AutoCAD Drawing Management / Drawing Check-out

I'll try to be succinct here - if you need background info, I'll be happy to
supply it.

We are opening a small branch office. The branch office will be staffed by
people from our main office, so when they are not here they will be there
and vice versa.

So - we would like to keep all of the drawing files on our server at the
main office. We will be VPN-ing in from the branch office for AutoCAD files
(would have preferred Terminal Server, but you know the score). In VPN-ing
in, I would really like to not have to work with the files over the WAN, but
to download them in the morning and then upload them at night when you are
done for the day. However, in doing so, the drawings will still look as if
they are accessible in the main office, and I do not want someone going in
to the same file and working on it while someone else is working on it in
the branch office. We could solve the issue by actually moving the whole
drawing file back and forth, but if people in the main office still need to
refer to it, it would not be there.

What I would ideally like is some sort of add-on piece of software that
allows us to choose to check-out drawings that will automatically lock them
down as read-only until they are checked back in.

I swear there are such programs, but cannot remember any of them, now that I
need them.

Any suggestions?

Thanks -

Susan

 

On one job I worked on we used Projectwise. It is a Bentley Product but it works with AutoCAD files, MStation and other Windows documents. You can check in and check out files like you mentioned. I don't know how it works in a setup like you described.

You can also set RWCD access to "folders" for individuals or work groups. Go to www.projectwise.com/ for more info.

There are other applications out there, I just thought I'd mention this one based on my previous experience.

Don Jacobsen
Energy Northwest
Richland, WA