Solutions for drafters working at home

[Anonymous]

Just curious, what solutions others are using to enable an employee to work from home? I have a file serving solution, but would like to know what others are using for employees to access security keys from home on both mac and windows platforms.

[Anonymous]

The firms I know just trust their people with hardware keys. I don't know much about the network keys and less about checking them out or using remote access to enable ArchiCAD with them. The physical key seems the simplest procedure if available. It is advisable to make sure that you have insurance coverage in case of loss.

[TomWaltz]

K&A instituted some policies regarding working at home:
1) It must be a teamwork project. The person signs in and uses the "satellite library" option, then saves everything to a flash drive, network drive, or other transport medium. This provides a solid method of making sure no one overwrites their work while they have a file out.
2) The key may be taken home but requires written or email approval of both the CAD Manager and the partner in charge of the project with the understanding "you break it, you bought it." The keys in the office are single keys, not network keys.
3) Employee is responsible for all data backup and transferral. Time working at home is only billable once the files are successfully "Sent & Recieved."
4) File transmission, preparation, and duplication is on the employee's own time since they are choosing to work off-site.
5) K&A IT staff is not required to assist employees wishing to work at home. Such assistance is solely at their own discretion. (If someone can barely turn a computer on, the company is not going to pay them to work off-site or waste time supporting them).

Call it draconian, but this set of policies enables people who are savvy enough to work on their own to do so without incurring any cost to the company (and barely any time "donated" on their part).

[Anonymous]

I did not know insurance was available. Has anyone had experiences with a lost/stolen/damaged key? Did insurance cover it?

[Anonymous]

TomWaltz wrote:
Call it draconian, but this set of policies enables people who are savvy enough to work on their own to do so without incurring any cost to the company (and barely any time "donated" on their part).

As an independent consultant I have been mercifully spared these sort of considerations. It looks like you have a reasonable set of rules considering the potential risks and difficulties. Like the "paperless office" telecommuting still has a ways to go in sorting itself out.

[Stephen Dolbee]

Matthew wrote:
The firms I know just trust their people with hardware keys.

That is the case with us. My boss gave me the key to take home. We started with 2 licenses, but after several years of non-use, he must have concluded he will never learn the program, and opted to purchase only one. I go to the office about once a week to plot/pick up new work/get paid/etc. I usually bring the key with me just in case there are any last-minute changes. Do you know if plots/prints can be made in Archicad 10 without the key? If not, that could be a problem for us.

Steve

[Stephen Dolbee]

scottobrien wrote:
I did not know insurance was available. Has anyone had experiences with a lost/stolen/damaged key? Did insurance cover it?

I thought key insurance was included for those who purchased a subscription. Not sure, though.

Steve

[Anonymous]

I have, after many years of working on my own, opted for a subscription and did so because of the key insurance. I have not lost or had one stolen, but think of the possibilities and think there aren't many that are too exciting. loosing a key whether my personal or the one from the office ( v10 as my license has not arrived) is an expensive bit of not necessary.

My boss has allowed me to work a part of the week from home as the time for me is very productive - not many phone calls or other interruptions. I allows for study time that is just not available at the office. So far so good.

The big question for me is the issue of how best to use the teamwork functions to be able to work remotely. I have, after much consideration, taken the time to segregate custom vs. standard libraries and think that Tom Waltz is correct in keeping the "standard" ones on a local HD and the project on the server -- the locals NEVER changed and the project able to save the odd stuff for the individual job.

Lew Bishop
AC9 & 10 G5 Dual at work
PB 15" G4 1.5 at home
OS X 10.4.6

[Anonymous]

We will soon be implementing a solution for this here. Hopefully we won't need to buy a bunch of stand alone licences.

I was thinking of allowing access to our network licence via vpn. Has anyone tried this? I think we would need to use the wknet mode of wibu-key if this is even possible??? Security is the biggest issue for us. We don't use teamwork mode and would probably save the plan files locally and bring them into the office on cd.

Basicly thinking that the users could vpn into the dirty network and have access to the wibu-key server through an open port on the firewall. (that server is on a separate 'clean' network. I believe it uses udp on port 22347 by default.

[Barry Kelly]

adambutler wrote:
We will soon be implementing a solution for this here. Hopefully we won't need to buy a bunch of stand alone licences.

I was thinking of allowing access to our network licence via vpn. Has anyone tried this? I think we would need to use the wknet mode of wibu-key if this is even possible??? Security is the biggest issue for us. We don't use teamwork mode and would probably save the plan files locally and bring them into the office on cd.

Basicly thinking that the users could vpn into the dirty network and have access to the wibu-key server through an open port on the firewall. (that server is on a separate 'clean' network. I believe it uses udp on port 22347 by default.

So long as a user can gain access to your network, either by dialling in directly or via VPN, then they will be able to access any network key on that network.
They just need to make sure their WIBU-key settings have the correct network addresses for the licenses.
I don't know the ins and outs of networking nor network security - I leave that up to the IT guys.
All I have found is that it can be a little slow in response when Archicad is checking for a valid license if the network is being used heavily (i.e. office hours).
After hours seems faster when there is less traffic.
I still prefer to take a key home.

Barry.