Using Vault along with Dropbox

[moua.thao]

Does anyone have experience going from a Dropbox synced environment to installing and using Inventor, Vault, AutoCAD Electrical?

Can Vault (workspace) and Dropbox both sync to the same local locations?  And if so, does that cause any conflicts?

Thanks,

[Xun.Zhang]

Hello,

Never tried with Dropbox but tried with Microsoft one drive. It looks like a cloud file storage to me, nothing special if you configure a local drive disk. For example, there is a local drive sync to cloud say One Drive, and everything works the same as normal local drive.

However, with Vault and project setting, folder mapping and work process involved, it can't works as expected with a cloud "local drive".

Hope it helps! 

[swalton]

What do you want to achieve by placing a Vault workspace in a cloud-duplicated folder?  Are you trying to make it so a user can work on the same files at the office and remotely?

There is a Vault forum where you may get more complete answers to your question.  See: https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/vault-forum/bd-p/101

[ihayesjr]

Hi, I moved your post from the Inventor forum over to the Vault forum.

I strongly recommend against having the Vault working folder in the same folder as DropBox. This can cause issues with things inside of Vault and how it works with the CAD product.

[moua.thao]

It's an already established system I'm coming into, one which they wish to keep if possible.  And yes, the desire is to be able to access the files remotely and/or in different locations.

So if I keep the Workspace folder local in a location not synced with Dropbox, will it still be ok to at least have the templates, libraries, and styles shared by different users stored on the Dropbox?  Or do you all recommend simply not using Dropbox at all?

[swalton]

We keep our entire Design Data folder in Vault.  (included files ipt/iam/idw templates, CC libraries, material specifications, etc) When the CAD admins make a change, they send out an email to all users to update the local copies of those files.  (@ihayesjr it would be very nice to have a "push" function for this type of data that insures all users have the latest information)

So I am thinking that you might have the following setup:

1. Vault Server installed on a physical server inside the company's Windows network.
   1. This machine has the MS SQL database and the central file store.
   2. Note that the central file store has its own names and locations for Vaulted files.  The names do not make any sense to a human user.  One of the MS SQL databases stores the mapping between the user name/location and the Vault name/location.  Once the files are in Vault the users will not be able to find them on the server using Windows Explorer.
2. Many individual work computers, each with a dedicated workspace at the root of the c: drive.
3. The users check files into and out of their local workspaces to the Vault server and its central filestore as they work on the project. 
   1. I believe that the file check out from the Vault server tracks both the user and the computer that invoked the checkout.  If a user duplicates the local workspace to a different computer, and uses the same Vault log-in to work, Vault will think that the file is checked-out to the initial computer.  This can be managed but it will be difficult.
4. If the user works remotely, they should:
   1. Check in all work from the office PC
   2. Go to the remote location.
   3. VPN or other network access method to the company's Windows network.  The user needs to have communication with the Vault server.  It should not be done over the open internet.
   4. Log-in to the Vault server on the remote machine. 
   5. Download/checkout the files from the Vault server.
   6. Do the work.
   7. Check everything back in for others to use.

Where does Dropbox/cloud sync fit into this type of workflow?

[ChSchmidt]

Hi,

if you need your Vault Files available anytime anywhere then connect your Vault server to the internet (SSL required for encyption, reverse proxy recommended). As already mentioned move all CAD Standards like Templates, Design Data, etc. to the Vault and sync it from there to the Clients.

Best Regards

Chris

[KineticKnif]

@swaltonwould you possibly have notes or links on how you guys set that up? we had a reseller attempt that in the past but failed since it was set as a library which can't be edited.