It is a common practice in the engineering industry, especially the AEC industry to store design files in shared network folders so that multiple people may access them from the shared location and relationship between files can also be maintained. However, the accessibility of such shared folders is confined to the boundaries of their local area networks. But, in a typical construction project, people from many organizations needs access to such central repositories of files.
Many businesses work around this using FTP servers, between which files are moved when required. However, this is an error prone and inefficient way of working with files as large files may take very long time and lot of bandwidth for transfers; also, manual intervention is required for moving files between different stake holders at appropriate time. Failing this will give access to the wrong versions of designs to people, leading to catastrophic errors in construction or manufacturing.
Since moving such legacy repositories of files to WRENCH is an arduous process, a file explorer in WRENCH is introduced using which users can be given controlled access to file repositories from across different geographies.
Opening the file manager
File Manager can be opened from the Modules section in the global menu.
To open file manager
- Click Modules. In the options displayed click File Manager.
File Manager window is displayed.
Figure: File Manager window
In the left pane, shared folder for the selected project is displayed.
- Select a folder. Files in the folder are displayed.
Figure: Viewing folders
Following properties of the file will be displayed in the window.
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#
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Property
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Description
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1
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FILE ICON
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The icon corresponding to the file is displayed.
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2
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FILE NAME
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Name of the file
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3
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CREATED ON
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Created date as read from the folder details
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4
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MODIFIED ON
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Modified date as read from the folder details.
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5
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IN WRENCH
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If the file is registered in WRENCH, a green tick mark is displayed. Or else the column is left blank.
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6
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FOLDER PATH
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Path where the files are located is displayed here.
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Operations from the file manager
Different operations can be carried out on files in the file manager. All the operations can be carried out only on files that are not added to WRENCH.
Figure: File manager operations
Searching files
Search facility in File manager can be used to search the files based on file properties and file contents. If the Configured Drive/Folder is Indexed in ‘Windows Search’ and is available to WRENCH Server machine, users can search for file content by typing in the search field.
To search for files
- In the Search area enter a search criterion.
- Click the search icon.
Once search results are available, it will be displayed in the same place where the list of files is displayed. If no files are found, the result will be displayed as “No data to display.”
Sharing files
Share option in the file manager helps in sharing large file through a hyperlink sent through an email.
To share a file
- Select the file that is to be shared and in the tool bar click Share.
Send Mail window is displayed. In the mail content File Name, File Path and Internal and External link to download the files will be available.
Figure: Send Mail window
- Enter recipients for the mail and click Send Mail.
- On receiving the email, click on the link to first authenticate with WRENCH and then download the file.
Adding files to Wrench
Single or multiple files can be selected and added to WRENCH. Files once added cannot be added again.
To add files to Wrench
- Select single or multiple files.
- In the tool bar click Add to Wrench
Add to Wrench window is displayed.
Figure: Add to Wrench window
- Click OK to add the files to WRENCH.
For a single document WRENCH Single Document Addition window and for multiple documents, Multiple Document Addition window is displayed.
- Add the document to WRENCH using single or multiple document addition window.
Replacing files
File in the file manager can be replaced with a new version when required. This operation is not available for file that are added to Wrench.
To replace files
- Select the file that you want to replace.
- In the tool bar click Replace.
File Selection window is displayed.
- Select a file with the file name as same the file selected in file manager.
File in the file manager is replaced by the selected file.
Downloading files
Files in the file manager except files added to WRENCH can be downloaded.
To download files
- In the file manager select the file that is to be downloaded.
- In the tool bar click Download.
If Wrench Desktop Connector is installed, file is downloaded directly. Downloaded file is opened.
NOTE: If the opened file is edited and saved, changes are reflected in the source file also
