Save ArchiCad PDFs to SharePoint instead of Windows Server

[Rimfire]

Hi

Sorry if I can't be as precise as I should - I'm familiar with Win Servers and o365 but not with ArchiCad.

Our customer plans to retire the Windows Server which is used (also) for storing ArchiCad data. The plan is to save data (PDFs I presume) to SharePoint. Any thoughts if this is possible and how to accomplish this. 

Thanks in advantage!

P.S. Hopefully General Discussions is the correct forum for my question.

[Laszlo Nagy]

There have been similar discussions on the forums in the past about cloud-based storage and Archicad saving to/reading from these storage solutions like Dropbox, Box, Google Drive, etc. In general, these could be causing trouble so it may not be recommended. I think many times the issue is that the cloud-base service is synchronizing files to its cloud storage, while Archicad is also trying to access those files or overwrite them, and that can cause problems.

I usually see that these solutions work seamlessly only when the software developer explicitly develops support for them, but as of now, Archicad does not offer support for these.

[Eduardo Rolon]

OTOH, even if not supported or recommended, I have been running files from Dropbox, OneDrive, and iCloud without issues for years, with my first step of troubleshooting being to make a local copy…

[KenMcN]

I don’t know if Windows is the same, but on the Mac there is no way to write directly to SharePoint. If you sync that site locally using OneDrive the path includes your name, so no one else can use the same publisher set.
I’ve no real idea how to overcome this, perhaps it’s a version of writing to BIMcloud? However I’m sure that use of SharePoint and similar cloud sites is increasing, so it would seem quite important that Graphisoft looks into this.
Kenny

[Rimfire]

Thanks Eduardo

The customer have offshore workers. At first though it seems they need to use VPN to get access to local "Master" PC/Server which is used to sync files to SharePoint. If that is the case not much benefits having this type of arrangement. Any thoughts of that?  

If the "VPN scenario" is not needed that seems to be a work around.

[Rimfire]

Thanks KenMcN

SharePoint is so common and it is great for workgroups. Wonder why there is no native support for that.   

[Lingwisyer]

After a month of using Sharepoint directly, we changed to syncing Sharepoint to a NAS instead of the local computers as the delay between saving files on one computer and the files appearing on another was a major annoyance. The only downside so far has been that modifications all come listed as from the single user that was used to sync the NAS.

You should probably enquire what "ArchiCAD data" they are storing on the existing server. If they are hosting a local BIMServer, you cannot run that off Sharepoint.

Ling.

[Lingwisyer]

You can re-path Sharepoint to a different location when setting up that has an idential path between computers, on Windows anyway. I think it was through the OneDrive for Business settings? This does require a full re-sync though, since it does not let you sync to an existing folder...

[Barry Kelly]

Sounds like your customer might want to look at BIMcloud SaaS ... https://www.graphisoft.com/plans-and-products/bimcloud/

As far as I know, everything is stored on a Graphisoft server.

Barry.

[KenMcN]

Same on the Mac, but if multiple users can all access the same location, then aren't you using a file server or NAS? (Which I think the OP was trying to avoid)

I know MacOS made this harder recently (maybe 3-4 years ago?) by putting cloud files into a sandbox of sorts, which ties them to a path that includes your user name, hence why it varies between users and causes issues with Publisher.