BimServer & TW 2.0: Where is the main shared file stored ?

[Anonymous]

Hi everyone,
One question: Where is the main shared file stored in AC 13? Like in AC 12 shared project, the main shared file is obviously stay there.
I can't find the similar thing in AC 13. Maybe the way it works differently ???
Please advise

Cheers
Thanks


AC 13 (now)

[Karl Ottenstein]

It is stored by the BIM Server - there is no PLP. The BIM Server configuration allows you to determine where it stores the various files for a shared project - which you are asked during installation as well.

Karl

[Laszlo Nagy]

If you go to the BIM Server Control Center and click Preferences, there you will see the folder Projects on the server are stored in.
But as Karl said, there is no PLP anymore, it is a database file.

Consequently, there is no PLC - local draft. The local copy is stored in a local cache folder. You can find the location of that in the Work Environment Dialog, on the Special Folders page.

[Anonymous]

Hi everyone,
I noticed the database file in the BIM Server location. And I figured out the way it saved the so-called "local-draft".

However my next question is: at the end of the day, when the teamwork project is done, how can we create the final archicad file? ( as everyone is working on database files, PLP or PLN do not really exist) and how can we make sure that final file is archived all changes from every members (without any mistake). What is the best procedure for this scenario ?


Please advise

Cheers & thanks

[Laszlo Nagy]

1. All Users should send in all their changes.
2. You need to receive changes.
3. Use File\Save As to save as PLN.

[R Muller]

We are a small office. I am thinking about the best way for backup of the teamwork database.

Since our BIM server is on a local workstation, not on our "server" (which is actually just a NAS file storage device), I am trying to figure out how to get an automatic daily backup of the database file while the project is continuing. I know that the BIM server keeps backups, but we do not back up our workstations (our rule is that all data files must be on the NAS server, which is backed up nightly). I would like the database to be included in our daily Retrospect backup of the NAS server.

I looked at the BIM server, and it looks like the BIM server backups go to the same location as the database itself. At least, I did not see a way to specify a separate location.

Will it be very inefficient to put the BIM server database on our NAS server? This will mean a double use of the network, every time someone does a send and receive, since all the data will first go to the BIM server workstation and then to the network NAS. However, the extra traffic may not matter, and this would give us the automatic backup we want.

Or, is there a way to specify a different network location for the BIM server backups?

[Karl Ottenstein]

R wrote:
I would like the database to be included in our daily Retrospect backup of the NAS server....

Will it be very inefficient to put the BIM server database on our NAS server? This will mean a double use of the network, every time someone does a send and receive, since all the data will first go to the BIM server workstation and then to the network NAS. However, the extra traffic may not matter, and this would give us the automatic backup we want.

Or, is there a way to specify a different network location for the BIM server backups?

I do not know of a preference item that would cause the backups to be stored in a location separate from the project database. That could be useful.

Since you are using Retrospect and not Time Machine, I assume you are on Windows (please update your signature with your machine/OS specs, etc). If you assign a drive letter to your NAS, then you can use that drive in a path in the BIM Server setup to have your projects stored on the NAS.

Someone in another thread asked a similar question. I have not seen any studies to show the performance impact of storing the database remotely. I would think that if you have a gigabit network and the NAS is fast with a big cache, that it might be OK since you say you're a small firm. Network congestion aside, if you run a disk transfer benchmark and you get substantially the same performance accessing your NAS as a local dirk, then I'd say go for it and tell us all about it. 🙂

You say that you do not back up your workstations though, and I think that that is problematic. Retrospect's network backup has the ability to backup just selected folders of workstations. If people send/receive regularly, not much would be lost. But, if somebody is doing something major that they do not want the rest of the team to see until it is complete, it would be a shame to lose their work. 😞 Local backup drives are pretty cheap, too... While you no doubt rotate your main backup drives offsite for fire and theft reasons, I think the backup drives on workstations could just be left alone and for the low risk of fire/theft relative to unsent changes? Dunno...

Cheers,
Karl

[R Muller]

Thanks, Karl. We will do the experiment of storing the database remotely. This is a small test project, so it is not representative of what we may eventually need.

We are on Macs, but Time Machine doesn't have abilities to rotate backups to different drives to be kept off-site. We have used Retrospect reliably for years and it has saved our files at least twice. I wouldn't want to trust Time Machine to backup an important project.

Our rule is that everybody must send changes every night before leaving, or must copy their files to the server.

I think I can set up an automated action on the BIM server workstation to copy the database file from the workstation to the NAS server on a daily basis, before the Retrospect backup runs. Or, I could expand what Retrospect backs up, as you suggested.

As far as backing up the local ArchiCAD team member's working database copy (or what ever we are supposed to call it), I don't even know where it is kept. I searched for something with the project file name, and didn't find anything. Someone mentioned that maybe it isn't a file but is "bits and pieces of the database stored in various places". Do you know how to find the local information so it could be backed up?

[Karl Ottenstein]

R wrote:
Thanks, Karl. We will do the experiment of storing the database remotely. This is a small test project, so it is not representative of what we may eventually need.

Look forward to reading about your experience down the road.

We are on Macs, but Time Machine doesn't have abilities to rotate backups to different drives to be kept off-site. We have used Retrospect reliably for years and it has saved our files at least twice. I wouldn't want to trust Time Machine to backup an important project.

Maybe I've made a mess of things, but I've used two separate drives for TM and it seems to work fine ... when TM discovers a different drive than was last used, it just traverses the drive before doing a backup so that it knows what is new. I think. Maybe I've got gaps that I don't know about though. I have a tech-love thing for TM vs other backup software, and you know that love is blind... 😉

Our rule is that everybody must send changes every night before leaving, or must copy their files to the server.

I think I can set up an automated action on the BIM server workstation to copy the database file from the workstation to the NAS server on a daily basis, before the Retrospect backup runs.

Good plan.

As far as backing up the local ArchiCAD team member's working database copy (or what ever we are supposed to call it), I don't even know where it is kept. I searched for something with the project file name, and didn't find anything. Someone mentioned that maybe it isn't a file but is "bits and pieces of the database stored in various places". Do you know how to find the local information so it could be backed up?

This was answered in another thread. The Work Environment specifies where the local TW data is saved - so you can either read the path there, or change it to someplace else.

Good weekend,
Karl

[Haneef Tayob]

Assuming I've been backing up the project files stored on the BimServer to an external drive. For some reason I need to then access one of the old backups, how would I go about it?