How can you use custom materials with Collaborate?

[Bill Gilliss]

Since Revit does not store the images for custom materials in the model, but needs a specific mapped drive:/folder/filename location for each image, how can firms using Collaborate (like the architect and the interior designer), get the same result regardless of which firm does the rendering? Do the firms need to have identically-named folders on drive C: for each project, and somehow keep them synchronized? Assign the same drive letter to a shared cloud drive like Google Drive or OneDrive? I'd very much like to hear of ways that WORK without having to email JPG's back and forth every time I tweak a material. Thanks, y'all.

[david_peterson]

Sadly, that's the exact thing we've been doing.
if I had to guess the main reason you're not allowed to put material image files on C4R is due to the amount of data you might need to download. it's not a good thing.
The solution I've been told is to create a folder a local C drive per project to store them and push them from one common location out to those individual workstations.
it's a horrible solution and I wish Auotdesk would do something about it.

[Bill Gilliss]

Yeah. I don't understand how it can be said that the model MAY contain rendered images of virtually unlimited size but MAY NOT contain the (typically) small JPGs used for materials. A huge pain. Thanks for commiserating.

[meng005]

Wonder if Autodesk Desktop Connector 6.1 (Revit 2018 & 2019) will work. Before Desktop Connector we had to agree on a specific mapped drive for the Revit project, and synch the files manually.

[david_peterson]

Last I heard, Desktop Connector wasn't intended for use with Material Maps.