Can someone walk me through what the difference is between an environment and project file?
Can someone walk me through what the difference is between an environment and project file?
An environmental archive is a zip "pack and go" of EVERYTHING in your installation. If it's a simple zip, why the "tewzip" ending? So the program and windows can identify regular old vanilla zips and SWE zips apart. Anyways, the environmental archive includes all of your projects, libraries, and settings packed into one (typically GIANT 500 MB-multiple GB) file. Very important to create one of these on a weekly basis to have as a backup if your installation ever goes south. It is much easier to recover using an archive than it is using your IT's SQL server backups. While the server SQL backups may be up to the minute, it often isn't worth it for the amount of effort required to get the data out. With an environmental archive on hand, if you're ever moving machines/servers, create an environmental archive, set up the new machine, and all of your settings will pop into SWE when you unarchive your environment on the new installation.
The project archive is a zip of everything related to a particular project. Your drawings, library elements used, custom reports & configurations etc will all be packed up, generally in the 1-10 MB range. That way, if you're sending a file off to someone for viewing/approval or troubleshooting, all of your symbols, parts, title blocks will be there and whole and there won't be anything missing that the other person might not have in their installation.
The simplest answer on telling them apart is a project archive will have proj in the file title. An environmental archive will not.
Thanks for the input, it's greatly appreciated. So if the environment file contains all the library files and say I opened an environment file and chose to "update" all my files does that overwrite the shared files on the server? We have just the 2D schematic software and are sharing collaborative server files between 8 users. We don't have PDM that would copy files to our local C:\ so we're all pointed to a shared network drive (application data folder is the same folder for all). Just wondering if one person unarchived an environment and updated the library files, wouldn't that affect all other users?
Glad I could be of some helpe. Yes, it would affect all users. Operating in a server environment with 8 users as you have would affect the common library experience of all 8 users as you'd be "updating" the server that all users collaborate on. The "update" doesn't necessarily wipe out all of the old information, it would append any existing library elements that may have modified info in the archive as well as add anything in the archive that isn't already in the environment. Do you have a reason for wanting to unarchive an environment on your existing installation or are you just seeking clarity on how it works?
Just trying to figure out how it works and what is really getting changed when an Environment file vs a Project file is loaded. We've thought of having different environments for different customers or applications but that doesn't seem like such a good idea now. I think for us because we're sharing the server files all the time we'll use the environment file as only as an easy way to set up a new install and for archiving.
An environmental archive is a zip "pack and go" of EVERYTHING in your installation. If it's a simple zip, why the "tewzip" ending? So the program and windows can identify regular old vanilla zips and SWE zips apart. Anyways, the environmental archive includes all of your projects, libraries, and settings packed into one (typically GIANT 500 MB-multiple GB) file. Very important to create one of these on a weekly basis to have as a backup if your installation ever goes south. It is much easier to recover using an archive than it is using your IT's SQL server backups. While the server SQL backups may be up to the minute, it often isn't worth it for the amount of effort required to get the data out. With an environmental archive on hand, if you're ever moving machines/servers, create an environmental archive, set up the new machine, and all of your settings will pop into SWE when you unarchive your environment on the new installation.
The project archive is a zip of everything related to a particular project. Your drawings, library elements used, custom reports & configurations etc will all be packed up, generally in the 1-10 MB range. That way, if you're sending a file off to someone for viewing/approval or troubleshooting, all of your symbols, parts, title blocks will be there and whole and there won't be anything missing that the other person might not have in their installation.
The simplest answer on telling them apart is a project archive will have proj in the file title. An environmental archive will not.