Understanding Local Workspace

Local Workspace is a folder on client computers that contains copies made by the ImandrA client applications of recently accessed vault documents. The folder also contains a database that tracks the files that are contained in the Local Workspace. Local Workspace does not exist on the server computer. As documents are checked out or viewed, they are copied to the user’s Local Workspace folder for use, thus providing a local caching mechanism. A document will be copied to Local Workspace if it is accessed under the following circumstances:

• If a document is selected for viewing. This will also copy all referenced files. The files are made read-only in Local Workspace. The first time this is done, the user will see no benefit because the files are downloaded from the ImandrA application or file server whether they are accessed by Direct vault access or Local Workspace. However, if the user views one of these files again later, the performance will be dramatically improved because the file and all its references are retrieved from Local Workspace instead of from the ImandrA application server or file server. This is particularly important when viewing large or complex 3D model files such as created by Autodesk Inventor or SolidWorks.

• If a document is checked out by a user for editing. The file and its references are initially copied to Local Workspace read-only. However, when the document is opened for editing in the application, it is made writable and the document is locked in the ImandrA vault against change by other users.

Files will be copied to the local disk if it does not exist in Local Workspace or if the version in Local Workspace is older than the version in the vault.

Changed documents in the Local Workspace are synchronized with the vault in the background at a time interval set by the user. This is an important difference between ImandrA and a simple manual check-out/check-in system. The synchronization is automatic, transparent to the users, and secure.

Local Workspace has the following advantages:

• There is less load on the ImandrA application server or file server.
• There is much less network traffic when viewing, opening, or saving files, giving increased performance.
• Larger data files such as complex assembly models open much faster.

Of course, there are also some disadvantages:

• If a conflict occurs during synchronization, user intervention is needed to take the appropriate action.
• Referenced documents cannot be found if the references do not exist in the vault.