I got complains by colleagues I did not notify of changes I made in a drawing.
So the problem of checking drawings in and out, as well as the versioning of drawings became acute again.
I'm thinking of a system showing the status on the drawing and capable of setting the file properties to protected/unprotected.
It will probably be difficult to edit the file properties of the currently opened file. But I may try to open another application (excel?), which would take control of the vsd file as soon as it is closed
For the versioning, I wonder how much automation I should incorporate in my solution.
After a long working session, I often realize that I can't remember all the changes I made to the drawing.
Shall I write an event recorder?
Shall I make an entry form in which I add every new modification before I make them?
I'd by glad to read your suggestions.
Cheers,
Yacine
SharePoint offers an out-of-the box solution for the most use cases you describe here..
You may want to check out SharePoint Online for example ($5 per user per month)
You always see the actual version of the drawing in the web browser.
Notifications - when somebody modifies a drawing, all others who are related may be notified by email automatically.
Locking is done automatically when you open a document for editing, also the simultaneous editing of the same document is supported.
You get versioning support out of the box..
Why not?
Hi Nikolay,
You're right. SharePoint is a great tool, but we haven't got it yet at my company.
I could also use DB-Works to do the job, but I don't like it for several reasons.
I was looking for a solution to do it inside the document itself.
Since yesterday I started playing with the protect document option available from the drawing explorer, but wonder what it is protecting at all. There seems to be no changes whether I check the options or not.
You can do it online (https://products.office.com/en-us/sharepoint/sharepoint-online-collaboration-software), i.e. let M$ do the hosting, so that you don't need to install anything at the company (installation of this thing is not a piece of cake).
You can also join your organisation's domain, so that you get your organisation's users in the hosted environment and single-sign-on.
I would say, it's not that bad, especially if you don't need to maintain it (a bit slow maybe) :D
About the "protection" checkbox. I have found only one use of it :o
if you set a shape to be "protected from selection", then you still will be able to select it, unless you set that checkbox "protect shapes" in the document properties.
Probably the point is if you protect a shape from selection, then you can't select it anymore and thus you can't reset that flag back - that was the idea.
By the way, a "read-only" mode for a document would be great.
I mean, for example if Visio is not activated/activation expired it shows documents in this exactly "read-only" mode.
Why not enable setting that mode programmatically?
Hi Nikolay,
thanks for ideas.
1) Sending company data in the cloud is an absolute no go. I'll have to wait until we get sharepoint.
2) By protection I meant the document, not individual shapes. In the drawing explorer, if you right click the document, you get an option to protect it. There's an option to protect shapes, but it does not seem to do anything.
3) Protecting the FILE programmatically, would be a good idea, but I'm not aware yet how I could do it.
Here are some additional thoughts.
- As some users don't switch on their macros, the solution must be able to run without macros as well.
- Easiest would be to iterate through all shapes and set all protections on/off. The same for the page, there I could switch a flag, that another shape could use to display the status of the document. For users not using the macros the shapes can still be unprotected manually.
The creation of new shapes is however not protected by this method.
- Another approach could be to catch all the creation and modification events and block their further processing. This will not work if the user doesn't allow macros and the whole thing is probably too complex.
Where I used to work, the documents were just that, not interactive. As such, the original was not distributed, only copies. It took special authorization to check out and edit.
For schematics, only the responsible authority could edit. Each edit triggered a rev level increment and asked for summary of changes. Any change must be tightly controlled because of ripple down impact....layout, other users, cost, production impact, qualification tests, etc.
Wapperdude
Right. We have this process too, with our "mechanical" (?) drawings.
Prior to setting a drawing back as checked-in you'll think about the consequences of your changes, then decide whether it's a "silent" or official change. The latter meaning a lot of small tasks for a lot of colleagues.
With my P&IDs I still have a lot of freedom and hesitate about adopting this official workflow. I know I should, but ...
This being said, the problem is reduced to a pure visio-technical one.
What I did was to create a 1st or 2nd page, that contained a summary of changes...rev #, date, etc. Strictly my own volition, no automation. Think I embedded an Excel worksheet to force uniformity...date formats, etc.
For distribution, I sent PDFs, no one received an actual Visio file.
I slept over it and think I'll set up a tool according to the attached sketch.
Thanks for the help everybody, I'll try to remember to upload the tool once finished.
Cheers,
Yacine
Hi Yacine,
Quote
2) By protection I meant the document, not individual shapes. In the drawing explorer, if you right click the document, you get an option to protect it. There's an option to protect shapes, but it does not seem to do anything.
That's exactly the option I meant.
I.e. the shape "protect from selection" option and this "protect document shapes" option are meant to work together.
Means - suppose you set "protect from selection" on a shape. How do you re-set this option if you can't select the shape now? Here is where this document option "protect document shapes" comes into play. That is, if you have this option unchecked, then you will be able to select shapes even if they are protected from selection.
Quote
3) Protecting the FILE programmatically, would be a good idea, but I'm not aware yet how I could do it.
There is no perfect way, as far as I know. Locking layers/handling events and so on are all just workarounds which can be dismissed by power users. What I meant was, it would be nice to have
API developed by M$ which would allow to set a document to a "really-read-only" mode. The code to support that must be already in Visio, since Visio can show document in such" read-only" mode if you don't have a license.
About the SharePoint.
Well, you can try playing with it all by yourself in principle, and see if it could work for your company.
That is, sometimes it might be cheaper to just buy something that solves the problem than to develop the solution yourself.
Anyways, it would be interesting to check out your tool, if you share it ;)
I use a common server location for the Visio diagram.
A text file called "LockFile"is also resident on the common server location.
A text file called "Version File"is also resident on the common server location.
each client has a desktop launcher mechanism that compares the local diagram version to the server diagram version. The latest diagram is offered to the client.
Once downloaded, clients may make changes to the diagram by activating a mechanism to lock the lockfile on the common server. No client can upload their diagram to the common server unless he/she has initiated the locking of the Lockfile on the common server.
after editing the diagram, the client uploads the diagram to the common server, this process unlocks the lockfile and updates the version file on the common server.
my two bobs worth
Cliff
Quote from: cliff50 on March 03, 2015, 01:10:36 AM
my two bobs worth
Now, there's a saying that few will understand!
<why is there no "gasp of amazement icon?>
I use a similar method to that Cliff.
Although in my case the client can either pull down a copy of the latest diagram or lock the latest diagram. Otherwise 2 people may have the diagram, each in turn locks, modifies and returns it. So the first person would lose their change. Hopefully you are dealing with that in some way.
Quote from: Paul Herber on March 03, 2015, 08:11:19 AM
Quote from: cliff50 on March 03, 2015, 01:10:36 AM
my two bobs worth
Now, there's a saying that few will understand!
<why is there no "gasp of amazement icon?>
I was assuming that the bobs stand for the proverbial cents?
Quote from: Yacine on March 03, 2015, 03:58:03 PM
I was assuming that the bobs stand for the proverbial cents?
Close.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shilling (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shilling)
apolagies folks... a solitary "bob" is colloquial aussie slang for -> ten cents.
In this neck of the woods, to add comment to conversation, one adds his "two bobs worth" (far be it from me to over value my humble opinion). :)
Perhaps I should sign off now with a jingle -> "shave and hair cut , two bits" (or has inflation caught up with this saying)
cliff
Sorry, no offence meant. ;)
;D ;D :D