Teamwork

[Anonymous]

I have a small office with 2 workstations and one back-up drive. The second workstation was recently added - both are running V16 and would like to use teamwork. I've been reading on-line for almost 2 hours and I can not locate any information about how to set-up a teamwork project with my current equipment.

Questions:
1. Is there a way to use Teamwork without BIM - if so, how?
2. If I need to work in BIM, how should I configure my existing equipment?
3. If I start working with BIM, what happens to the files that were created in the non-BIM environment?

[Karl Ottenstein]

First, everywhere you use the word BIM, you mean "BIM Server". ArchiCAD is part of BIM; you're talking TW.

1. You cannot use TW without the BIM Server.

2. You should install BIM Server on the workstation which has the highest performance - most memory, fastest processor, biggest disk. Presumably this is the one with the backup drive, if not, it should be. Read the specs on the Wiki - but I would advise a bare minimum of 8 GB RAM on that machine. I'd recommend gigabit ethernet, but things will work whatever your LAN speed.

3. Non-TW files - nothing changes. You can keep working on solo project files just as you are now. To convert a solo file to a TW file, you would "share" it - uploading it to the server so that both of you can work at the same time. At any time, you can in essence 'un-share' it and save it as a solo project again.

TW is for when the two of you want to work on the same project at the same time. (I've talked with some folks who basically pass a solo project back and forth and never actually need to beat deadlines by working at the same time, but were confused about the purpose of TW.)

If your hardware is up to snuff, installation is easy on a local network if you have no intention of accessing projects remotely over the internet. Things are only complicated when you allow for internet access. The complications involve either setting up a VPN, or getting a static IP address from your internet provider, a hostname, opening ports on your router and potentially modem, etc. If not required, setup is relatively easy.

[Karl Ottenstein]

The Wiki has a lot of information that is not in the manuals/guides:
http://www.archicadwiki.com/Teamwork

If you're just running TW locally, just pay attention to the LAN sections - ignore the WAN sections.

[Anonymous]

Great. Thanks for the help. I suspected that I could use one my workstations as the server. I will install the BIM server software on my workstation at the same time I install version 17. It's good timing actually. Do the libraries also get installed on the BIM server?