Check out and check in files to maintain versioning, prevent unauthorized modifications, and ensure drawing integrity.
Project Navigator allows drawing versioning for AutoCAD Architecture 2022 toolset and AutoCAD MEP 2022 toolset drawings. This ensures informed collaboration between multiple users and prevents unauthorized modifications to the drawings.
When a project involves multiple users working together on a set of drawings, it is essential to have a file locking and versioning mechanism to ensure that all changes are recorded and there are no access clashes. When you check out a drawing from the Project Navigator, other users only have read-only access to the drawing and can view the last saved version of the drawing, till you check the drawing back in. This ensures that there are no file access conflicts and each modification made to a drawing is recorded.
Changes being made to the checked out drawing are not dynamically visible to other users and as the checked out file is saved, no xref notifications are sent to others which can be an interruption to their work.
Hovering over a file in the Project Navigator shows you the status of the file, the name of the drawing, its location, the size of the file, the date and time the file was last checked in, the name of the user who last checked-in the file, and the check in version history with the check-in comments. Red checkmarks indicate that the drawing is checked out by another user, and a green checkmark indicates that the drawing is checked out by you.
When you check out a file, make modifications and check it back in, you are prompted to add comments on the changes you have made. This information is displayed in the Check-In Version History, along with your user name, your domain or computer name, and the date and time of the check-in.
Every time you check-in a file, AutoCAD Architecture 2022 toolset creates a backup file in the same folder where the drawing is stored, with the drawing name appended with check in time. If during the course of a project, you wish to revert to an earlier version of the drawing, the comments history makes it easier for you choose the backup file version you wish to roll back to.