Can I run 2 instances of Studio 2015 at the same time?

Question

While I am waiting for the analysis of a large project to complete (30 minutes so far), I am tempted to open another instance of Studio 2015 so that I can begin translating another project. 
 Before I do so, I would like someone from SDL to confirm that nothing nasty is going to happen. 
 I imagine that having two instances of Studio working on the same project would cause sharing problems with the sdlproj file, so I would work on different projects. 
 Could the two instances share TMs or other files, or would this cause problems? 
 Thank you! 
 Bruce Campbell 
 ASAP Language Services

Alison Field · Accepted Answer

Hi Bruce,

I'm not an SDL employee but I thought you might find it useful to know that I have for years worked with two instances of Studio open at the same time, so that I can start on another project while one is verifying for example if things are so busy I can't wait.

I have never had a problem due to this practice, though if they were big projects on an older computer, they would both 'go slower'.
Sharing TMs or termbases doesn't present a problem for me either.

All the best,
Ali

Jesse Good · Answer

Hi Bruce, 
 It appears the two answers above are conflicting a little, but I think they both are "correct" depending on the situation. I think the correct answer here is: It will not be a problem unless the TM is stored on a network share or older filesystem. TMs are just SQLite databases in disguise, and the SQLite FAQ has a very good explanation about sharing databases between multiple processes. 
 In the FAQ, they do discuss issues with certain filesystems (like NFS and FAT), but NTFS is the standard on Windows, so those issues should not be a problem (although many external hard drives use FAT...). Also, they do say "People who have a lot of experience with Windows tell me that file locking of network files is very buggy and is not dependable." In other words, when you start using network shares, issues can start to occur.

Paul · Answer

Unknown said: I did a quick Google to see whether termbases are also SQLite databases, but did not find anything in the 5 or 6 hits I checked. Do you know whether they are SQLite? 
 They are MSAccess... at least filebased Termbases are. 
 Paul

Luke Hipsher · Answer

Hi Bruce, 
 
Updating a TM creates a .journal temp file that I had thought was created each time you update and the 2nd time you update, it wouldn't be able to overwrite this temp file and would instead error out. I am certain I have received these errors in the past. However, I just did a test and it DID work fine. Point being, working on the same TM twice in one instance of Studio OR in multiple instances of Studio works fine. 
 
Thank you 
Luke

Luke Hipsher · Answer

Hi Bruce, You can work on 2 projects in the same instance of Studio, but you cannot use the same TMs. You would need to create a copy of the TMs first in order to do this. This would be the same for multiple instances of Studio as well. You can also run multiple batch tasks on the same project in the same instance of Studio but you should do this in the proper order (pre-translate files then analyze files for example). Thanks Luke

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Can I run 2 instances of Studio 2015 at the same time?