By Miles Nicholson
Where companies have multiple users operating AutoCAD® Electrical, they will have shared libraries, data, support, report and template files and will have performed a customised network deployment/installation. Typically if Cadline has performed the install, the company will have a shared network ….\AutoCAD Electrical\ directory with the following sub-folders:
AeData
Libs
Reports
Support
Template
Where you have a decent VPN connection and the speed of AutoCAD® Electrical is not impaired significantly, you do not have to do anything. Where you have a VPN connection, but the speed of AutoCAD® Electrical is impaired because of the connection speed, then you can do the following:
1. You will need to be connected to the server initially if you are already away from the office.
If your shared …\AutoCAD Electrical\ directory is mapped then you don’t need to remap. If it is normally a UNC path then it is easier if you map the UNC path to a drive letter:
To access the shared folder on the network drive:
a. Press Win + R to summon the Run window
b. Type two backslashes and the IP address or hostname to connect to your network drive
c. Once you connect to the server, you will see the shared folder
d. Right click on the folder and select Map Network Drive
2. Browse to the required sub-folder; right-click it and select Always available offline from the context menu:
If this option is not available, you will have to enable it or get IT to enable it.
Sometimes the off-line folders haven’t been enabled, so if this is the case you will need to go to the Windows Control Panel > Sync Center and enable off-line use.
To enable Offline Files in Windows 10, do the following:
a. Open the Control Panel app
b. In the Search, type Sync Center
c. Open Sync Center and click on the link Manage offline files on the left
d. Click on the Enable offline files button
3. Do not disconnect the VPN until you receive the following message that your files are available offline. When this has finished, you can disconnect from the network and see your offline files from the mapped network drive.
4. It's stored on the computer, but not in a way that you can find it on C:\. Once you go offline, it will still show that it's in e.g. R:\. or if the drive's not mapped at the time, you can find it using the UNC path, such as \\server\share\AutoCAD Electrical <<folder name>>\
You will then be able to operate AutoCAD® Electrical as if you were in the office!
There are some potential issues:
- If you make a change to the catalogue database default_cat.mdb and someone one else also edits their version of the default_cat.mdb then the synchronisation performed last will update the server data (likewise footprint_lookup database).
- If you make a change to a projects drawings and another user also makes changes to the same project and drawings, then the synchronisation performed last will update the server data.
- If you make a change to the icon menu and another user also makes changes to the icon menu, then the synchronisation performed last will update the server data.
- If you make a change to any “common” support file(s), assuming you have a shared support directory, and another user also makes changes to the same file(s), then the synchronisation performed last will update the server data.
- If you are running AutoCAD Electricals’ part and footprint databases in SQL, you will need to continue to have a VPN connection to the SQL server.