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EPDM Vaults, Multiple Locations, Multiple Vaults or Combined

Question asked by Brad Joseph on Jul 18, 2011
Latest reply on Aug 4, 2011 by Andries Koorzen

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As of right now, the company I work for has three separate facilities (essentially three different companies). Over the new couple of years two facilities will be combined into one facility, the other will remain in Europe. The facility I am at does not use EPDM yet, but soon will. The other facility down the road does use it. The thing common between us would tend to be hardware, connectors, etc.

Has any one had experience with something similar to this? We are trying to determine if sharing one vault now is the best approach, as opposed to having two separate vaults and either trying to combine them in the future or leave them separate. And as i said for the most part, the only thing we would share would be workflow (maybe), cards, hardware, and maybe a few parts between them. We would share the same part numbers and part number logs, but that could be done outside of SolidWorks.

Or is there a way to share/mirror a hardware folder inside of a vault, replicated to the other? So we would always share the same hardware?

If anyone has any insight it would be appreciated.

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Andries Koorzen Jul 19, 2011 4:12 AM

Hi Brad

Currently there is no way to replicate folders between different vaults. The best would probably be to merge one of the folders in the one vault with one of the folders in the other vault

There is no limitation on the number of (practical) views that can be created for users. So you could have files from the one office in one vault, and files from the other office in another vault.

I would recommend that you try to rather merge all the data into one vault though, as this makes for easier management and requires much less overhead when upgrading / making changes to your vaults.

Also - it will become a nightmare to manage file numbers in two vauls, if the numbers have to be the same. Controlling this manually will not be possible really... yes maybe theoretically, but not practically.

This is an opportune time to reorganise the structure / or maybe make some optimizations that will make data access easier - which, by the way, is the end goal of having enterprise - to make access easier... just my 2c

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Tim Webb Jul 19, 2011 9:56 AM

Hi Brad,

I manage 7 EPDM vaults, out of all of these two are shared with remote sites. Here are my two case scenarios...

Replicated vault between Stillwater, OK and Albuquerque, NM. (Replication redundancy for redundancy, no sharing)
Common vault shared between Stillwater, OK and Oklahoma City, OK. (Shared folders and common parts, hardware, etc.)

My #2 seems like what you are interested in doing. It works perfectly for what you have described you are trying to accomplish. Just be sure you purchase enough EPDM Editor licenses to allow all designers access to the vault. For every SolidWorks seat, buy one EPDM Editor license. Don't skimp on this, it will bite you.

The only risk or challenge is performance. Both sites need > 2 Mbps line to ensure performance based on SolidWorks' minimum requirements AND my own personal experience.

I would strongly recommend SHARING a vault for what you have described that appears to be the route your company will be going. If you decide to replicate the entire vault, which would also work, but then at some point the company decides to spin off that other facility or combine later, unwinding the replicated vault from the other facility is costly and technically challenging.

Tim

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Brad Joseph @ Tim Webb on Jul 19, 2011 11:17 AM

So what you recommend is using 1 vault for everything then, and doing so now, with their reccomended connection size. Since in the future it would be more challenging to combine both in anyway.

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Tim Webb @ Brad Joseph on Jul 19, 2011 11:22 AM

Yes, combine into one vault whenever possible, boost the connection speed, and only replicate if spanning multiple states or overseas. Good luck!

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Andries Koorzen @ Brad Joseph on Aug 4, 2011 5:25 AM

Yes

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Andries Koorzen Jul 19, 2011 4:12 AM
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Hi Brad

Currently there is no way to replicate folders between different vaults. The best would probably be to merge one of the folders in the one vault with one of the folders in the other vault

There is no limitation on the number of (practical) views that can be created for users. So you could have files from the one office in one vault, and files from the other office in another vault.

I would recommend that you try to rather merge all the data into one vault though, as this makes for easier management and requires much less overhead when upgrading / making changes to your vaults.

Also - it will become a nightmare to manage file numbers in two vauls, if the numbers have to be the same. Controlling this manually will not be possible really... yes maybe theoretically, but not practically.

This is an opportune time to reorganise the structure / or maybe make some optimizations that will make data access easier - which, by the way, is the end goal of having enterprise - to make access easier... just my 2c
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Tim Webb Jul 19, 2011 9:56 AM
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Hi Brad,

I manage 7 EPDM vaults, out of all of these two are shared with remote sites. Here are my two case scenarios...
1. Replicated vault between Stillwater, OK and Albuquerque, NM. (Replication redundancy for redundancy, no sharing)
2. Common vault shared between Stillwater, OK and Oklahoma City, OK. (Shared folders and common parts, hardware, etc.)
My #2 seems like what you are interested in doing. It works perfectly for what you have described you are trying to accomplish. Just be sure you purchase enough EPDM Editor licenses to allow all designers access to the vault. For every SolidWorks seat, buy one EPDM Editor license. Don't skimp on this, it will bite you.

The only risk or challenge is performance. Both sites need > 2 Mbps line to ensure performance based on SolidWorks' minimum requirements AND my own personal experience.

I would strongly recommend SHARING a vault for what you have described that appears to be the route your company will be going. If you decide to replicate the entire vault, which would also work, but then at some point the company decides to spin off that other facility or combine later, unwinding the replicated vault from the other facility is costly and technically challenging.

Tim
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- Brad Joseph @ Tim Webb on Jul 19, 2011 11:17 AM
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  So what you recommend is using 1 vault for everything then, and doing so now, with their reccomended connection size. Since in the future it would be more challenging to combine both in anyway.
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  - Tim Webb @ Brad Joseph on Jul 19, 2011 11:22 AM
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    Yes, combine into one vault whenever possible, boost the connection speed, and only replicate if spanning multiple states or overseas. Good luck!
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  - Andries Koorzen @ Brad Joseph on Aug 4, 2011 5:25 AM
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    Yes
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EPDM Vaults, Multiple Locations, Multiple Vaults or Combined

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