Here is an example to show how you can manage a large project where different disciplines have read-only access to other discipline drawings. You can manage these rights because the Windows folder structure is different from the Plant 3D Project folder structure.
Windows Folder Structure
Since we want to give Structural Designers Write Access to their designs and read-only access to the Piping and Equipment Layout designs, then it makes sense to create a folder for the Structures and a different folder for Piping Designers. If we also want to manage files at an area level, then we will create area folders as well:
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The folder organization could be extended to include area sub-folders within the discipline folders. However, a naming format which includes the area could be used so drawing files can be 3easily associated with the area.
Use the standard Windows Folder security features to assign rights to the folders:
In the above example we have assumed the user is a structural designer so we are denying him write-access to the Equipment and Piping Folder. When this user opens a Piping or Equipment drawing, the following message will appear:
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Plant 3D Project Folder Structure
In the project we want to create a structure by area and then by discipline as follows:
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However, we want to ensure that the equipment and Piping drawings are stored in the project Equipment and Piping folder and that all the structural drawings are held in the structures folder (as we created in the previous section)
We do this by creating a new folder for the area and then linking this folder to the discipline folder we created previously:
Now when we create a new piping drawing in an area (in this case Area 2) the Project Manager will show it as a member of the discipline folder in that area but the actual drawing file is held in the discipline folder and assumes the rights access of the folder:
Although this seems a complex process, it only has to be done at project setup time. Once the project is fully set up in Project Manager, the drawings will automatically be created in the correct folder.
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