Project Explorer

This tool is used for management of a complete project. A project can contain multiple drawings, and each drawing within that project can contain multiple associated data files.

Think of the Project Explorer as the trunk of the hierarchical tree structure that develops into a project as illustrated below:

As you work in a drawing, Carlson keeps track of the files that you create (such as TIN and coordinates files). These are related to the drawing and you can use the Drawing Explorer to manage them. The Project Explorer is used to manage multiple drawings. In the following illustration, two views of the same Project are displayed:
Project Explorer Controls
Control Action
Adds a drawing and its data file(s) into the project.
Removes the selected file(s) along with any "child" (subordinate) files from the project. Note that removing a data category or file at the "project" level also removes the category or file at the "drawing" level.
Creates a report through the Report Formatter Options dialog box. The Report Formatter can be used to move to the Available entries on the left to the Used area on the right. When coupled with the Up/Down options to control the order, highly customized reports can be generated and saved for subsequent use. Click the Display to obtain the report.
The Change Directory option allows you to instruct Carlson Software to re-direct the location for files from an old folder location to a new folder location. This option is helpful if project data files are manually moved to a new folder location.
The Settings button allows you to create Categories of file types and assign data files to a particular Category and assign how project data files are presented in the Project Explorer.
The Refresh button re-reads the current Project file along with the various Drawing file settings and updates the Project listing appropriately.
Exits from the Project Explorer command.
Displays the on-line help.

Project History

The project history/log report file can be generated using Report button. The Project Explorer tracks all the data files used with the project. The report function also uses the data file information logged with the Carlson Data Depot. The program allows you to report all revisions or only the last commit on all project files from Carlson Data Depot. The information reported include project file, drawing name, file category, file path, file name, file type, date, time, size, revision, author, date committed and commit message along with project properties (i.e. company name, project name etc). Here's a sample report.

Company Name              : Carlson

Project Name              : Data Depot

Project Description       : Date Depot Description

Project Due Date          : Jun 11, 2010

File Name File Type                       Size   Revision Author       Date Committed    Message 

EXAMPLE1  Centerline Files (.cl)          376    16       Carlson.User 05/10/10 16:50:30

EXAMPLE1  Coordinate Files (.crd)         116480 29       Carlson.User 05/10/10 16:51:08

EXAMPLE1  Grid Files (.grd)               99568  12       Carlson.User 05/10/10 16:50:18

NEWTRI    Triangulation Mesh Files (.tin) 63822  25       Carlson.User 05/10/10 16:50:59

ROADS     Profile Files (.pro)            64     21       Carlson.User 05/10/10 16:50:45

Linking A Project to Carlson Data Depot

Linking a project to the Carlson Data Depot requires that you properly configure the Data Depot through the Set Project/Data Folders command and then open a drawing and assign it to a Project (.PRJ) file. If a project is not linked to the Data Depot, a question mark is overlaid on all the files and folders under that project as shown:

To link a project to the Data Depot, perform the following steps:

  1. Right click on the Project File name (the "trunk" of the Project Explorer tree) and select Link to Data Depot command:
  2. This will bring up the "Project to Link to" window. The window you see depends upon whether you are using SVN or ProjectWise as your Data Depot Repository.
    1. SVN: This window shows the existing projects under the repository, if any. A new project folder can be created under Carlson Data Depot Repository by using the Create Folder button. Sub-folders can be created by using the Create Folder button while top folder selected. Select the folder you want to create the project under and click OK:
    2. ProjectWise - Step 1: This window shows the existing projects under the repository, if any. A new project folder can be created by right clicking on the ROOT entry of the repository tree:
    3. ProjectWise - Step 2: Name the new project, select it from the list and click the OK button.

  4. This will prompt you to Add to Data Depot window where you can enter a log message to identify what you are doing. This information will be added to the history log. Click OK to start adding files to the project repository:
  5. A status window will appear showing the message for files that have been tasked to be added to the repository:
  6. Once the files are linked to the Data Depot, the status/icon in the tree view is changed:

When new files are created inside the project, they are shown as not linked to the Data Depot (using the question mark icon) and can later be linked to the Data Depot by right clicking and using the Add to Data Depot command.

Data Depot File Status

The following shows the icons used in the Project Explorer tree for representing the state of files in the Data Depot:

Data Depot Commands

Add Existing Files: Allows the user to select an existing data file from local storage which will be added to the project and the Data Depot. The data file will be associated (placed under) the currently selected drawing.

Remove: Removes the selected file from the project without removing it from the Data Depot.

Properties: Brings up the system file properties dialog.

Add to Data Depot: Incorporates the selected file(s) into the Data Depot.

Update from Data Depot: Gets the last committed version of the selected file(s) from the Data Depot.

Update XREF's: Gets the last committed version of any XREF files associated with the selected drawing.

Commit to Data Depot: Incorporates locally modified/locked file(s) that are already part of the Data Depot into the Data Depot.

Purge Local Copies: Deletes the selected file from the local storage leaving it in the Data Depot and the project. The local copy can be restored later by using the "Update from Data Depot" command.

Edit Mode (Lock): Locks the selected file(s) for local editing and prevents others from modifying the file(s). If the drawing or data file is newer in the Data Depot than on local storage this command will be disabled.

Read-Only Mode (Unlock): Unlocks the selected file(s) so that they may be edited by others.

History: Displays the history log of changes made to the selected file.

Clean (project level only): "Cleans" the project of items that don't exist in both the Data Depot and local storage.

Once the project has been added to the Data Depot, it can be quickly updated or accessed by other users and be ready for use via the Get Project from Data Depot command:

Notes on locking/unlocking project files when using Subversion repository

Subversion locking of the file is specific to the specific working folder - the file in a particular checked out set of files. Same user working on another copy of file in different folder or on different computer will not own the lock. External subversion clients have additional lock functionality which not exposed through Carlson Data Depot interface for purposes of simplicity. These clients will have options for stealing lock (placing the lock on file already locked at different location or by different user) and forcing lock (unlocking a lock placed at different location or by different user). In a productive collaborative environment such design allows on one hand to prevent accidental editing of the file which is locked by another user and causing a situation when one of the users has to abandon his changes, but on the other it allows to move forward if file is locked accidentally and file needs to be re-locked elsewhere.

In the case when this design is not sufficiently strict, it is possible to override this behavior by implementing server-side hooks which change the default behavior. Here is the example of pre-unlock script for VisualSVN which limits lock overrides to original user or to user called Administrator:
@echo off
setlocal
set REPOS=%1
set RPATH=%2
set USER=%3
set SVNLOOK=%PROGRAMFILES%\VisualSVN Server\bin\svnlook.exe
set TMPFILE=%temp%/lockinfo

rem Creating a temporary file with output of the lock, filtering everything except owner out
"%SVNLOOK%" lock "%REPOS%" "%RPATH%" | find "Owner" > %TMPFILE%
rem Parsing the file looking for owner name only
FOR /F "usebackq tokens=2" %%A IN (%TMPFILE%) DO set LOCK_OWNER=%%A

del %tmpfile%

if "%LOCK_OWNER%"=="" goto GOOD
if "%LOCK_OWNER%"=="%USER%" goto GOOD
rem  Only Administrator can break the lock
if "Administrator"=="%USER%" goto GOOD

echo "Permission denied! Ask Administrator for assistance" 1>&2
endlocal
exit 1

:GOOD
endlocal
exit 0
Simply paste this script into the hook window by going into VisualSVN Server Manager, right-clicking over repository, All Tasks, Manage Hooks, double-click pre-unlock hook.  

Pulldown Menu Location: File > Project
Keyboard Command: prjxplore
Prerequisite: None