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Matt
Joined: 13 Apr 2004
Posts: 389
Location: Sterling, Virginia
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 Posted: Fri Jul 23, 2004 6:37 am Post subject: Reference files can be improved |
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we have two or three people working on the same set of files.. one of them wants to use a reference file for the titleblock. that means that every time someone else wants to open the file, PowerCADD can't find the reference file and the poor victim needs to tediously navigate to the reference titlebock. The poor victim (me) is convinced that this characteristic alone makes reference files too tedious to use.
Are we setting things up wrong? Why should the reference file be located according to the users location, rather then in relation to the source file? |
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Bill Stanley
Joined: 15 Apr 2004
Posts: 315
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| Posted: Fri Jul 23, 2004 12:30 pm Post subject: |
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It seems like a reasonable question. What should the rules be for storing files?
Bill Stanley |
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Matt
Joined: 13 Apr 2004
Posts: 389
Location: Sterling, Virginia
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| Posted: Fri Jul 23, 2004 12:42 pm Post subject: |
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| don't move 'em. |
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ms
Joined: 14 Apr 2004
Posts: 613
Location: Naples, Florida
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| Posted: Sat Jul 24, 2004 5:01 am Post subject: |
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Very funny, Matt. True, though.
Some thinking-out-loud on this:
I have previously suggested a very simple thing, copied from the way Adobe's GoLive, which has an option to ignore the absolute path and to use the relative path. Of course, in the case of a web program this is essential, but I think it's applicable to reference files.
Sounds simple but it's not.
Example: say your files [both parent and child] live in a directory like this:
a/b/c/d/e/child.pd5.
a/b/c/d/e/parent.pd5
To make a relative reference, you have to 'cut off' part of the path string. Where do you cut it?
I am suggesting that when you load a child file, that it looks no further than the current directory. So, when the child starts looking for the parent, in the above example, it looks only in ...e/...
[There are problems with this, not the least of which is the fact that you might want to keep child files and parent files in different directories, as I do, for example, for project stationary files or for title blocks.]
Perhaps this could be expanded and made a little more flexible at the same time.
I wonder if the child could look for the parent file starting with the directory of the child file, then moving up the directory tree [this idea has some merit but has obvious problems].
Another approach would be to limit the number of folders traversed in searching for the parent file. In other words, this configuration would not break:
//c/d/parent.pd5
//c/d/e/child.pd5
So PC would look in the current directory, and would look in 'n' higher directories.
Perhaps the simplest idea is this: when a file is opened and the child starts looking for the parent, it does this by using the parent path that it knows about. The child also knows it's own path. Could the child simply compare the two paths? and where they diverge, discard the part of the path that disagree? this would account for the case where a directory and sub-directories have been moved, but would not account for the case where a single child has been removed, however. It could also result in finding the wrong file as the parent, if there is a file with the same name, but this could easily be user-checked: "PowerCadd found this file; is this correct?"
I am out of ideas.
–ms |
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Matt
Joined: 13 Apr 2004
Posts: 389
Location: Sterling, Virginia
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| Posted: Sat Jul 24, 2004 12:56 pm Post subject: |
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why can't the reference file location be stored in relation to the referring file?
ii.e. a file setup like this:
Server>Docs>JobX>CDs>referringFile
Server>Docs>TemplateFiles>referenceFile
so PowerCADD, when it opens referringFile, knows to look back up to the Docs folder and then down to referenceFile.
So if I connect to the server as IdiotUserOne>Server etc etc
and somebody else connects as BuffonTwo>Server,
PowerCADD would append the appropriate path components to the filespec...
Dunno, it seems like if PowerCADD deleted all the filespec info that is common to both the referringFile and the referenceFile, it would work -- even if the files were moved, as long as they stayed in the same relationship to each other.... |
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Derek
Joined: 13 Apr 2004
Posts: 568
Location: Melbourne, Australia
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| Posted: Sat Jul 24, 2004 3:19 pm Post subject: |
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Could you also have a preference setting at the PowerCADD level where you could specify one or more directories to look in if a referenced file can't be found?
This would just be a back up to the default referencing system that others are discussing here but it might help. |
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Matt
Joined: 13 Apr 2004
Posts: 389
Location: Sterling, Virginia
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| Posted: Sat Jul 24, 2004 5:32 pm Post subject: |
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| ..on further thought, I think it would have to delete everything that was identical in the two filespecs, EXCEPT for the first directory they shared in common. Maybe. |
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ms
Joined: 14 Apr 2004
Posts: 613
Location: Naples, Florida
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| Posted: Sun Jul 25, 2004 6:25 am Post subject: |
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Derek and Matt: Your ideas are simpler than mine. I wonder what Bill has to say.
By the way, one thing that helps work around the current setup is aliases. Lots of times, for example, I'll have a large master plan that is the source file for several different projects, each of which are in unique folders. An alias of the source file in each project file works nicely and really resolves the issue of moving because moved aliases are much smarter about remembering the location of the original than referencing.
–ms |
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