Also, persistent transactions
(Check out the Twitter stream on @upfrontezine for additional coverage of the ODA 2016 conference, as well as Randall Newton's coverage at @RSNatWork .)
The ODA has figured out how to make DWG files suitable for client-server computing, where it is important to know who made which changes. Every entity in the DWG file is history-aware. History also makes it practical for multi-user editing.
To reduce collisions when more than one person edits the same drawing, ODA is figured out a way to integrate collision checking. This alerts users to the conflict, but it is up to the users to resolve the collision. Remember that only changes are saved, such as a transformation or a color.
Now we are getting a demo of multi-user DWG editing. One user makes a change, and then clicks Commit to save the change back to the server. Now it is possible to have changes committed automatically, but this is left to the developer.
Q: Did you get help from Onshape on creating these systems?
A: We received inspiration from Onshape. {Chuckles in the audience.]
Q: Can areas of the drawing being locked out so that other users cannot edit them?
A: This is not implemented by ODA; but developers are free to implement it on their own.
Q: How does Commit work?
A: It merges all of the history files.
Q: Is a network connection needed?
A: You don't need a persistent network connection. Changes can be made offline, and then changes are committed when you are back online. But editing offline can lead to more conflicts, and you might be surprised at what the DWG file looks like when you are back online.
Q: Is it possible to turn on revision control on drawings that are already underway?
A: Yes, it can be turned on at any point.
Q: Do you plan to implement it for Microstation DGN files?
A: I would say no, we have no such plan.
Q: What happens when two changes are committed at the same time?
A: It is not possible, as to the server there is no such thing as simultaneous commits.
This sounds very much like Bentleys Distributed dgn / Design History / ISM technology.
What would be good is to know what the impact of using this functionality on file size and whether the nongraphic attribute data is also tracked. The non graphic data is in many ways more important because they are often input parameters that drive the geometric elements and are more difficult to track when modified.
Posted by: dseah | Sep 16, 2016 at 12:34 AM