Remote BIM Server Access Speeds

[Anonymous]

I am interested in allowing our employees and consultants access to our BIM server to work from remote locations. Is anyone really successfully doing this at this time? What kind of internet data speed is required? How are you handling large file sizes?

We have a project file that is almost 1 gb in size. Can you effectively work remotely on a project of that size without killing the productivity when sending and receiving?

Thanks,

Brian

[Anonymous]

We are working on a BIM server between people in North Carolina and Florida on regular DSL lines and it's working well, but our project is not as big as yours. Initially it was slow loading the first time but then it's been pretty good. I guess trying it out would be the best test. Let us know how it goes.

[Katalin Takacs]

There is a new ArchiCAD Wiki article about 'Remote Connection to BIM Server': archicadwiki.com/Teamwork/RemoteConnections

[Erika Epstein]

Teamwork/RemoteConnections Here

[Anonymous]

Hi

I'm working on a 1.4Gb project remotely - between Cape Town and Johannesburg - we're using a 1Mb/s line for the whole office I think - so a slow connection. Bear in mind also that 1Mb/s is also spread over other users in the office. (South African internet is pathetic)

that being said, once I've downloaded the file from the server (which DOES take a long time - about 3-4hours) then sending and receiving is fairly quick.

However, if you don't work on the project for a day or two, then you have to receive the changes that occurred in one's absence. This data exchange is normally larger than a regular send and receive.

because of our crappy internet I've also experienced the connection dropping or timing out at this point. one way around it is to choose the "Receive Later" option when signing back into the teamwork project. Once the project has loaded again, then click send and receive and it works fine.

This morning whilst signing in, a windows update blocked ArchiCAD access to the internet and now I'm having to re-sign in entirely, so there goes 3/4 hours if I'm lucky... If I'm not lucky the connection will time out and I'll have to try again. and again possibly.


Anyone know if there's any easier more reliable way of getting the TW file downloaded?

downloading a file of the same size directly off the internet is much quicker than trying to download the TW file from our Cape Town server - is this indicative of a poorly configured connection?

So to summarise, TW works remotely, but with a slow (possibly poorly configured) connection it can get a bit painful when signing in from scratch or afresh because of a crash. Any other method of sharing the TW file from the remote server will be VERY welcome!

A Travelpack maybe? never used them, so don't know how they work... Any other suggestions?

[Laszlo Nagy]

If downloading directly from the net is much faster, you may try to create a Travelpack, put it on a server and download it fom there.

What I am also thinking about is maybe you could try to divide up the Project into smaller pieces, like one building is one file, or one Story per one file or something like that that makes sense.

Also, you may want to have a separate file for the model and a separate file for the Layout Book. Then you would only share the model file and would not have to download layout book data if you don't work on it.

[Anonymous]

thanks for the tip Laszlo - I've done a combination of both - split the files to reduce size and saved Travelpacks - which work wonderfully I flew down to our head office to sort out other CAD issues and saved the travel packs while I was there.

[Anonymous]

hi

Now I'm having an issue with travel packs - I was away from the office for 2 weeks and when I arrived back I was unable to receive the changes made in my absence because our internet upload speed is too slow. so I asked one of the users at the other office to create a travel pack for me - signed in as me and created the travel pack.

initially this method worked, but now with another larger file, the travelpack file saves, but doesn't import on my side. bearing in mind that the TW file is 1.6Gb, the travelpack should be around 250Mb or so. the 1st instance it saved as a 10Mb file. the second as a ±119Mb file. the travelpacks from each of the TW files were being saved into a single folder on a shared drive in Cape Town. interestingly ArchiCAD saved the new file as the EXACT same size as the previous travelpack file. it didn't work either. the iuser on the other side claims he's doing it in the same manner as he saved the first one, so I don't know how it's going wrong.

help...?

[Laszlo Nagy]

There is a simple program called TeamViewer.
You should both install it and your collague can let you see his/her computer screen. Then you can check out what he/she is doing. Or you can do it yourself as it allows you to remote control his/her computer from you computer.

[Steve Jepson]

Mark wrote:
Hi

... (South African internet is pathetic)...

Just to make you a little jealous. http://stage.results.speedtest.comcast.net/result/233788732.png