File management ideas...

[alfa147x]

I work with a group of 8 people and we all tend to work on the same projects. I was wondering if anyone had a proven way of managing files between all of these people.

The files don't like getting moved once they have been created.
A way to keep track of revisions (notes on SharePoint?)
Each project consists of mostly video and images (Premere Pro, After Effects, and Photoshop)
They are about 150 - 250GB in size

Our issue so far is:
No way of keeping track of revisions
Way too many rendered files that no one know wtf are there for
Unorganized mess
(If I think of something I'll post more)

I'm thinking about doing this:
File structure wise:
Project name
/Project_name/PremerePro
/Project_name/AfterEffects
/Project_name/Images
/Project_name/PremerePro/render/09.01.2010
/Project_name/AfterEffects/render/09.01.2010
/Project_name/Delivered

and a text file with notes of revisions by name and date / time in /Project_name/Notes/WorkLog.txt


Any ideas would be great!
Thanks guys,
Alfa147x

oh Mods if this is in the wrong section, my apologies.

 

[Wyndru]

Isn't there a shared portfolio app built into cs4 and later? Or is that just for pdf files?

 

[SSSnail]

Excel, learn it.

Or, you can create folder structures based on month/date/year.

2010/Jan/Project name folder/
2010/Feb/Project name folder/

On your spreadsheet, each tab is a year, etc...

 

[Cogman]

This looks like a job for a database!

Your file structure looks fine, but I would suggest creating a database to keep track of file information. If you can't find information, and there i a lot of it to sift through, the best thing you could do is create a database with descriptive columns that can be easily selected to find what you are looking for.

SQL Server is free, go download it and read up a bit on sql. It really isn't that hard (Just remember to put primary keys on everything. This is easier to do in the beginning then halfway through a project).

 

[alfa147x]

Hmmm, I think making a spreadsheet would work since we all have Google Apps accounts.

 

[Patranus]

Alfresco
Amazing CIFS support

 

[guyver01]

MS Project

 

[her209]

Designate one person the document master.
That person controls who is currently editing which file(s).
If someone else wants to edit a file that is currently being edited, they need to talk said person and have their changes included or relinquish control.
The document master will save each file with a version number and never overwrite older versions along with who edited the file last for accountability.

 

[rivan]

Hmmm, I think making a spreadsheet would work since we all have Google Apps accounts.

That requires diligence from all people involved. Your folder structure will be whatever makes sense to your team, but we use a /Source/ and /Final/ structure on most of our work, with specific subfolders in each:

The master document (the .AI, .INDD, .PSD, .FLA, whatever) goes in the /Final/ root. ONLY resources used in that final go into the /Finals/ folder, outdated or retired elements are moved into /Source/

For print projects, we use:

/Final/
/Final/Placed/
/Final/Placed/Layered/
/Final/Fonts/
/Final/PDF/
/Final/PDF/PDFX/
/Final/PDF/LR/

We have similar but tailored structures for other project types. I don't work on video, but others here do. We don't have a formal version control, because it's not really necessary for us, but when we do versioning, it's usually just noted in the filename.

 

[richardycc]

MS sharepoint or PVCS.

 

[Cogman]

Designate one person the document master.
That person controls who is currently editing which file(s).
If someone else wants to edit a file that is currently being edited, they need to talk said person and have their changes included or relinquish control.
The document master will save each file with a version number and never overwrite older versions along with who edited the file last for accountability.

Can we call him Mordac?

One guy controlling the file system can only lead to sadness. Your best bet is using some sort of database software (Even excel, though I would rather see you use a real database just in case you decide sometime in the future that you want to be able to look at things through a software interface).

 

[Drekce]

Subversion

 

[her209]

Can we call him Mordac?

One guy controlling the file system can only lead to sadness. Your best bet is using some sort of database software (Even excel, though I would rather see you use a real database just in case you decide sometime in the future that you want to be able to look at things through a software interface).

Software (non-PLM) doesn't stop teammates from overwriting other teammate's work (accidentally or purposely), prevent teammates from working on the same files separately (whose changes gets saved and whose changes have to be redone), prevent teammates from modifying the document trail, make teammates enter document trail info, etc.

 

[Cogman]

Software (non-PLM) doesn't stop teammates from overwriting other teammate's work (accidentally or purposely), prevent teammates from working on the same files separately (whose changes gets saved and whose changes have to be redone), prevent teammates from modifying the document trail, make teammates enter document trail info, etc.

That's all about playing nice. If you want those sort of protections, then getting a filesystem with user access controls and a revision control system will prevent most of that. (though, from the op, it sound like the problem was more of "We can't find data" than "We keep deleting the wrong stuff. That is what a database is good for).

 

[Train]

Subversion

For video files? You're nuts.

Subversion is for text, it sucks exceptionally when it comes to massive amounts of binary data.

 

[FoBoT]

1. fire 7 people
2. guy left does all the work
3.
4. (boss) profit!

 

[Crono]

FTP account with revison_history.txt file

 

[IndyColtsFan]

I work with Sharepoint for a living and it does exactly what you need, but keep in mind it is designed to mainly handle documents. It can handle images as well but videos will really be tough due to their file size. Max file size in Sharepoint is 2 GB so that might disqualify it from consideration. By the way, that 2 GB limit is actually SQL's limitation, which is why it is also Sharepoint's limitation since Sharepoint stores everything in SQL.

 

[alfa147x]

Thanks guys! I love the great ideas!

I also would like to fire most of the people I work with... sigh
Today when I showed up my boss wanted me to look at a video, okay sounds good. When I open the video the girl has referenced files over a network share, in a folder under her name, and is trying to compile the video using After Effects (She should be using Premere Pro :\)

Most of the people I work with have computer skills and common sense, except 2...

I'm thinking about a Google spread sheet with all the basic info. Withen the file structure I proposed earlier have a log/history file with further information.

 

[Train]

I work with Sharepoint for a living and it does exactly what you need, but keep in mind it is designed to mainly handle documents. It can handle images as well but videos will really be tough due to their file size. Max file size in Sharepoint is 2 GB so that might disqualify it from consideration. By the way, that 2 GB limit is actually SQL's limitation, which is why it is also Sharepoint's limitation since Sharepoint stores everything in SQL.

Does the 2GB limit cover the file system data type in SQL 2008?

 

[alfa147x]

I work with Sharepoint for a living and it does exactly what you need, but keep in mind it is designed to mainly handle documents. It can handle images as well but videos will really be tough due to their file size. Max file size in Sharepoint is 2 GB so that might disqualify it from consideration. By the way, that 2 GB limit is actually SQL's limitation, which is why it is also Sharepoint's limitation since Sharepoint stores everything in SQL.

Yeah I just got off of work and one project folder is 40ish GB and I'm not done with it.

 

[PaperclipGod]

Google Wave.

Wait...

 

[IndyColtsFan]

Does the 2GB limit cover the file system data type in SQL 2008?

I'm not a DBA, but I think the answer to your question is no:

FILESTREAM storage is implemented as a varbinary(max) column in which the data is stored as BLOBs in the file system. The sizes of the BLOBs are limited only by the volume size of the file system. The standard varbinary(max) limitation of 2-GB file sizes does not apply to BLOBs that are stored in the file system. To specify that a column should store data on the file system, specify the FILESTREAM attribute on a varbinary(max) column. This causes the Database Engine to store all data for that column on the file system, but not in the database file. FILESTREAM data must be stored in FILESTREAM filegroups. A FILESTREAM filegroup is a special filegroup that contains file system directories instead of the files themselves. These file system directories are called data containers. Data containers are the interface between Database Engine storage and file system storage.

 

[her209]

That's all about playing nice. If you want those sort of protections, then getting a filesystem with user access controls and a revision control system will prevent most of that. (though, from the op, it sound like the problem was more of "We can't find data" than "We keep deleting the wrong stuff. That is what a database is good for).

From the OP:

Our issue so far is:
No way of keeping track of revisions
Way too many rendered files that no one know wtf are there for
Unorganized mess
(If I think of something I'll post more)

There's an old saying: Crap in, crap out.

Simply adding a database into the mix doesn't fix the problem. I mean, what is its purpose? If its just to provide backup in the event that a file accidentally gets deleted, then (real-time) backups would solve this problem. Keeping a master copy of the project files (current w.i.p plus previous revisions) will also fix this problem as users will only be working on copies.

If the purpose of is to be able to find stuff, a database still wouldn't fix this. Sure, it'll make it faster, but not necessarily easier to search for stuff in the database, because you're assuming 1) people are entering data into the database as expected 2) only good data is being inputted into the database. This is where standardized naming and procedures help the most.

Adding a storage structure doesn't do much if there is no control what can be put where. You're still left with people putting files willynilly where they think its supposed to go. However, more often times than not, this just results in a huge folder of files that no one is sure whether some file can be deleted because it may mess up some other files that reference it. The problem is exacerbated when the person who created those files has left.

Short of using some type of PDM/PLM system to manage your files and/or some formal process of retreiving/storing the project files, it's a nightmare. I admined a couple CAD PDM systems (PDMWorks and Pro/Intralink specifically) for 60+ Mechanical Engineers, so I may be a bit biased, but I've had to deal with the headache about 10 of the 60 aforementioned prior to helping integrate their project files into the PDM system utilizing the folder structure method with everyone having write access to every file. Yikes!