Hardware for BIM server

[arg617]

I'm in a position where I might need to set up an office with about 6-8 users and I'm a bit confused with how to handle BIM models.

Within an office environment do we use BIM server, BIM cloud, or just Teamwork on our own server?

Ideally we'd be able to work smoothly within the office as well as offsite.

Does this require a robust server, or is most of the load handled by individual workstations? I was thinking we'd use iMacs as individual workstations and a Mac Mini as a server, but I'm concerned that the Mini might not be powerful enough.

I've looked through some of the info on the Graphisoft site, but I'd really love some real world examples. Thanks for any suggestions.

[rgarand]

I worked in an office for 10 years and we always had the BimServer on a MiniMac...although it was dedicated as the BimServer and nothing else. Right now we have a typical windows box set up in our conference room, which we use for presentations and meetings, as our BimServer...everything runs fine.

[arg617]

My concern is that Apple no longer offers a 4 core Mini. I'm thinking of purchasing a Mac Pro for this purpose, but hate wasting the dual graphics cards on a server.

I know that Graphisoft states that the BIM Server should be installed on a dedicated machine, but is anyone running it on a machine they also use as a workstation?

[rgarand]

We run ours on the conference room desktop. We will have people hitting 2-4 projects at anytime. We have never had a problem, except when someone in the conference room turns off or restarts the server without warning everyone inside and outside the office.

[arg617]

rgarand wrote:
We run ours on the conference room desktop. We will have people hitting 2-4 projects at anytime. We have never had a problem, except when someone in the conference room turns off or restarts the server without warning everyone inside and outside the office.

Robert, can you run ArchiCAD on the machine in the conference room while people are accessing BIM Server, or do you run into problems doing that?

[rgarand]

We consistently run Archicad/Bimx/photoshop during a meeting, while people are hitting the Bim server, without problems.

[schagemann]

We have 30-40 users using the same quad core mac mini with SSD without any problems. I agree that the latest generation mac mini is not ideal, but for an office of that size it will be powerful enough, just ensure you give it enough RAM as this is also no longer user upgradeable. As you state a MacPro is complete overkill... unless used fro something else, but I can not really see how anything but video editing will justify the added cost for its graphics cards.

Also ensure that you have a good offsite backup regime in place, and coordinate that with the default bimserver project backup settings - which are IMHO unnecessary.