Hi, no, we will not implement a traditional file based storage for Shapr3D, as the underlying architecture would make it impossible for us to do so. Shapr3D is using a database under the hood that is stored locally on your computer, and the concept of “files” is alien to this system. This has many advantages, eg. you never have to save your designs manually, and data corruption is virtually impossible, you’ll never lose any data, and this solution makes it possible to add collaboration and collaborative editing features to Shapr3D in the future. By implementing an old school files based architecture, all of this would not be possible, and this is why legacy CAD systems can’t implement these features either. While in the 1990s, when these systems were designed, a file based solution made a lot of sense, a modern software can provide tremendously more value to its customers by not using files as the underlying data abstraction model. Regarding organizing files, what if we provided “shortcuts” or “links” to your desings, that you could simply drag out to your file system, and open your designs from there? This way the data would be still stored in the Shapr3D database, but you could still have a reference to the design on your file system’s folder structure.
Databases still store data in files, and you should be able to break up the storage of the database by project, so I’m not sure why using a database system is a limitation. Saving each project as a seperate database would make this easy.
Anyway, here are the things I need to be able to do that I can do when the data is stored as a self contained project (it can be a directory full of database files, or a single file, it doesn’t matter) and not embeded with the application.
Maybe you can help me to understand how I would do these things.
-
Backup a project. Normally, I back up all my project data (but not my application folders) from my network drive. If I use the sync function, is that storing it on the cloud as well? If so, is it automatic? When I open Shapr3D on another computer (with sync turned on) does its database automatically update upon opening and always keep the cloud version in sync?
-
Open from a directory that has all the other CAD files for a project. The link feature you mention might work. I presume you are thinking about something like a shortcut that would just open the specific project in Shapr3D if double clicked?
-
Copy elements from one project to another. Normally I can open two different projects, select and copy parts in one, and then paste into the other project. I haven’t been able to find out how to do that in Shapr3D. It seems like it totally switches context when switching projects and I can’t copy parts from one project to another.
-
Share with others. I don’t see how I can share a project with another Shapr3D user in native format. For example, if I wanted to post my project on a Google Drive for others to download and use. I can only export as .stl or something like that.
In addition, I don’t see how another user could access a project on my local network. Think about a business with 5 engineers that want to share projects. How would they be able to all work on a project?
Thank you for helping me to figure out how to do these things. I really want to be able to use this software because I like the user interface, but I also need to be able to do the same basic things listed above that all other software can do.
Jim
Not really. Eg. if we sync internally and another service also syncs the data, that may lead to data corruption. Or what happens if the 3rd party sync happens while the app is being updated? What happens if the 3rd party sync synced half the workspace data, then we lose network connection? There are many many other examples. Unfortunately without tight integration of the Sync service it’s not possible to build a reliable solution that also enables collaboration and other features that we are working on.
Sync does that automatically and seamlessly.
Yes.
That’s to be done with the part library feature that will arrive sooner or later.
That will be done with the collaboration and sharing features that are coming soon.
Thanks for the answers.
Jim
Looking forward to this. Currently I export certain components I intend to reuse as STEP files and store them outside Shapr3D (in iCloud Files). I then import into new projects whenever needed.
I know, thats the only way right now, and its a pain, not to mention you lose the native CAD characteristics of the object since it was converted to STEP in between. In Vectric Vcarve (and other CAD programs I have used), I just open up the two projects and I can highlight as copy in the one project, and then hop over to the other one and paste it in and it will show up in the same location and have all the native attributes. There is a good reason for most windows programs sharing these kinds of common editing and file management capabilities - they are very convenient. This is really my only complaint about Shapr3D, but it is a pretty glaring deficiency.