I would like to leave the clients Organizational standard itl file as read only. And allow the designers to add and edit to a Workspace editable itl file. Can OpenRoads read from two itl files at the same time?
This is very similar to our setup. It works, but is cumbersome, because OpenRoads can only have one ITL file open/displayed at a time. Since we keep our ITL files in separate directories (the standard one is in the organizational workspace, the other one is in the project workspace) it makes it very difficult for users to navigate between the two. I have filed an Enhancement with Bentley to be able to view two ITL files simultaneously in the template viewer/editor (Enhancement 998975).
Why not keep both *.itl's within the same folder? Such is what we do and merely utilize different names for the two (actually, we are using three). Such also allows the ability to easily copy templates from one library to the other as their reference to each other is "local", so to speak. Master files of all extensions are housed in the organizational workspace, of course.
Mark
Well I don't want to clutter the organizational workspace with many project specific files, nor do I want to maintain a copy of the standard ITL in each project's workspace - that's a nightmare to maintain if anything changes in there.
Interesting...
We do not have ANY project specific files in the organizational workspace, and we do actually make a copy of the organizational *.itl's for each new project and make those specific to the project. Whenever someone comes up with a new template which shows a universal use, I copy those templates into the master template found at the organizational level for future projects. Communication with organizational members and new thoughts/ ideas/ approaches has worked well for us here. Of course, we are a relatively small firm of approximately 20 designers/ engineers who work with InRoads/ OpenRoads on a daily basis. I can perceive how structural issues could occur with a much larger organization where breakdowns in communication are a much greater threat (I used to work for Jacobs; the threat was real, LOL).
Thank you all,
Yes, very interesting. In the past I have also copied the master.itl as a starting point for each project, and I have experienced the communication breakdown you identified as the problem with this approach.
I want to thank Iwan for submitting the request (Enhancement 998975). Being able to view two separate itl files at the same time would be very helpful, and would solve the problem.
What would be really slick would be the ability to drag and drop templates from itl to itl (similar to the method of dragging and dropping templates from the lower left hand corner into the primary viewing/ manipulation window within a single itl). Why not the ability as well to open up even more than two itl's and perform the same task?