Local Workspace

Local Workspace is the name for a folder on client computers that contains copies made by the Meridian client applications of recently accessed vault documents. The folder also contains a small database that tracks the files that are contained in the Local Workspace. 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 Meridian application or file server. 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 Meridian 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.

  Note:

  You can confirm that a document is being opened from Local Workspace by examining the Local Copy property on the Document property page of the document in PowerUser. The property will contain the modification date and time of the file.

• 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 an application, it is made writable and the document is locked in the Meridian vault against change by other users.
• The user manually synchronizes property or reference data using the commands in PowerUser.

Files will be copied to the Local Workspace if they do not yet exist or if the versions in Local Workspace are older than the versions 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 Meridian 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 Meridian application server or file server.
• There is much less network traffic when viewing, opening, or saving files, which increases 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.

Large assemblies or other complex related documents cause a lot of network traffic when viewed or opened in their applications because all related documents must be opened before the composite document can be viewed or opened. Therefore, we always recommend implementing Local Workspace in such circumstances.