Local Folders

Local folders are directories where working copies of files are stored. There are two types of local folder:

Working folder - folder used to store working copies of version controlled items and other temporary working files
Results folder - folder used to store local copies of results files. (Results can be moved to the server using the results management tools. See Results Data and Results Management for more information.)

Only one of each local folder is required, even if working with more than one master database. Data for each master database is stored in a sub-directory of the local folder. The sub-directory name is the Unique Database Identifier for the master database.

Local folders should, if possible, be on the users machine. Accessing local folders via a network will seriously degrade the performance of InfoWorks ICM and may also affect the performance of the network.

Local Folders and Remote Root

Do not keep a Standard Master Database in a Local Folder. You run a risk of corrupting your data because Local Folder and Remote Root files may be saved in the same directory, and these files can potentially have identical names.

There are several reasons why data is extracted from a master database and kept in local folders for processing:

Speed	InfoWorks ICM will run considerably faster if the regularly used data is kept on the local machine.
Network Traffic	If all data is on the network file server there will be a big increase in network traffic that may put a strain on the network, especially in a workgroup environment.
Format	The format of the data has been converted to work with a particular part of InfoWorks ICM or one of the associated programs.

Transitory data is single user data. If, for example, more than one user wants to look at the same network, separate copies are made in both their local folders.

Local Folders and multiple users

Two users must not share a Local Folder. The Local Folder is specific to a single user. There is a risk that transitory data files will overwrite each other if two or more users share the same Local Folder.

SQL Server / Oracle databases

If using a database stored under SQL Server or Oracle, InfoWorks ICM maintains a link between the database and the Local Working Folder via file with the suffix IWO.

The file is created when the database is first opened.

The file is kept synchronised with the real database automatically. If you delete the file, or change the location of your Local Working Folder, you will have to open the database again as if you are connecting to it for the first time.

Set local folder locations

To set the location of local folders for the database:

Select Options from the Tools menu. The Options dialog is displayed.
On the Local Folders page of the Options dialog:
- Select the folder type for which the location is to be set.
- In the settings section, browse for the folder location.
Click OK.

A message will be displayed to warn that uncommitted files will now be inaccessible. Changes to version controlled items should be committed before changing the location of the local folder.

Clear unwanted files from local folders

To clean up unwanted files in local folders:

Select Options from the Tools menu. The Options dialog is displayed.
On the Local Folders page of the Options dialog:
- Select the folder type to be cleaned.
- Click Clean unused files from the folder.

All files except copies of networks with changes that have not yet been committed and locally stored results files will be removed.

Results data can also be moved to the server, or deleted, using the Results Management facilities.

Master database

Remote Roots

Results Management