I want to be able to skip mouse clicks to perform functions like going to sub folders with bypassing top level folders by using a short cut to them in Enterprise PDM and having that shortcut kept in Enterprise PDM for all users.
I want to be able to skip mouse clicks to perform functions like going to sub folders with bypassing top level folders by using a short cut to them in Enterprise PDM and having that shortcut kept in Enterprise PDM for all users.
Daniel,
I havent found a way to do it "inside" the vault but what I did was to create shortcuts on the desktop to each of the folder i wanted to frequent. Then opened my favorites folder and dragged them all into that folder. Now when I launch explorer they are always at the top left of the screen like the picture below. Also once you drag them into favorites, you can delete them from your desktop. For some reason the fav's folder wont let you create shortcuts.
Daniel / Jon,
We have had negative experiences with shortcuts in PDM, all related to upgrades.
When we upgraded from 2014 to 2015, we ran in to a *serious* problem where the folderpath stored in the shortcuts became truncated. For example, parts of the vault name and folder names were missing. The users would unknowingly click on their shortcut and EPDM would create a brand-new folderpath that didn't exist previously, ignoring all permissions that would have prevented someone from doing the same manually. New files created in that errant path would be separate from the files in the proper path, causing lots of confusion when people were searching for files...they wouldn't be able to "see" files in the errant path.
As you can imagine, it took a few days for this to become apparent, and required a *lot* of file cleanup.
I discouraged users from creating these shortcuts before (would rather they use the Search capabilities), but some of them didn't learn...
When we upgraded from 2015 to PDM Pro 2016, we saw in testing that it would still do this. Fortunately we were able to warn the users, and there were fewer instances of this problem. Probably because not as many users were using shortcuts.
I advise against promoting the use of shortcuts!
Good News Everyone! </Farnsworth>
Looks like the issue I mentioned above with truncated paths in shortcuts, SPR 877773, will be addressed in 2016 SP4.0.
The SP4.0 EV shows this in the fixed list, so hopefully it is also in the regular SP4.0, which was released this past Tuesday (26-July-2016).
Of course, you can't really test it until you apply it...hence the value of a separate test environment and users willing to temporarily upgrade their client as well (then roll back to the production version when testing is done).
Carsten pointed to a good workaround, so I'll lay it out here step by step.
1) Create regular (yellow) folders on your desktop, using the names of the EPDM folders you'd like to link to. Not a shortcut or copy, just a folder with the same name.
2) Drag the yellow folder into the 'Favorites' list on the left side of any Windows Explorer window.
3) Copy the folder path of the green EPDM folder
4) Right-click the yellow folder that you added to 'Favorites.' Click Properties. Paste the folder path you copied from the green EPDM folder into the 'Target' field. Click OK.
5) The yellow folder will turn green, and will open with a vault view.
Yes, it is possible to do that.
First, locate the vault in your hard drive
Then, click on the leftmost top file, and see the path in "form" <Drive Letter>\file\etc\etc and copy the path.
Then, go to your desktop and create a shortcut,
and when asks for the path, paste the one you copied earlier, and press "Next"
Then, write the name of the shortcut, and click "Finish".
Voila!
Double click, and open your vault! Happy SolidWorking!!!
I made favorites in windows for folders I thought I would use a lot. but I found it faster just to work in the EDPM search tool instead of the file explorer.