Shared access to schematic/project

Question

Hi,

I have hired a contractor to do some eagle work for me as I'm not yet up to speed enough to meet a deadline. Anyway, so I'd still like to help and be involved in the process but I don't see how the two of us can work on the same file without creating a real mess. I can solve the shared access issue by granting him VPN to our file server, but I highly doubt that eagle will be too happy if we both are editing the file at the same time. THe only option I can think of is to use version control or a basic "Are you working right now? No? OK, then I will for awhile and will email you when I'm done" type approach.

Anyone here who works or has worked in a multiuser scenario have any tips for me?

Thanks for reading,

Steve

e14 Contributor · Answer

On 9/2/11 12:41 AM, Steve Klett wrote: Hi, I have hired a contractor to do some eagle work for me as I'm not yet up to speed enough to meet a deadline. Anyway, so I'd still like to help and be involved in the process but I don't see how the two of us can work on the same file without creating a real mess. I can solve the shared access issue by granting him VPN to our file server, but I highly doubt that eagle will be too happy if we both are editing the file at the same time. THe only option I can think of is to use version control or a basic "Are you working right now? No? OK, then I will for awhile and will email you when I'm done" type approach. Anyone here who works or has worked in a multiuser scenario have any tips for me? Frankly, my tip is to let your contractor do all the work If you want to help and be involved, ask to review the work and make comments on it by e-mail but do not modify the files. Schematics/PCB's require a certain "mental picture" to be formed by the designer, and if someone else modifies things the mental picture starts to break down and mistakes or oversights occur. Unless, that is, you can split up the work into well-defined parts of minimal interaction. As a contractor that does Eagle work, I much prefer "owning" the files until the design is done and not having changes made on me by the client. Thanks for reading, Steve Andrew.

e14 Contributor · Answer

On 09/02/2011 12:41 AM, Steve Klett wrote:

Hi,

I have hired a contractor to do some eagle work for me

...

I don't see how the two of us
can work on the same file without creating a real mess.

You can't. You need to designate a single owner of the files.

THe only option I can think of is to use
version control

Yep. This is the best solution. We use Perforce in our shop. You can

get a free version limited to 2 users. Other change management systems

should work as well.

"Are you working right now? No? OK, then
I will for awhile and will email you when I'm done" type approach.

Yep. It's generally called "baton passing", taken from a relay race

where one runner passes a baton to the next. Whoever holds the baton

owns the files.

With all that said, Cadsoft is planning to store files in an XML format,

though I'm not sure what version in which this is scheduled to be

implemented. At one point I heard 6.0. Regardless, an ascii text

format like XML should make it easier to merge multiple changes.

Enjoy,

- Chuck