Share UDP's & Selected Manufacturer Libraries across multiple users


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epaul
epaul
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I am currently starting a database of selected manufacturer libraries and several user defined products. This database of products will need to be accessable to anyone in the office who has StarDraw. I have made a standard template that would include the company title block and sheet layouts as per company standard and I was under the impression that when others would open this company template that the list of UDPS and manuf libraries would open with it, but from the few other computers I have tried the template on this doesn't seem to be the case. Could anyone please give me some insight on how I could go about making these libraries accessable by others (ideally they would automatically load when they open the template).

I believe our current config using Visio has all the products saved as a visio stensil template and we have those saved on to our internal server which is accessable to everyone. However, StarDRaw doesnt appear to allow me to save the manuf libraries that are applicable to us and the UDP's in this fashion so I am unsure how to go about making them accessible to others.

If someone could tell me how or where StarDraw does save these UDP's and selected manuf libs it might help me to figure out a way to make them accessable by others. Do the UDPs and selected manufs save on to each individual computer, within the StarDraw files on each computer, on to the USB activation key, into the drawing file or into an external file?

Thanks.

-Eric
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David Snipp
David Snipp
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Eric,

User Defined Products are stored in a SQL CE Database File: user.sdf which, on Windows 7, is stored in the following directory location:

C:\Users\<USERNAME>\AppData\Roaming\Stardraw.com Ltd\Stardraw Design 7\1.0.0.0

You can copy this file onto other computers and you can then see and use the User Defined Products for use in your projects.

David Snipp
Stardraw.com Ltd
Uros Cvijan
Uros Cvijan
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Hi David.
I also have questions regarding sharing UDP. What if I make 10 products, then copy that to some folder or to other computers, then my colleague will lose his products that he already created, isn't that right?
So for example, we have 4 keys in our company. And everyone is making products, because we want to make out own library out of your products. And i create 30 products, and then i copy that file on the server or on others people computers. But now my 3 other colleagues make also 30 products, how can we in the easiest way put all those 120 products in one file so everyone can see and use them?

Thanks.
David Snipp
David Snipp
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You ask a good question.

We are working on a solution that will make sharing your UDPs very easy, but it does make some assumptions...

Are all your colleagues on the same local area network? If so, do you all have access to a local SQL Server?

Do your colleagues need to access the UDP when they are "on the road" or "on-site"? In other words, do they need to have a local copy of the database?

Would it be satisfactory if this "shared database" was on the Internet/Cloud ?

We'd love to hear your thoughts so that we implement the right solution for you.

David Snipp
Stardraw.com Ltd
Uros Cvijan
Uros Cvijan
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Hi David.

1. Yes we are all on same LAN, but there are occasions when we are on the road, or we bring our laptops with us to work from home,but we cant access our server on work then.
2. Me and my colleagues do need to access when we are on the road. But I think that we easily can just copy main file on our computers when we go on the road.

Maybe it is a good solution for the main database to be on some cloud, I would have to check with my director what are his thoughts about that.
My opinion is that the best solution is that we can make our main shared library on our server on our network, and then if for stardraw is needed to search for products on our computers (on C ) we can just copy that main library.
Don't really now is there a possibility that you can make synchronization between UDP libraries? Like you are doing with product libraries. So for example, we have our shared UDP library on our server, and we work from home, make lots of new products, and then when we come to company, we just synchronize our private library with shared library on our server. That way, shared library is just filled with new products. That way if several of us make 10 new products, we can just add those products to the shared library,and then copy new shared library on our computers, so that each and everyone of us have products that others made.

Idea that shared library be on internet is ok in my opinion, but have some faults, for example if we dont have internet connection. Then we would still need some type of synchronization.

Hope I was clear with my idea on how that can work and be implemented. That is I think the easiest solution for us. Don't really now how hard is to code that, or is it even possible.
Edited 12 Years Ago by Uros Cvijan
David Snipp
David Snipp
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Thanks for your thoughts.

Do you really need access to all your colleagues UDPs (User Defined Products) when you don't have Internet access?

Note that you can still open your projects and edit them - even if they have your colleagues UDPs in them as the project is completely self-contained.

Therefore, if you think you are going to need them when you don't have Internet access, then you can just add them to your project or a temporary project beforehand.

There are really 2 big issues with sharing UDPs:

1. What happens if 2 people make a change to the same UDP at the same time? We would just determine that latest takes priority.

2. If we synchronize everyones UDPs to everyone else then that is going to consume a LOT of bandwidth and storage on everyone's machine. Imagine one user puts a 10 MB image inside a UDP !! Everyone will suddenly get a copy of that and there is nothing they can do - except stop sharing the whole library.

If all UDPs are stored on the cloud and you just retrieve them when you want them, then you are only going to suffer the download if you happen to use that product in a project.

Remember - some people could produce thousands of UDPs and you may only want one or two of them.

David Snipp
Stardraw.com Ltd
epaul
epaul
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Would it be possible to have an import UDP option in StarDraw? I am aware that the current way to share UDPs across multiple uses is to copy and paste the SQL file (C:\Users\<USERNAME>\AppData\Roaming\Stardraw.com Ltd\Stardraw Design 7\1.0.0.0). However, the ideal way to share the UDP's for me is to have a master file saved on to our office shared drive and when a user would connect from their computer on to our local network and open StarDraw they can go File > Import > Import UDPs. This way there would be a master list that will be the most current and if someone needed the file to work offline they could copy it on to their temporarily.

Our company uses SharePoint file management system so the issue of having someone add or change the master UDP file wouldnt be an issue because the system manages who can sign out the one file and edit it and check it back in to update the file to the new version. This prevents duplicates or issues with more than one user editing the file at once since all can use the file at the same time but only one person at a time can make changes.

Given this, would it be possible to have the import UDPs from file option as opposed to having to copy and paste it into the above mentioned directory?

Thanks.

-Eric
David Snipp
David Snipp
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That's an interesting idea, but it would mean that your UDPs would be overwritten with someone else's UDPs if they have the same Manufacturer and Model Number.

This is also a manual process that has to be performed by each and every user every time there is a change.

While this process might solve propogating a master copy to individual users from time to time, it doesn't solve trying to share your UDPs with your colleagues.

David Snipp
Stardraw.com Ltd
epaul
epaul
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Thanks for your quick reply.

Ideally most Christie porducts and most products we use would be in the StarDraw Manufacturers Products list and the UDP list would contain a few misc objects that are generic or standard symbols used in our drawings. Most of the items we use in drawings do not change more than a handful of times a year so the concern about others updating files isn't a big issue. Also, typically one person would be assigned to UDP master list mgmt and any updates to UDPs or requests for new ones would go through them. But it would help ease transition if we could try to maintain the configuration as mentioned in my last post as it seems to be something that worked well in the past and is a feature StarDraw is already very close to being able to adopt as well.

On a similar note, will there be the possibility to change the directory of UDPs to be able to show up in the StarDraw Products list. If we had 50 of our products under the Christie submenu and 5 that had to be created by UDPs it would be helpful to be able to store the UDPs with the existing Christie products, at least until we can submit the new UDPs to StarDraw to add to the manuf product database or for certain products that policy would not allow us to make public. It would help simply the search process when looking for products if the user didnt use the filter by search and chose instead to do a manual search.

Your feedback is appreciated.

-Eric
Uros Cvijan
Uros Cvijan
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Hi David..

This is my thinking about your post. I don't need have to access all of my colleagues UDPs, I will have access to only the ones I already have and copied to my computer. Number 1 and 2 from your post is the problem generally speaking, but I was talking from ours company point of view. Smile Let me explain. We use,lets say 200 products total in all our projects. The goal is to make them in the way that suits our needs. Maybe we want bigger letters, different colours, no need for 20 inputs on some monitors,different look for monitor or some other products etc... So we would have some rules of how we will create our products and change yours. Regarding that there will never be products that some of my colleagues will not use. We are company of 10, 4 project design engineers, so in light of that we all have the same task. Fill in the library with products that suits our needs the best. I understand this is problem from your point of view, and from the point of view of many others with much more project designers. I was just looking at our needs and based on that, gave some ideas. (maybe little selfish)

So somehow the best way maybe it is for the shared UDP library in on some cloud. But how can we all fill in that library and work from there? Again speaking from our point of view, we know everyone of our products numbers and markings, so there wont be double products in shared library, but I understand that can be the problem in companies with many employees.

Maybe solution is that like with manufacturer synchronization, we have some big UDP library,lets say on some cloud, and when we want some device, we go in that library, have search option, find the products we need,and import,sync them with our library on our computers. If there is 2 devices with same product number, and you want to save them both, for instance, I made a block that suits my need more,i don't like my colleagues block for this product (i am looking this from a general point of view,not my company) we can save that UDP,with the same name and only adding number 1,number 2 etc if there are already 2 products with the same name, at the end of the name. So when some of my colleagues is looking for that products, they will see several products with the same name and only with numbers at the end, and he can use which ever he finds the best for his project. That way there will not be overwritten products, just several products with same name and numbers at the end, Samsung B2230,Samsung B2230-1, Samsung B2230-2. Maybe this is bad example because it already has numbers in it,but you get where I was going with this.. Just like when you are downloading same file from net, from google chrome for example, when you download the file you already downloaded,it just puts (some number) at the end.
In that way we don't have problem with more people working on same product, cause all products will be saved, just with numbers on the end. There wont be any lost UDPs, everything will be in the main library. And we wont have the need to download all the library to our computers, just the ones we need, so that fixes the problem,if some of colleagues, put picture 10MB in some products. If i see it takes to lot of time to sync that product, i will only cancel that product.

Sorry for long post.
GO

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