Best practices to manage Civil 3D projects at remote locations

Working on a Civil 3D project remotely over VPN can be very slow. This topic outlines requirements and best practices to work on a copy of a Civil 3D project that is not the master project. Along with these steps, it is critical to communicate with others working in the project how you intend to work in the copy, what your process for synchronizing is, and what files you are working on. Preventing multiple people from working in the same files in the same timeframe will eliminate the possibility of overwriting others' work.

Consider checking out a Civil 3D license. You need to check out a license if you won't be using VPN.

Term	Definition
Office	Wisconsin DOT office or office directly connected to the WisDOT network drive.
Network drive	A Local Area Network (LAN) drive (example: N:drive). A cloud service like BOX, Dropbox, etc is not a network drive.
Local drive	A hard drive directly connected to your computer.
Master project	Civil 3D project that is created on the office network drive.
Data Shortcut	A data shortcut is the mechanism used to create a data reference. The data shortcuts are listed at the bottom in the Civil 3D Toolspace Prospector.
Data Reference	A data reference is the actual object reference connection between the host and source drawings. Once a data reference is created, the data shortcut no longer needs to exist for the data reference to be valid. (Think of it like a shortcut on your desktop. You can delete the shortcut, but the application that it pointed to will still work.)
User 1	Project team member that creates new content in dwg or data shortcut, data reference.
User 2	Project team member that consumes and uses new content created by User 1.

Recommended Setup

Q: Can I work on my project(s) on the N drive through VPN?

A: It is technically possible to do this. Depending on your internet connection, the VPN traffic, and your level of patience, you might even find this a reasonable setup for tasks in small files. We do not recommend this setup for long-term work. Think of any tasks that take a long time in the office (plotting an entire plan set, working with corridors, surfaces, or ortho-images) and multiply that time by a very large number. File corruption due to connection dropouts is also possible when using VPN.

1. Make sure the local drive has enough space to store the Civil 3D project files. Minimum space required is 2x (twice) the size of the Civil 3D project files.
2. Make sure all XREFs are set to relative path.
   1. Windows Start > All Programs > Autodesk Civil 3D 20XX - English > Reference Manager to check
   2. Always use the relative path option for XREFs. This will make sure XREFs work even if the project is moved.
3. Before leaving the office, copy the entire project directory from the network (N: drive) to the C:\Civil 3D Projects folder.
4. The N drive project is the master. Your C drive is a copy. Always consider the office (N drive) project the master project. It is backed up to ensure against hardware failure, data corruption, etc.

Set Data Shortcuts Project Folder in Civil 3D

1. Open Civil 3D
2. Set Working Folder
   1. Toolspace > Prospector > Right-click Data Shortcuts > Set Working Folder...
   2. Browse to C:\Civil 3D Projects
   3. Select Folder
3. Set Data Shortcuts Project Folder
   1. Toolspace > Prospector > Right-click Data Shortcuts > Set Data Shortcuts Project Folder...
   2. Select Project ID
   3. OK

4. Continue working in the project or exit Civil 3D

See Repairing data shortcuts and data references if broken data references occur or contact CAE Support.

See the Autodesk help documentation Data Shortcut Projects for additional information.

Virtual Private Network (VPN)

Possible reasons to connect to VPN from a Civil 3D perspective:

• A Civil 3D license has not been borrowed, so Civil 3D needs to access the software license through VPN
• Back up design files on the network

• Sharing information - Other people are creating and/or using Civil 3D files for the project

Possible scenario when not connecting to VPN:

• A Civil 3D license needs to be borrowed while in the office or while previously connected through VPN
• Files only exist on your computer and back up design files will not be on the network
• Files do not need to be shared with others during remote work

Communication

When two versions of the same file exist

If someone worked in the same file as you while you were away, consider alternatives for moving your work back to the server project:

1. Change the file name and keep both versions. See Repairing data shortcuts and data references
2. Transfer data by LandXML from one file to the other. See Repairing data shortcuts and data references

Recreating Data Shortcuts

Q: If I move my local dwg file to the N-drive project master location, how do I include any data shortcuts that I created for that dwg?

A: It is important to understand the difference between data shortcuts and data references. A data shortcut is the mechanism used to create a data reference. The data shortcuts are listed at the bottom in the Civil 3D Toolspace Prospector. A data reference is the actual object reference connection between the host and source drawings. Once a data reference is created, the data shortcut no longer needs to exist for the data reference to be valid. (Think of it like a shortcut on your desktop. You can delete the shortcut, but the application that it pointed to will still work.)

So what does this mean for working on projects remotely? If you create data shortcuts in the local copy of the project, those data shortcuts will not be created in the N-drive copy of the project. However, when you copy a dwg from your local drive to the N-drive, the data reference connections will still work as long as the source drawings are located in the same relative location in the N-drive project.

Options for recreating Data Shortcuts

Option 1 (not recommended): Copy the drawing to the N-drive. Then set your working folder to the N-drive and create the data shortcut. You will find this process to be very slow. Civil 3D may appear to be “unresponsive” for several minutes or more depending on the VPN connection speed.

Option 2: Copy the drawing to the N-drive. Copy the corresponding shortcut xml file to the N-drive. Communicate to the team that the shortcut was created so everyone can download the new xml file to their local copy of the project.

Option 3: Copy the drawing to the N-drive. Don’t worry about creating data shortcuts for the N-drive copy at this time. They can be created as-needed when the team is back working in the office. If there are others working on the same project remotely, they can create the data shortcut(s) for their local project as-needed.

See Repairing data shortcuts and data references if broken data references occur or contact CAE Support.

See the Autodesk help documentation Data Shortcut Projects for additional information.

Copying files between the local drive and network drive

Use Windows File Explorer to copy and paste files between the local drive (C drive) and the network drive (N drive). Copying files using the drag and drop method is not preferred since it introduces the possibility of copying files to an unintended or unknown location, but is an option based on comfort level.

Remember to keep in communication with others as to who is working in which files and when!

1. Copy individual files and directories as needed except the _Shortcuts folder from the local drive to the network.
2. Copy individual shortcut xml files for newly created data shortcut to _Shortcuts folder. Example:
   1. User 1 updates a dwg and creates a shortcut locally.
   2. User 1 uploads the dwg to the N-drive and also uploads the shortcut xml.
   3. User 1 notifies the team that the dwg was updated and that they uploaded the shortcut xml.
   4. User 2 downloads the new dwg to their local project.

   5. User 2 downloads the new shortcut xml to their project.

Batch Files

The steps above can be automated with batch files. Below are examples of batch files that can be created to automate file copying. The code below will not overwrite newer files. See robocopy documentation for all options.

1. Copy the text files to your local PC.
2. Change the project id for your actual project.
3. Add a new line for each project you are working on.
4. Rename the .txt extension to .bat

5. Right-mouse click on the file and select “Run as administrator”

   

6. Run the Push or Pull batch file.

Pull-ProjectFiles-ToPC.txt

Push-ProjectFiles-ToLAN.txt

A possible workflow to keep files synchronized would be:

1. At the beginning of a day
   1. VPN
   2. Pull-ProjectFiles-ToPC.bat
   3. Disconnect from VPN
2. Work in Civil 3D project throughout the day
3. At the end of a day
   1. VPN
   2. Push-ProjectFiles-ToLAN.bat
   3. Disconnect from VPN

And remember to keep in communication with others as to who is working in which files and when!

Warning: This workflow would replicate C drive Data Shortcut XML files that would need to be replaced with N drive versions.

Contact CAE Support for further assistance on copying files and data shortcuts.

Review that all local design files developed by the project team have been copied to the network. See Recommendations when working remote #recommend above for additional information on updating project files.

Set Data Shortcuts Project Folder in Civil 3D

1. Open Civil 3D
2. Set Working Folder
   1. Toolspace > Prospector > Right-click Data Shortcuts > Set Working Folder...
   2. Browse to N:\PDS\C3D\
   3. Select Folder
3. Set Data Shortcuts Project Folder
   1. Toolspace > Prospector > Right-click Data Shortcuts > Set Data Shortcuts Project Folder...
      1. Select Project ID
      2. OK

4. Continue working in the project or exit Civil 3D

See Repairing Data References if broken data references occur or contact CAE Support.

See the Autodesk help documentation Data Shortcut Projects for additional information.

Final steps

1. Verify all the data has been copied from the local drive to the network drive
2. Verify the network drive project is working as anticipated
3. Create a zip of project from local drive and delete the project in C:\Civil 3D Projects