Feasibility of CAD working over WAN

I support an architects company that has 3 offices that are all quite a distance from each other, and they want to be able to work on the same jobs.

They currently have VPN links between the offices that work over adsl. about 700k up and 8mb down. This, as you can imagine, makes things quite slow.

I do not have a lot of experience with how Autocad works, but I want to learn, so I can figure out a better way for the offices to work on a project.

Is there anyone in here that have managed overcome similar problems?

What viable solutions are there?

Thanks

A filemanager interface that a user can 'check out' a file (no one else can alter it) and copy the 'checked out' file to the c: drive.

We have a custom program such as this at work (can't release it, so don't ask), but I know I've seen others like it. I've seen M-Files before, but I have zero knowledge about it. Do you have access to Autodesk's Vault, or is that just a Civil 3D addon?

Ok, I did type a nice long reply to this, but the forum has been set up to prevent links being posted (it was in the quote) in an effort to reduce spam... as a side effect, it wipes out the message as well..

I was thinking of a similar way of checking the files out. I was also thinking of synchronising the changed data between the offices on a nightly basis, but I don't know how well that would work, as only one office could work on a project per day.

I'll look into M-files, as they're also after some sort of DMS solution too.

I also have no idea what Autodesk Vault is, but i'm sure google does.

Thanks for the quick response.

A filemanager interface that a user can 'check out' a file (no one else can alter it) and copy the 'checked out' file to the c: drive.

We have a custom program such as this at work (can't release it, so don't ask), but I know I've seen others like it. I've seen M-Files before, but I have zero knowledge about it. Do you have access to Autodesk's Vault, or is that just a Civil 3D addon?

Ok, I did type a nice long reply to this, but the forum has been set up to prevent links being posted (it was in the quote) in an effort to reduce spam... as a side effect, it wipes out the message as well..

 

I was thinking of a similar way of checking the files out. I was also thinking of synchronising the changed data between the offices on a nightly basis, but I don't know how well that would work, as only one office could work on a project per day.

 

I'll look into M-files, as they're also after some sort of DMS solution too.

 

I also have no idea what Autodesk Vault is, but i'm sure google does.

 

Thanks for the quick response.

No sweat, good luck.

I went over there today and set 3 of the clients to incrementally save. I set the percentage to 50%. Hopefully, they might experience an increase in save/load performance, and the riverbed boxes might get to do something.

Anyone else got any solutions, or know of some other forums with information that might help me?

One thing I am having problem with is the Riverbed boxes were supported by another company, and the company that contracts me did not renew the contract with them. I do not know what password has been set on the units. Is there any way for me to get around this? Would contacting Riverbed be worth it, or will I need to get in contact with this other company?

you might want to check out projectwise or buzzsaw

-projectwise lets multiple locations check files out and then check them back in (a little bit of a pain to get setup and running because things like xrefs have to run through the program)

-buzzsaw lets you upload the most recent file to the site, not sure if it shows if someone else is using it as i havent used it in a while

You are going to need the password to your devices so you can apply appropriate firmware updates. The only thing I've done (which does not help the saves) is disable digital signatures to speed up folder browsing.

All in all...I think you should get in touch with Riverbed.

We have a couple of guys who work out of the office and we use a program called peersync. http://www.peersoftware.com/applications/cad-collaboration.aspx

I am not the one in my office who set it up so I can't offer you anymore information, but hopefully this will help you out.

All the info so far is giving me far more options and allowing me to make more informed decisions. Don't be afraid to post more info, as the more I can get the better

I'll be getting in contact with Riverbed to try and get the info I need.

AutoCad Vault is designed for collaboration. according to the data sheet etc, it uses html to communicate with the remote users. I haven't gotten around to attempt to configure it yet, as I'm still trying to customise our works setup. We use Vault at our works and have a colleague that works from home, so I'll have to look closer soon.

I'm interested to hear if anybody else has managed to do it yet.

My company uses projectwise and it works good. We're all over the country and it' just takes seconds to open files.

Here it isn't so much opening of files, although it IS slow, our issues are random freezes and first time using commands. Even incorrectly input commands make AutoCAD stops in its tracks and just stare for a few seconds. Has anyone made this work more efficiently?

I don't know anything about it but Globalscape makes a product called Wide Area File Services that is probably worth mentioning.