Can someone help me with setting up a way to have two separated mapped drives but make it look like one?

[rwilliams]

Basically I have two Synology servers with Creo files on each one. One server has files anyone can access whereas the other is only US citizens. I was told it was a pain for the engineers to have two mapped drives in Creo so I am curious of what solutions out there exist for this. i am not familiar with Creo myself I only manage the two servers where the engineers store there data. Please help!

Thanks Guys!

[BenLoosli]

Are any of the files duplicated between the 2 servers?

How often do the have to switch between the 2 servers?

It is a little more difficult have multiple mapped drives, but not impossible. If the need to pull an assembly off one drive and its components off teh other drive, search paths will accomplish that.

There are utilities that will 'combine' multiple drives into a single mapping, but at that point I think you would lose the US/non-US segregation.

I am guessing you are not using a PDM system to manage your files. This would be easy with ACLs internal to teh vaulting of the files inside the PDM system.

[rwilliams]

Currently no files are duplicated. I am not sure how often they switch between servers because we just implemented the new server today. After it was up I was asked my some of the engineers about how to set up a creo mapping config that is a default config that would be used whenever anyone is given access to the program and the files. They dont like the idea of having to mapping drives on a case to case scenario. They want to everyone's Creo installation at the same location and have the server dish out permissions. There are several people who need to switch between different programs (drives) during a days time that this would greatly help. I dont think they are using "search paths" or PDM neither of which I am familiar with. When you say PDM you mean Windchill right? Someone mentioned it a while back but I have never set something like that up. Is it difficult?

[BenLoosli · Accepted solution]

Windchill will solve your drive issue as the software will locate the files for the engineers.

Setting up Windchill is not an easy task to do by yourself. even with trained Windchill consultants, it can take a few months to install, configure and train your users to use it. At a prior company, we used PTC as our consulting comany for the implementation for converting from Pro/Intralink to Windchill PDMLink and it took them 9 months! This was 10 years ago at PDMLink 7, so I know it is a little easier now. The 2 companies I have worked for since then have both been self-installed by the person I replaced. Lots of little things to clean up after that process. I heard the guy that did the install here spent over 1 year on the reading, documentation and configuration of the system. He just forgot to document what he had done while configuring the system and left no notes behind.

[rwilliams]

Great this is kind of what I was looking for. I have a facility engineer with with no IT experience telling me it should be easy to implement something like this within a week and that he would do it if he had the free time. Thank you!

[rwilliams]

I was just told they are moving to Windchill in the next couple months but need something to do in the interim. Could you explain search paths?

[Chris3]

How do I configure the search_pro CREO pro 3.0?

[msteffke]

Depending on the size of your company (# of users)  and the amount of Data, you might want to look into Windchill Essentials.   WC Essentials is a very simplified version of windchill that provides basic vaulting.   If at this point you never had a PDM it sounds like you might  be a good candiate.  Windchill essentials installs off a thumb drive and is supposed to be a very simplfied version of windchill.  Up and running in hours according to the ads I have seen.   Never used it myself, but some of the ad and videos they have make it look like a dream.    Most people don't use it because PTC didn't offer this version until the vast majority of the install base was already on Windchill pdmlink.  Its worth a look.   If you are just looking for vaulting Windchill PDMlink can be overkill.

[BenLoosli]

Mark has a good point about what level of Windchill you may need or want.

If you aere a small comapny and only need CAD vaulting, Windchill Essentials may be your best solution.

For a large company and only needing vaulting, check out Windchill/Intralink.

If you want to do full Product Lifecycle Management (Craddle to Grave) then Windchill/PDMLink will be your solution.

Each step up is a bit more complicated to implement.