Configuring Project Preferences

ARCHIBUS reads the \webapps\archibus\WEB-INF\config\afm-projects.xml file to find the list of projects to which to connect.

If you have the full Smart Client program installed, you can create and edit project list entries using the Projects command (shown in the image below).
You can also edit the project list directly using a text editor or an XML editor.

Project Preferences

Name. This is the name of the project connection. For local projects, is also used as the default name for the database file itself and for the project folder.

Title. This is the descriptive name of the project connection.

Project Type. The type is:

"local" for single-user and workgroup databases that the Smart Client starts and stops. Local databases must be Sybase Runtime, Sybase, or Microsoft SQL Server Express databases.
"enterprise" for databases that the administrator starts and stops. Enterprise databases can be Sybase, Microsoft SQL Server, or Oracle.

Is Active? If Yes, then:

The Smart Client will attempt to start this project if it is a local project.
Web Central will attempt to connect to this project when the application server starts whether it is a local or an enterprise project.

All active projects must be started on their respective database servers before you start the application server. If Web Central fails to connect to any project that is marked as active, it will not start.

Create database? This is not a property but an instruction to the Smart Client. For local databases, the Smart Client can copy the schema database (such as, schema.db or schema.mdf) to the project database ( myproject.db or myproject.mdf) to create the project database for you.

Database Name. For local projects, this specifies the path and name of the database file itself.

Project Port. This is the port of the database server computer on which the database is listening.

Project Folders These hold paths for finding different types of project files.

Report Logo. This is the logo to use on reports and forms. Leave this value blank ("") to not display a logo.

Note: Unlike previous versions, there are no longer any units (Metric or Imperial) baseUnits (Meters, Centimeters, or Millimeters) attributes in the Project Preferences entry. These are now attributes of the project database as a whole (since the conversion of data within the project database depends on these settings). These attributes are now held in the Schema Preferences (afm_scmpref) table.

Smart Client Drawing Files Folder

This is the location of the AutoCAD drawing (.dwg) or Revit model (.rvt) files created, edited, and saved by the Extensions for AutoCAD or Revit.Users of the Extensions for AutoCAD and Revit need only file URL access.

These files must be available directly to the file operating system.
The program stores the value in the preferences file in the form \\workgroupserver\aiprojects\hq\drawings, with aiprojects being the file share location established by the Setup program or the Smart Client's Share command.
Any location accessible to the file system will do, e.g. c:\users\public\archibus\projects\hq\drawings. This location can be hosted on a different server than the application server.
This folder is *not* required to be a subfolder beneath the application server (the application uses a file protocol and not HTTP to retrieve the files, and the program does not need to be able to access it via a URL like \\http:\localhost:8080\archibus\projects\hq\drawings).

Smart Client Enterprise Graphics Folder

This is the location of the published metafiles (.swf, .json, and .emf files)generated from the Extensions from AutoCAD and Revit. .Users of the Extensions for AutoCAD and Revit need only file URL access.

This folder location must be available directly to the file system.
This folder location is *not* required to be a subfolder beneath the application server.

Project Folder

The root folder holding the folders for drawings, enterprise graphics, etc.Users of Web Central and of the Smart Client alone need only Web URL access to the project folders.

Web Central Enterprise Graphics Folder

Users of Web Central and of the Smart Client alone need only Web URL access to the project folders.The folder location in which ARCHIBUS looks for enterprise-graphics to load into Web Central forms.

The project preferences form makes use of the macro #Attribute%//@webAppDirectory% to avoid having to hard-code the location Web application folder, however any appropriate URL will do.
Unless you configure a domain location that is known to your Web server, the folder locations specified in your project preferences must be beneath the "archibus" Web application folder. This lets the files fall into normal Web server and JEE security file management patterns.
Some sites will make this the same disc location as the Smart Client Enterprise Graphics folder so that published graphics are immediately available to everyone using Web Central. Other sites will use a two-stage process: one in which they publish and check the graphics in one location, and another in which they copy the graphics from this staging location to the production server that is visible to the enterprise.

Web Central Bitmap Graphics Folder

This is the folder location in which ARCHIBUS looks for bitmap graphics particular to this project, such as legend bitmaps representing hatch patterns.

Document Management for Drawings

Use this option to activate the Document Management for Drawings features for this project. With this option set, users of this project will see the Check In and Check Out options on their Drawing List so that they can update drawings in the Web Central Drawing Files folder/