AutoCad 2011 office install

[U.Rackharrow]

Hi,

Up till now our office has comprised a number of installs of AutoCad - mainly 2008 - as stand alones but using a network licence. This means that everyone's customisations and palettes etc. are not being shared. What I would like is a common support folder on a network drive with a main cuix file so that specialist toolbars, icons, workspaces, linetypes and palettes are available to all. We intend to roll out 2011 across the office soon and would like to implement this common folder system. Is this possible/workable and if so is there a step by step procedure available to manage this process?

[BlackBox]

That's a loaded question, my friend. LoL

We've been using a setup for years, admittedly one that is tailored to our needs, but one that incorporates the single network location for Enterprise support files you're interested in, as well as a Personal network space location for users to manage their own customizations.

The Enterprise support files exist in a network location, that I and a few others have write-access to. We use a shell profile (ARG) that is loaded with a customized application icon, which primarily includes the Enterprise, Main CUI(x), and a an additional file path for Support Files Search Paths (SFSP) for our ACAD.lsp - we manage the profile thereafter via ACAD.lsp programmatically. This way, anytime there's a change to the profile, the user literally only needs to restart the application and all changes are applied, without the need to delete the profile, and import the new, etc.

The Personal network space is where we've mapped user specific files, ACAD.pgp, CUSTOM.cui(x), custom icon location, and the like. We alos include in our ACADDOC.lsp (stored with the Enterprise files) a load statement for a user named LISP file, to build in any user customizations:

((lambda (user / file)
   (if (setq file (findfile (strcat user ".lsp")))
     (load file)))
  (getvar 'loginname))

Now, obviously there are *some* performance issues that one can anticipate loading several files from network locations, depending on your network connectivity (10/100/1000?), and workstation specifications. Thankfully, we're blessed to work with a gigabit LAN in-office, and very fast hardware with Windows 7 64-Bit. That certainly can be a factor in just how much you place on the network.

Another point to consider, is at least in our case, we have some users with PC, and others (like myself) that use laptops. I previously used BAT files, etc. to copy file locally for when I work at home (nights, weekends), as our VPN is ridiculously slow. Now I'm working with "Offline Files" via Sync Center, and am enjoying it's benefits very much.

HTH

[j_follett_88]

Get the system administrator to administer the files across the domain( assuming you have windows server) ad have them locally installed when the AutoCad installs allowing them to be local but at the same time centralized. or have them all saved locally and have bat run at login to check for differences and updates. (for templates, CTB, and lisps)