I need your advice !!!
To make it clear I use the word "folder" for" project" inside the Vault - it's very confused for the word "project" in Vault
If I have diff. projects and save each project in a seperate folder in Vault - I mean diff. projects not folders - then in the local working folder, I should have diff sub-folders for each project or ONLY ONE working foder for all projects when I checkout fhe files
Thanks, Chris
Deepak,
I agree; however, there are some shared parts between the projects and if I check out to diff. foders in local drive then there will be confusing when I check in again because the rev. might not be consistent between diff. folders in local drive
Chris, it's all down to personal preference. I only use one "Working" folder on my computer, but that's because I usuallly check stuff back in at the end of the day and I like to keep it clean. Your "Working" directory is just a repository to check out the files to. The vault doesn't care about the structure of your "working" directory....
One tip, if you want to keep the folder structure, make sure you tick the "Show subfolders" button when you use the PDM Cleanup feature
Ray....
Ray,
It seems like one "working folder" in local drive is the way to go. I just wanted to know how people setup their working folders. The only concern I have is the folder getting big with all files checked out to it
Chris
Chris,
Our local folder structure does not match the vault structure for same project. Since our projects tend to be lengthy, I may work out of the same area for weeks or months. I tend to have a single project folder with all the files I am working on. I then tend to create subfolders for the items other engineers are working on if/when I need to download a copy for review or other reasons. I only do this to keep my "working" folder as streamlined as possible.
On the vault side of things we set up subfolders in the project based on major assemblies and then subfolders within those based on manufacturing methods. With that, the files in my single local folder might get spread into a handful of subproject folders in the vault. And then there are the files from the vault reused from other projects that reside somewhere completely different.
Other engineers in our office might do it slightly different on their local drives.
As Ray said, it comes down to personal preference. The point is that the vault doesn't care how you store locally.
Daen
Maybe you guys have a trick for this. When you check out the assembly, do you have to change the "save in folder" for each file if you want to save the parts to diff. working sub-folders in local drive?
No trick, just don't work it that way. When I check out an assembly from the vault, it and all of its associated parts get dumped into my working folder. If the assembly uses parts from old/other projects, those come along and get dumped into the folder as well.
When things get checked back in, the vault handles sending all the files to the correct locations.
As an example of when I use subfolders - say you are working on one of your conveyors. And another engineer is working on the shipping crates for those conveyers. He asks you to confirm some fit between the two. I would create a local subfolder for the crate assemblies and download from the vault into that. When you are done, just delete the subfolder.
I also tend to keep my local drive cleaned of older projects. When the current one is wrapped up and checked in, I'll delete the local. That helps prevent any "cross contamination" of common parts used between projects. If you leave the local files in place, that conveyor wheel used in all of your projects might be on your local machine in a dozen different folders. Some may even be previous revisions. A recipe for a lot of confusion if SW just happens to grab one of the other local files...
There can be different opinion on it but my personal preference would be to use separate folder for each project.