Apologies for the delay in replying to this post, caused by a backend system failure.

In Stardraw Design 7.3 the UDP database file is located at:
C:\Users\[UserName]\AppData\Roaming\Stardraw.com Ltd\Stardraw Design 7.3\1.0.0.0\[UserGUID].sdf

However, you should never need to access this file because it is synchronized up to your personal Cloud storage account whenever you make a local change to your UDPs, and automatically synchronized down to the local machine as part of the startup procedure for Stardraw Design 7.3. A re-synch can be forced be choosing Tools | Sync User Defined Products; this can be useful when different users are working at the same time and one user has created a new UDP while the other is in the middle of a session and wants immediate access to the new UDP.


Kind regards,
Rob Robinson
Stardraw.com

+x

 

David Snipp - 2/7/2012 6:30:51 PM

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.

Resurrecting this thread for Windows 10. I've looked and searched for this file on my machine and it seems the file structure is totally different. Where can I find my user products on a machine running Windows 10. 

Thank you!

David,

The cloud idea appears to have some useful benefits and may very well be a more automated solution. I have a few questions however before I can form a solid opinion on the idea.

Our needs would require a single main UDP library that everyone would have access to. This library would be the default library that has everything our employees would need to create a drawing. They would not require individually tailored libraries as most drawings produced here use the same product library so users would not need to modify the main database in the way you have described. The only typical updates to the main UDP library would be the few times a year when new products would be added, but these would be products that would be needed by all and not only a select few, hence it would be a main library update.

The ideal solution would allow an assigned "administrator" type user to edit the main UDP library in order to add the new UDP's. Each time our employees signed on to StarDraw it would push the new main library to their program where on the very rare occassion they could make temporary edits to the main library products in a fashion similar to using the unlock tool. The main library would also have a ability to be downloaded to users computers in preparation for offline access but would reset back to the main library once internet connection was once again established.

If this configuration could be achieved using your cloud UDP sharing idea it would be a service that would be very useful to us. With regards to supporting this as a paid service that is a topic our management to discuss once it can be determined that it will work for our purposes.

Thank you for your feedback David.

-Eric

Thank you for all your feedback.

I do think the best solution is for your UDP libraries to be automatically uploaded to the cloud and when you log on to another machine, for those UDPs to be synchronized down to that local machine.

So, for example, I can create a UDP on my work computer and then run Stardraw Design 7 on my laptop with a temporary internet connection and those UDPs are synchronized onto the laptop so that I can use them offline. I can also log on from my home computer and have those UDPs synchronized to that computer too.

In addition to this automatic synchronizing, you will have the ability to "share" your UDP libraries either with everyone or with specific users. Your UDP libraries will then appear on those users machines as "Online Libraries\Your User Name". Note that they are only available while you have an Internet connection and are not synchronized locally. You can add those UDPs to your project and copy and paste them within and across projects and even create your own UDPs based on someone elses UDPs, which are then synchronized to all your machines - as if you had created them yourself.

Another big advantage of this cloud service is that your UDPs are automatically backed up. If you lose your laptop or have to reformat your hard disk or your hard disk fails, then we will have kept an offsite backup for you. In fact, internally, we would have kept 6 copies of your data in 2 seperate geo-locations so your data will be super-safe.

However, this service will have to be charged for as we will incur costs to provide that service. To be honest, we don't know what the charge will be, but it will probably be a relatively low monthly fee for an unlimited number of UDPs and unlimited usage.

Does the proposed service give you what you need or is there something we have missed?

We would develop this service and enter a Beta program as quickly as possible providing free, unlimited access while the service was perfected. Once the service was completed, the monthly service fee would kick in.

What we would like to know is - is this something that you would pay for? If so, how much? What monthly fee is reasonable for a professionally supported, online service?

Here is one thing that I can promise: If there is a very positive response to a reasonable monthly service fee, then this will get a very high development priority.

David Snipp
Stardraw.com Ltd

Or mine?

Any new ideas from your side?

David,

Do you have anything you can add regarding my last post?

Thanks.

-Eric

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

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

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