All path entry places in Clarity should have a browse button and they need to support UNC paths. For example, if I look at my Clarity 2021 server > PDF task > Post Action: Copy/Move, I do not see a browse button. This is needed. May require some type of auto-substitute table to change from mapped drives to UNC paths.
I believe that we got this done in 2023.0 finally...
A Clarity Security setting to allow browsing within task configuration.
Matt,
So here we are on version 2022.1 and this still is not implemented. I really wish you would add this feature. It is annoying to have to constantly copy/paste paths from windows explorer when it could be included in the Clarity interface!
Ken
Ken - sorry about that. Clarity 2022.1 was a bit shorter development cycle than we are used to, because of the timing of AU last year. The feature was cut for time.
It has been fully spec'd out and is planned for the 2023 release in the spring. I expect to be reaching out to you and Andreas in the coming month to check over what we've done.
-Matt
Now that we have the browse locations in 2021.1, wouldn't it make sense to offer them throughout the Clarity platform? Here's where I'd love to see them:
Also, it would be super handy to be able to restrict the browse locations / mapped drives to offices so folks from one office do not see the drives from other offices.
Andreas,
yes- we are still trying to balance the security implications- so that people cannot browse to things that they wouldn’t be able to see otherwise...
for your scenario, are you saying that each user would have particular browse locations that they could see?
matt
Matt,
no, I think it would suffice to let the project's offiice determine which drives the user can use in that project's tasks. This would, of course, mean adding an additional input in the "Edit browse location" dialog under "Security > Browse Locations" (preferably multi-select for drives shared between multiple offices but I'd be happy enough with a 1:1 relationship). The task dialogs mentioned in my initial post would then only show drive locations where the office assigned to the drive location matches the office that owns the project.
Matt,
Thanks for considering this! Some further thoughts... when we start a new project, the dialog box lets us choose network location and then specify \\<server_name\<volume_name>, select Go, and then browse to the folder. I just think something like this should be available anywhere we need to enter a network path, but in a simpler form for the user.
1. When we setup a project, it would be great to have a place where we can enter the UNC path to the project folder. All projects, regardless of where the Revit files reside, have a project folder on one of our file servers. For example, I want to have an entry like this:
Project Path = \\server1\vol3\Projects\project for that client
Anytime someone needs to browse to a file location (such as when moving PDFs), it should default to or at least provide a way to pick this path, then offer the ability to browse down to the correct folder.
This would save quite a bit of time and leave less room for error on the user's part.
2. Less critical, but also helpful, would be the ability to simplify project creation. Lots of people are involved in managing tasks, fewer people actually have permission to create projects. So this feature while beneficial would not be as widespread.
I (as the clarity administrator) would like to be able to specify the server name and volume for project locations with an alias. The end user could then select that alias and not have to remember the server name and volume. This is because users here are used to dealing with mapped drives. We have two drives for projects. As an example, if L drive maps to \server1\vol1 and O druve maps to \\server2\vol4, then I would like to be able to enter that information into Clarity. When a person creates a file based project, they can specify L or O, but what Clarity really does is use the UNC path and lets them browse to the folder they want. So instead of choosing network, entering server name and volume, pressing Go, and then browsing, they just choose L or O and browse. Fewer steps and less to remember.
These both make sense to me, but you mention security...what are the concerns?
Ken - we're going to be taking a closer look at this in 2021.1 in the fall.
We're going to try to strike a better balance between security and ease-of-use.
Drop me a line if you want to talk about it (or I may reach out to you during the requirements gathering phases).
To expand on this, I just noticed this request: https://imaginit.helprace.com/i262-relative-path
It has some similarities. One solution to my request would be to have the ability to define the project path when a project is created. All our projects - regardless of whether they are file-based, Revit Server, or BIM360 - have a project home on our project file server. And this is where, for example, PDFs get sent when created by Clarity. Let us define a path (such as \\<server_name>\<volume_name>\projects\<project_folder>) and then choose that (instead of inserting a variable name) and then browse for the rest of the folder path.
Or at a minimum, define the project path and then let the user enter the relative path. But we need the Test function to work for this to insure the user enters the correct path.
