Multiple offices

[jaimejbhmjxn]

Our firm has 5 offices. We're doing a project as a joint effort between two of our offices. If two people work on this particular project at one time, we're fine. If two people work on this project at two different offices, we get fatal errors, crash, recreate central file and recreate local files. If two people work on the project at different times in different offices, the first person to work on the file gets fatal errors, crash, recreate central file and recreate local files before he can see what the other office has done.

Is anyone else doing this? Has anyone had any luck?

[Dimitri Harvalias]

Jaime,
How are you 'sharing' the file?
We have had some success using various forms of VPN (Virtual Private Network) software. The central file is stored on the server at office A. Users in that office create their own local files that access the office A central file. Users at office B can set up their own local files pointing over the VPN to the central file on the office A machine.
I would suggest that you recreate the local files (not just on the office B machines but on office A machines as well). It can save a great deal of time when you first open the file as Revit tries to reconcile changes made by other users.
The saves to central can be slow so don't even think of doing this unless you have access to high speed internet services. (you think crashes slow you down? Try up/downloading a 20 meg Revit file on a 56k connection!)
Good luck.

[jaimejbhmjxn]

Been there. We recently updated our connection to a high speed connection because of this. It was taking an hour to save... painful.

We do have the kind of setup you mention. Our problem is that every time you open revit, we have to create a new local copy on every machine in order for it to work... and sometimes not even then.

[Dimitri Harvalias]

Jaime
As mentioned on several other threads, the practice of re-creating the local file each morning is a good one to follow. It doesn't take a lot of time and it can save problems that might arise from having the local file too out of date that it results in too many unresolved errors with the central file. Being forced to do it because the program isn't cooperating is another matter. :x
Are you getting an error message telling you the central file path is incorrect? I had this problem with a laptop connected to the server. The server drive letter was mapped differently than on the other desktop machines in the office. When I tried to open the local file it pointed to the wrong location.

[jaimejbhmjxn]

Not only do we have to recreate them every morning, but we have to recreate them every time the "other" office saves to central. So, basically only one office can work on the project at a time without work being lost.