I just read an article on why the nested folder Finder on Mac OSX may be going away as time with "Tiger" moves forward. There are valuable hints in there for all software and particularly for SolidWorks.
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That made me wonder, why doesn't SolidWorks ship with something that lets an individual computer do document management?
Enough of us SolidWorks users use a single machine or do development on a single machine before it moves to a network, that it sure seems we need that type of function built into SolidWorks, or as a simple add-on.
Actually, it sounds like you're talking about PDMWorks. It ships with SW and can do file management on a single computerm and is a simple add in. Am I missing something or does this fit the bill?
I use Pdmworks on the local "working" PC, for development work, then check-in everything into the main Pdmworks vault, stored on a "server", when I am happy. This keeps the filing system tidy, this in turn keeps the "server's", pdmworks vault tidy. Note, the "server", can be any bog standard PC. When I have checked-in everything, into the "server" Pdmworks vault , I then clean the "working" PC's vault and start again.
You can have as many Pdmworks vaults, as you want, where you want, as long as there is only one vault, on any PC. There is a way to have two or more vaults on one PC, but that then, gets a bit complicated and confusing, lol.
The advantages of having a "local" vault, with the main vault on a "server", are:- You only have to backup one machine,(the server), note:-with the Pdmworks vault services stopped. You do backup, don't you? You can carry on working in you local vault, whilst the server backup is in progress. You can backup the local machine's vault, (note:-with the Pdmworks vault services stopped), very quickly, as it is small. If you mess up, only the local vault gets messed up. When checking in your new project into the main vault, you can start at whatever revision you want. (remember to un-tick the documents, that you don't want to check-in). When reinstalling or updating your local machine, you do not have to worry, about the vault data getting corrupted. If your local machine HD dies, your "server" vault data is safe. And the best reason, is that the local vault is small, therefore, it is easier to find documents, whilst doing development work.
When installed on a single computer ( as in my case ). It operates the pdmworks server as a service of windows. Does not seem to be overly large overhead to run the service, 20-30 meg of memory and negligable cpu useage when not actively using. Gives great check-in times when in this configuration .
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