File locations...

Joe Dusel · Post by **Joe Dusel** » Sun, Sep 16 2007, 3:19PM

I'm experiencing technical difficulties, not with my own computers, but with laptop computers that our school uses to teach eCabs. Here's the problem. First off, for some reason the department does not want to label/number these computers, so at the beginning of class we sign out a laptop to the students who need them, and they don't necessarily get the machine they used last. I have the students doing backups to a flash drive (their own) at the end of each class and they are supposed to do a restore at the beginning of the class. This ends up taking a bit of time, but I don't see any way around it. I would prefer to have them directly access all of the files on the backup drive, but as far as I understand only files for projects, drawer boxes, hole patterns and display objects have this option.

As I understand it the cabinet, assembly, door and drawer front files are only accessible in the locations fixed in the software. Is there a way around this? If we could write and read these files to directories on a removable drive this could save us lots of grief.

The school also has it setup so that we can not access to the C: drive where eCabs is located through Explorer, so if an error message file is generated we cannot access it to see what happened. It would be nice for future versions of eCabs if the error information could be displayed via the software so that users don't have to track down these files.

Thanks,

Joe

Michael Yeargain · Post by **Michael Yeargain** » Sun, Sep 16 2007, 3:54PM

Joe Dusel,

You are in a pickle. Without the C: accessibility as of now there is no way to work around this. This will prohibit a brief case update also.

I have in the past used a briefcase on my Cruz chip to update the information in my backup file. This will update all the files. But if you do not have privileges to this drive then it will not work.

Paul Ellis · Post by **Paul Ellis** » Sun, Sep 16 2007, 4:07PM

Joe,
I do not know if its an option for you to re-install but I think that would be your only option. You do NOT need to install e-cabs on the c-drive and it need not be in c:\\program files\\thermwood\\ecabinets. I have installed e-cabs on different drives under different directories. I would think that all of the laptops in question should just have the same drive letter reference when installing them, then you should be able to swap these drives around. I suggest you try that with at least 3. Swap the external drives around and see how that goes.

ADD
Just a clarification on my post. I did the installations on
d:\\thermwood\\...(with what follows) and
f:\\thermwood\\...(with what follows) respectively. I do not think that after installation you can change these paths or that you can then save your cabinets/assemblies in other directories. Therefore I think that you should be able to install on a removable drive AS LONG AS THE DRIVE LETTER STAYS THE SAME WHEN YOU PLUG IT INTO ANOTHER COMPUTER THAT HAD A SIMILAR INSTALLATION DONE ON ITS REMOVABLE DRIVE.
(The caps is just for emphasis and not shouting!)

DanEpps · Post by **DanEpps** » Mon, Sep 17 2007, 5:32AM

If eCabinets is installed on the C: drive of all the laptops, what is the problem with doing restores? As long as the directory specified in Backup/Restore Settings is the same on all computers, it doesn't matter which computer they use.

That aside, there is a very easy, low-tech, no school politics solution to your problem: take a Sharpie marker and number the bottom of the laptops yourself.

Michael Yeargain · Post by **Michael Yeargain** » Mon, Sep 17 2007, 8:24AM

Paul Ellis wrote:Joe,

(The caps is just for emphasis and not shouting!)

I heard it from my puter...

Paul Ellis · Post by **Paul Ellis** » Mon, Sep 17 2007, 2:47PM

Michael,

Is your puter also called a grapevine? (heard it through the...)

The loudness of my post is also for the benefit of those that never wore/wears ear protection and need to be spoken to loud and slow!

Peter Walsh · Post by **Peter Walsh** » Mon, Sep 17 2007, 3:41PM

Have to throw my two cents in here...
Larry, thanks for the update and like the others, I have an organized file system on my PC with all purchased programs on drive D and nothing but my operating system on drive C. 'Course now, only my eCab program is on drive C as well.
The second item for me is being able to use a folder structure to organize my jobs and cabinets. As I have more jobs on the program the lists get longer and longer without sub folders to group cabs and jobs.

Like the others, I will be glad to wait 'til you get this done. It is a housekeeping issue to be sure, and not \"essential.\" Many thanks for all the good work.
regards,

Peter Walsh · Post by **Peter Walsh** » Mon, Sep 17 2007, 3:42PM

Have to throw my two cents in here...
Larry, thanks for the update and like the others, I have an organized file system on my PC with all purchased programs on drive D and nothing but my operating system on drive C. 'Course now, only my eCab program is on drive C as well.
The second item for me is being able to use a folder structure to organize my jobs and cabinets. As I have more jobs on the program the lists get longer and longer without sub folders to group cabs and jobs.

Like the others, I will be glad to wait 'til you get this done. It is a housekeeping issue to be sure, and not \"essential.\" Many thanks for all the good work.
regards,

Rick Palechuk · Post by **Rick Palechuk** » Mon, Sep 17 2007, 7:18PM

That would be 4 cents now Peter.

Michael Yeargain · Post by **Michael Yeargain** » Mon, Sep 17 2007, 7:51PM

We can dock him 2 for the double post...

But then again, because there were no docking rules prior to the double post, he's entitled to the 4.

Thermwood / eCabinet Systems

File locations...

File locations...

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