Synchronizing Cabinet Vision across 2 PCs

For the purposes of this video, let's assume you have two PC's with two Standalone licenses of Cabinet Vision.  The licencing configuration is irrelevant to this conversation and this works for more than two PC's as well.  For simplicity...two PC's with Cabinet Vision on each of them.  
 
I'll call these machines "PC One" and "PC Two".  PC One is in the office and is connected via a network cable to CNC equipment in the shop.  And PC Two is not connected to any shop equipment.  
 
At some point in recent history, PC One and PC Two had identical copies of the company's Cabinet Vision database.  Both PCs can create Cabinet Vision jobs.  But jobs created on PC Two must be copied to PC One to send the jobs into production. 
 
Frequently, changes are made in a Cabinet Vision schedule or library or catalog. And those changes must be shared among all the Cabinet Vision databases.  There are at least two different methods of synchronizing two or more standalone PC's.  One involves creating and sharing packages while the other is simply a "backup and restore".  Packages are faster and can be as effective as any method however when using packages, the human element becomes a big factor..."did I remember to include everything I needed to in this package?".
 
The "Backup and Restore" method is thorough and less prone to forgetting crucial elements.
 
Let's say you're working on the Soquel Job and you made changes to a construction method and you added some fancy drawer hardware to a drawer guide schedule...all of this on PC Two.  Consequently, the two PC's are effectively out of sync with each other. Before the Soquel job can be sent to the floor, the two PC's must be synchronized.  Here's how to do that:
 
  1. On PC Two, run the backup utility
    Backup 01.JPG
  2. Answer "No" to this nagging message...
    Backup 02.JPG
  3. Find the "fancy drawer guide" you added from your recent work from the list on the right and press the double arrow to add that catalog to the list of items to include in this backup. 
    Backup 03.JPG
  4. When you're satisfied with the items included, press the OK button to continue.
  5. I generally ignore this and simply press OK. 
    Backup 04.JPG
  6. As soon as you press OK from step 5 above, a dialog box appears with a progress bar indicator.  It may only take a minute or so to complete.  When it does complete, the dialog box disappears and that's the anticlimactic ending to the Backup part of this story.
    Backup 05.JPG
  7. The Backup Utility just created a folder in the Automatic Backups folder where all the other Cabinet Vision program files are...
    Backup 06.JPG
  8. Double clicking on the Automatic Backups folder above will reveal that the name of the folder it created is named with today's date
    Backup 07.JPG
  9.  Copy this folder to a thumb drive or directly to the Automatic Backups folder on PC One ( if networked with shared access to PC One ) 
 
Now, switching over to PC One...
  1. From Windows Explore find the CVRestore file. Its in the same folder as the Solid.exe program file  ( yours may not have the ".exe" extension on the end and that's OK )
    Backup 08.JPG
  2. Make sure Cabinet Vision is closed before you run this program.  Double click on CVRestore. From the pane on the left, click on the line with today's date.  If you don't see today's date, STOP and go back up to steps 8 and 9 above.  
    Backup 09.JPG
  3. Make sure all the boxes are checked on the right pane as they are in the image above.  Click OK to continue.  A progress bar will appear...similar to the one above in Step 6 except this one says "Restoring database".  When that closes, another dialog box appears like this one 
    Backup 10.JPG
  4. As soon as the Updating... dialog box vanishes, the process is complete.  
Personally, I usually go get another cup of coffee before opening up the Soquel job on PC One...but that's just me.