I N T E R M E D I A T E
C A D
FILE MANAGEMENT
Introduction
File mismanagement is the downfall of many brilliant individuals. If you are wise, you won't be one
of the people who meet disaster due to poor file management. Computers and their inner workings are largely mysterious to the typical user. However, many technical aspects, often daunting at first, can be mastered. A functional knowledge of computer systems is necessary in today’s professional and technical fields, and the more fluid a user can be with the system the better.
What good is a perfectly finished project if you can't find the file? Can you recover smoothly if you find a file has been corrupted? Let’s face it: the concepts of file management are essential for survival in the computer realm. Read on to learn more . . .
Key Elements of File Management
There are two important elements of file management: 1. Organization
2. Backup
Let's look at each of these in turn.
Organization
Organizing computer files may seem foreign to a person who is new to the world of computers. Indeed, some computer veterans are often not terribly organized. It helps to draw a comparison. If your computer could be compared in structure to a kitchen, think about how well your kitchen is organized. When you place dirty dishes in the dishwasher, do you deposit them all in one lump, close the door, push 'go', and hope for the best? When you stack silverware in the drawer, do you just dump the entire array of utensils in the drawer in a single pile, then hunt to find what you want later? Probably not. Similarly, it is unwise to dump all your computer files in one folder and hope for the best.
Windows Explorer
Windows Explorer, which ships with the Windows operating system, is a program that provides a means of organizing computer files. Figure 1 below shows a typical Windows Explorer window with
Computer highlighted. Note the following:
1. Windows Explorer facilitates navigating about your computer, the local network, and attached storage devices (flash, zip, etc.). Become familiar with it. To open Windows Explorer, double-click the Computer icon on your desktop, or double-click on the Start button in the lower left corner of your display, and then click on Computer.
2. This window displays an item for each of the storage devices you can access. These devices may or may not be physically attached to your local computer. Each device is assigned a single letter, followed by a colon, for example, C: or U:.
3. Notice that there is a split in the window – currently it is in split pane view. In this view, contents of the item highlighted in the left pane are shown in the right pane. In this instance, Computer is highlighted in the left pane. Therefore, the contents of the computer are shown on the right, in these categories:
o Hard Disk Drives: this is the disk drive installed in your local computer
o Devices with Removable Storage: this includes CD/DVD drives and USB drives o Network Locations: these are all the external drives to which you have access
Figure 1. The Computer window
Figure 2 shows a particular path expanded, which creates the tree view. Admittedly, the 'tree' part of this may be a little hard to conceptualize. However, consider the following attributes of this view: x A folder can contain files and sub-folders. Figure 2 shows the contents of a folder named
Documents and Settings that resides on the C: drive. This is an important folder that contains many files and sub-folders.
x In Figure 2, the final folder in this path–named Roaming–is highlighted in the left pane. The contents of this folder appear in the right pane.
x The address bar above the split panes displays a pathname. Note that the pathname in the address bar corresponds to the folders that are open.The last folder in the path is the one that is highlighted on the left, with the contents shown on the right.
Figure 2. Tree View
Folders
In the business world, printed information is organized in filing cabinets. Within a filing cabinet are drawers. Inside the drawers are folders. And within each folder is some number of files. The files are the real entities, the ones containing the information. The filing cabinet and the folders are simply containers that organize the files.
The Windows operating system provides an analogous structure: x A disk drive is similar to a filing cabinet.
x A folder (also called a directory) provides the same functionality as a manila folder in a file cabinet.
x A file contains some type of information, just like a file in a filing cabinet.
Figure 3 depicts the organizational structure of a User folder in A&E CAD. Note the following: x The folder that is highlighted in the left pane is the Documents folder, which is your A&E CAD
user folder. When you login, your user folder is mapped to the U:\ drive and shown with your login name. SAVE YOUR FILES THERE. See the Backups section below for further details. x Within the Documents folder shown in Figure 3 are various sub-folders, some of which contain
yet other folders. This is a typical organizational structure.
x Even though the folders below the U:\ drive (as highlighted) are expanded in the left pane, the top level contents of the U:\ drive, which is highlighted, are shown in the right pane. Note the corresponding address in the address bar above the split window. Documents is another name for your U:\ drive.
Roaming folder
x You can create sub-folders within your Documents folder. For example, you might want to create a sub-folder for each class you are taking. Within a class folder, you can create additional folders for each project. If necessary, you can create yet other folders for contributing files, or the files themselves. This structure is similar to a well-organized file cabinet.
Figure 3. A&E CAD Documents Directory
Backups
If you belonged to an electrical crew, you would quickly learn a concept that is enforced upon every member of the crew. For example:
Suppose you are an electrician, and your assigned task is installing a circuit in a new junction box. There is another electrician nearby, and you ask her "Are these circuits hot?" Her response: "Do you have your tester?"
Now, let's consider another scenario:
You have worked all weekend at home on your final project. The files represent hours of diligent work, very important data. The project is safe and secure on your flash drive, and you confidently login to an A&E CAD computer. While attempting to open your file, you get an error. After unsuccessfully troubleshooting the problem, you ask Tech Support for help. You are greeted by a question: Do you have a backup of
your data?
A&E CAD Backup and Data Recovery Procedures
The A&E CAD Tech Support crew has an exhaustive backup regimen for departmental data. A&E CAD servers perform backups of all data that is on the server every evening. If your data is in your Documents folder, it is backed up. If your data is not in your Documents folder, we have no control over it and you may have no backup.
1. Keep copies of your files in your Documents (U:\) folder. If you do not save or copy your files here, we cannot back them up for you.
2. Keep copies of your files at home. These backups may seem redundant, and they are. This is called redundant data management.
Note The amount of time it takes to organize folders and files into an orderly structure
is minimal compared to the amount of time necessary to find a lost or misplaced file. Indeed, consider the amount of time necessary to completely re-create a file when you don't find it. Organization of your User directory is extremely important.
File mismanagement is the downfall of many brilliant people. Don't let it be yours. Back up your data frequently!
3. Make sure you are working on the most recent copy of a file. Manage and delete the older, unnecessary copies of the files.
4. Certain programs (AutoCAD, MS Word, MS Excel, etc.) can create a backup every time you save a file. You can also direct these programs to make incremental automatic saves. Our AutoCAD installation is configured to create a backup copy every time you save a drawing. Backup files are stored in your Documents folder and have the same name as your drawing file but a .bak extension. Our AutoCAD installation is also configured to perform automatic saves at regular intervals as you are working. Automatic save files are stored in a folder named
C:\Documents and Settings\username\Local Settings\Temp. They are deleted when you save your drawing. These backups and saves become extremely important if you lose a drawing. See Tech Support for additional assistance.
5. If storage space is an issue, learn how to compress files to help manage your backups. 6. Manage your backup files as you would any other file. Keep them organized. Delete older,
