Our vault has what I'm guessing is a pretty common setup when it comes to certain project folders.  I'm curious to pick the brains of other PDM admins.  I'll use our R&D folder as an example, which loosely looks like this:

• R&D Folder Root
  • 2024
    • 24-001
    • 24-002
    • [more project folders with the YY-XXX serial numbering format]
  • 2025
    • 25-001
    • 25-002
    • [more project folders with the YY-XXX serial numbering format]
  • 2026
    • 26-001
    • 26-002
    • 26-003
    • etc.

We use a template card and a serial number to automate the creation of the project folders, automatically creating them into the appropriate yearly subfolders, and automatically naming the project folder 'YY-ZZZ' using the current year (20YY) and the serial number (ZZZ).

In hindsight, what we should've done is to DENY the 'add file' and 'add folder' permissions to all engineers for the R&D root folder.  The 'yearly' subfolders would inherit the same permissions.  For our 'New R&D Folder' template, under 'Files and Folders' → 'New Folder' → 'Properties' → 'Group Rights', we can add the 'Add File', 'Add Folder', and a few other permissions to each new project folder.  This seems like the ideal way to set up your project folders (and any other folder structures you might have for that:  'jobs' or 'sales orders' or 'quotes', etc.).

If your template just exists to create the folders, then you can have the template run as admin to create the folders and bypass the rights of the user executing the template.

What we did instead was to just allow 'add file' and 'add folder' permissions to the entire R&D root directory for our Engineer groups.  The intention, as you might guess, is that people wouldn't just manually create folders and would leave the root folder and the yearly subfolders alone.  We thought that some simple communication of expectations to the team and some trust would be enough.  It wasn't enough.

I feel like our lesson is learned, but if I go back and change the permissions now, I also have to go back to EVERY R&D project folder and re-add the permissions after I've taken them away from the R&D root.  Which feels exhausting and daunting to do, but I'm not sure what other option I have.  (I don't have a lot of R&D project folders, but I do have 633 legacy Sales Order folders to manage if I make a change, and three groups to apply a permission change to if I do it..)

I would definitely advise other admins just do this type of permission setting from the outset.