How To Relocate An Existing SOLIDWORKS Vault View To Another Drive
SOLIDWORKS
How To Relocate An Existing Vault View To Another Drive
You may find that you need to relocate your local Vault View from its current location to another folder or disk for a number of reasons. Some common reasons are:
- Running out of space on your local storage drive
- Moving the vault folder location for consistency between computers
- Accommodating security policies that prevent new folders from being created in the root of the C:\ drive
Important Considerations for determining Vault View locations
It is recommended to use the same Vault View location for all users of a PDM vault to avoid reference errors in non-SOLIDWORKS files. This might include Excel spreadsheets with external data links, 3rd-party CAD files, etc.
For example, if User 1 has a vault view path of “C:\PDM Vault\” and User 2 has a vault view path of “C:\Users\User 2\Documents\PDM Vault\”, documents saved by User 1 referencing external documents in the vault will generate errors when opened by User 2.
Option 1 – Use “Clear cache during log out” to free up space
If you have a large number of non-SOLIDWORKS files with external references in your vault you may want to consider a different approach, such as enabling the “Clear cache during log out” for some or all folders in the vault. This will free up disk space by removing cached files that are not checked out by the current user. This can be done on a per-folder basis as well, so if you have design library folders, Toolbox, etc. you can omit those folders from this option so that these files do not have to be downloaded from the server for each session.
This setting can be enabled in the “Administration” tool on a Group or User level. If you are not a PDM Administrator please contact your PDM Administrator to request for this change to be made.
- Double-clicking on the Group or User name
- Select the “Cache Options” node
- Select the root of the vault (or appropriate folders) and enable the “Clear cache during log out” option
- Click “OK” to save and close the Group/User Properties screen
Option 2 – Move the vault view location
If you determine that moving the vault view is the correct action to take, there is a three step process to be completed:
- Check In All Documents
- Delete The Existing Vault View
- Create a New Vault View in the Desired Location
Check In All Documents
- From the root folder of the vault view, select all files and folders
- Click the “Check In” button
- Complete the “Check In” process
- Ensure all files are checked in completely by repeating steps 1-2. If the following message appears, click “OK” and continue with the process
Delete the Existing Vault View
- Move up one folder in Windows Explorer
- Right-click on the vault view folder and select “Delete File Vault View”
- Select “Delete the cached file vault files and folders from the local hard disk” and click the “Delete” button
- Click “Yes” to confirm that you wish to delete all local files
- Click “Yes” to accept any User Account Control messages that may appear
- You may receive a notification that some files will be removed after rebooting. Ensure that you restart the computer and verify that the files have been removed to clear disk space
Create a New Vault View in the Desired Location
- On the Start menu, start typing “View Setup” and select the “View Setup” app. Click “Yes” to accept the User Account Control prompt (this enables the app to run as Administrator which prevents undesirable behavior)
- Click “Next” to begin the vault view creation process
- If your server is listed, click the selection box to select it and click next
If your server is not listed, click the “Add…” button to manually enter the server name and port number and click “Next”
- Select the check box next to the vault you wish to create a new view for and click “Next”
- Type in or click “Browse…” to select the new location for the vault view (note that a folder with the same name as the vault will be created in this location, so if you enter “D:\” your vault folder would be named “D:\PDM Vault” in this example)
- Select the “For all users on this computer” option and click “Next”
- Click “Finish” to complete the vault view creation
- If successful the status will change to “Completed”, click the “Close” button to complete the process
- If the view creation was unsuccessful the “Show Error…” button will be enabled, click on this button to review errors and provide this information to your PDM Administrator and/or MLC-CAD support representative
Technical Support
We hope you found this information valuable! If you have any follow-up questions, get help from our team by Calling us at 800-364-1652 x 2, Emailing us at solidworkssupport@mlc-cad.com, or Clicking here for SOLIDWORKS Technical Support. You can also contact us about Training.