Managing MicroStation backup directories

Original Article Date: Jan 28, 2005

Another great article from Juan Auces of Parsons Brinckerhoff, this article explores the importance of backing up your MicroStation project data and offers a script to add to your configuration which may help simplify the backup process.

All CADD projects should have backup directories designated for every user, it should be part of your CADD compliance efforts because there are several benefits:

• It keeps backup files off the project directory.
• Users will be more inclined to clean out dated files
• Ability to determine who created the backup files
• Aide in averting overwriting another user backup files

Backup files normally have a short life cycle and should be deleted. The user that created the backup is the best judge of when or if a backup file can be deleted. If you let backups sit on the project directory they will tend to get forgotten and unmanaged. Using a backup system also helps avert two users overwriting each others backup file(s). For example if User_1 creates a backup of file1.dgn it gets stored as file1.bak in the project directory, then User_2 creates a backup of the same file, (s)he will overwrite the User_1 version.

You can avert this by implementing a plan that will redirect the back up files to a predetermined directory based on the login (home) account, every account usually has one. If not-your IT Group can modify the login script and add a homedrive system variable. The user backup directory may also reside on the server; however, users will be more inclined to manage the files if they reside in a personal directory. Quarterly emails will help remind them to do so.

Implement the system by adding a couple of variables to your MicroStation site configuration file that will: detect who is logged on, then will set the backup directory accordingly, and then when the backup command is invoked the system variable will save the files in the user home directory.

Here is how easy it is to setup using a Windows NT compatible OS.

#-Determine User Home/Personal Drive letter
%if defined (HOMEDRIVE)
_USTN_USERNAME : ${HOMEDRIVE}
MS_BACKUP= ${HOMEDRIVE}/
%else
MS_BACKUP = c:/temp/
%endif

In special cases you may want to override this variable and save the backup to your present working directory. It can be done by typing the full path:

“backup yourservername\\your present working directory\ file1.bak “.

You can also use the cut and paste tools for long directory paths. As you can see managing backup files can be done effortlessly and should be part of your CADD compliance efforts. I hope that you found this article of interest and encourage you to implement it into your workflow.

AskInga Article #229