FMDesktop tip: Keep it clean

FMDesktop's Facility Manager component is a CAFM program, but, we should remember that a CAFM program is primarily a database. One which is being constantly written to.

FMDesktop can be selected for a couple of different database backends, but, in my case, I chose MS Access, since that is what I'm currently using for other purposes, and where I've gotten my training.

So, I just wanted to post a little housekeeping tip for FMD. Check out your database file through Windows Explorer (FMData.mdb).

Open up the mdb file with Access, select Tools > Database Utilities > Compact and Repair Database (we AutoCAD users can think of this operation as being similar to the 'Purge' command).

You can see that after I run this utility to tidy things up, I've shrunk my file to less than a quarter of it's previous size.

I try to remember to do this every couple of weeks, but, you might want to make it a weekly event if you access your database frequently.