senthil. From: Senthil Kumar Sent: Monday, September 17, 2012 10:36 AM To: 'Jamie Johnson' Subject: RE: Inventor file date issue. Thanks for the images Jamie. I will check with the developers and get back to you on this. Regards, Senthil. From: Jamie Johnson [mailto:jamie.johnson@railengineer.com] Sent: Saturday, September 15, 2012 1:51 AM To: Senthil Kumar Subject: RE: Inventor file date issue. A 7 day discrepancy. The one on my hard drive is obviously old, whereas the vault says the one on my hard drive is newer. cid:image002.png@01CD9521.6E291D20 cid:image003.png@01CD9521.6E291D20 Jamie V. Johnson CAD Manager Description: TTS_FINAL-12 - For Signatures 175 Westwood Drive Southlake TX, 76092 Phone: 817-421-3535 Fax: 817-421-9292 email: jamie.johnson@railegineer.com From: Senthil Kumar [mailto:Senthil.Kumar@autodesk.com] Sent: Tuesday, September 11, 2012 8:47 AM To: Jamie Johnson Subject: RE: Inventor file date issue. Jamie, Thanks for your reply. Can you also check the Create date in Windows Explorer? Next time when you see the issue please check the Create Date in Vault Explorer and Windows Explorer. Regards, Senthil. From: Jamie Johnson [mailto:jamie.johnson@railengineer.com] Sent: Tuesday, September 11, 2012 9:39 PM To: Senthil Kumar Subject: RE: Inventor file date issue. I have these date fields to work with, next time it happens, I'll check them out.cid:image005.png@01CD9521.6E291D20 Jamie V. Johnson CAD Manager Description: TTS_FINAL-12 - For Signatures 175 Westwood Drive Southlake TX, 76092 Phone: 817-421-3535 Fax: 817-421-9292 email: jamie.johnson@railegineer.com From: Senthil Kumar [mailto:Senthil.Kumar@autodesk.com] Sent: Tuesday, September 11, 2012 3:24 AM To: Jamie Johnson Subject: RE: Inventor file date issue. Jamie, Can you please check the create date of that Part file? You can enable that column in the windows explorer like below. cid:image007.png@01CD9521.6E291D20 Senthil From: Senthil Kumar Sent: Tuesday, September 11, 2012 3:59 PM To: 'Jamie Johnson' Subject: RE: Inventor file date issue. Thanks for the image Jamie. Indeed that looks odd. Let me check and get back to you. Thanks! Senthil From: Jamie Johnson [mailto:jamie.johnson@railengineer.com] Sent: Monday, September 10, 2012 9:27 PM To: Senthil Kumar Subject: Inventor file date issue. This is what I attempted to send out last week. Jamie V. Johnson CAD Manager Description: TTS_FINAL-12 - For Signatures 175 Westwood Drive Southlake TX, 76092 Phone: 817-421-3535 Fax: 817-421-9292 email: jamie.johnson@railegineer.com Jamie V. Johnson CAD Manager TTS_FINAL-12 - For Signatures 175 Westwood Drive Southlake TX, 76092 Phone: 817-421-3535 Fax: 817-421-9292 email: jamie.johnson@railegineer.com

[olearya]

Hey Jamie,

Thanks for the info - yes, this seems to confirm that the "local file" has been edited out of turn.  As explained in Senthils email, Vault cannot find any corresponding version for this file so it is considered "new" - effectively as it has never been in Vault it is new.  Vault only flags a file as old or previous when it matches a previous file stored in Vault.

This situation should only occur when a user gets a file from Vault, ignores requests to check out the file, edits the file and then leaves it sitting locally or checks out the file, makes changes and then cancels the check out.

Worth noting too that if you move or rename a Vaulted file on your local drive Vault will treat this as a new, separate file as well.