We have a user who has completed some projects and is cleaning out his local PDM works. There are dozens of part files remaining that have the green triangle indicator showing that they are newer than the vault. All of these files are read-only as he does not have ownership of them. It appears that these files are actually the same as the vault. Being read-only, he couldn't have saved any changes locally anyway. Any ideas or thoughts?
The statement "being read-only he couldn't have saved any changes locally anyway" is not true.
He can and did change something and save it locally. At this point, because he does not have ownseship, he can't check the changed file back into the vault. Two choices: He can go to the vault, take ownership and check it it. Or he can choose to delete the saved changed files.
I guess I didn't notice that you could locally save and over-write a read only file. Normally when we hit "save" and the dialogue box opens and asks if you want to over-write the file that triggers us to realize that we don't have ownership. I'm sure he didn't locally save all of these files but maybe he "dug into" some features of the parts in question to look at some geometry and the vault thinks it is newer. I'm unsure if the vault is looking at traditional "saves" of files or if it is looking at the "makeup" of the part. Your 2 choices with what to do are logical, just curious why it's happening. Thanks!
Don, it has nothing to do with read-only files. That is a microsoft function. The only time you are accessing vault data, is during a check-in or check-out. If someone else owns the part, you can still check it out. PDM copies the file from the vault to your specified location (hard drive). Then you're free to do whatever you want to those files. It's during the check in process that it matters most. He will not be able to check in those files you are calling "read only" because he is not the owner.
PDM is just doing copies to or from the vault. It's not actively looking at your files, except for the icons that give you status feedback in your local view.
You might want to discuss this with you VAR as I feel you guys may be operating under some perceived functions that are true. Hope that helps.
Oops - (I accidentally hit the "answered" button) . In regards to what you said - all true - I agree. We understand the ownership / vault / local disciplines. The odd issue is there are several dozen parts locally on his machine, they are all read-only status, he is sure he has not done a save on any of the parts in question, and they all indicate that they are newer than the vault. Here's something new - I just looked at the history/notes tab under the document info and the last revision of each of these parts was a vault upgrade by our administrator, prior to our user bringing the parts out locally. Would that have an affect? Thanks
Hmm, if he did the upgrade prior to the check-out (which the history won't show unless you take ownership at that time), then they should be in sync.
Is the read-only that you are talking about at the folder or file level? Controling read-only levels of individual files and directories can give you more headaches than I would want to deal with. Perhaps you should look at how the check-in function works. When you check in a file, you'll get feedback as to what is going on, and if they know they didn't change the part, then just deselect it. If someone else owns the part, then they can't even select it.
It's sounding like the problem is more how the file permission are set locally than a PDM issue?
You could also turn on the function under Tools/Options - System option/External Ref "Don't prompt to save read only referenced documents", if these are "read only" files he would get a prompt during saving an assembly that contains them.
Also, take a look at when you open the part in SolidWorks from his machine. Does it say (Read Only) next to the filename in the header window?
Don,
We run a set-up similar to yours, where we bring the files locally, and keep the read write status equal to the ownership property in PDM Works.
It is very easy to overwrite the read-only files on your local drive. SolidWorks and Windows will allow you to save over the read-only file, and keep the newly saved file as read-only. If you are not careful, you can save many files, and not realize you are saving them. (Using one of those yes to all buttons.)
What we do, is frequently reload our working directory from the vault. (Both older and newer.) This will keep your working directory closer to the vault, and make sure people check-in any changes they make, because the command will overwrite any files on your local drive with ones in the vault.
You may not like that particular method due to the potential to losing work.
Richard
I think you just nailed it - I seem to remember that when he was pulling out assemblies that contained parts that he already had out locally, that he was picking "yes to all" when it prompted him whether to over-write. That, in affect, is the same as re-saving these read-only parts. I usually say "no to all" so I don't inadvertently over-write changes that I may have in progress locally on some of the common parts. Then when I check in, I just take a quick peek to see if I have any flagged as "red", which seems to be pretty rare. Thank you much...I think we are answered.
that could be it! And if you applied read only permissions locally, when he overwrote those files it would have removed that permission.
I believe they note some of these effects in the documentation. I'll have to look.
Don,
Ownership does not define read-only in your local view. If he does not have ownership of the dwg,prt, or assy then he just can't check in or modify that part back into the vault. He's getting the up arrow probably just by saving the part locally.
PDM is not smart enough to know that you openned up a sketch, and exited out without changing it. It just knows a rebuild happened. So it's up to the user to know that they made a change. It has to error on the safe side, it's up to the operate to differentiate between the two.
Don,
My guess is that it has something to do with the vault upgrade. When we upgraded our vault files from 2009 to 2010, nearly ever file I had locally saved started showing the green "upload" tag. Since I was the one running the update and I knew I hadn't changed the files, I just reloaded them all from the vault.
It probably wouldn't hurt to mention it to your VAR so they can start a service request to get it fixed so it won't happen on the next version upgrade.
Don, it has nothing to do with read-only files. That is a microsoft function. The only time you are accessing vault data, is during a check-in or check-out. If someone else owns the part, you can still check it out. PDM copies the file from the vault to your specified location (hard drive). Then you're free to do whatever you want to those files. It's during the check in process that it matters most. He will not be able to check in those files you are calling "read only" because he is not the owner.
PDM is just doing copies to or from the vault. It's not actively looking at your files, except for the icons that give you status feedback in your local view.
You might want to discuss this with you VAR as I feel you guys may be operating under some perceived functions that are true. Hope that helps.