Remote users on Wan, WAFS?

[rgesner]

We're starting a trial project on Revit 8.1. It will all be done in our main
office, but for the future, the big concern I have is how to handle people
in multiple offices working on Revit across a WAN. I find little promising
information on this problem.

Is anyone successfully doing this? If so, how, and on how big of projects?

There are various WAFS and caching appliance and software-based solutions
which work very well for other apps, for example Steelhead from Riverbed,
the Tacit Networks appliance, and Availl software. I can't find any data on
how they'd work with Revit, except that Riverbed lists Revit as a Steelhead
supported app, but ZGF has Steelhead and they said it is too slow and that
their solution was using Remote Desktop to manipulate Revit on a PC in the
project's home office. I searched the forums and found nothing better than
this klunky Remote Desktop suggestion or Irwin's posting of a far too
convoluted and error-prone process for Revit 7.

We have dedicated P2P T1 lines connecting Portland to our Seattle and
Vancouver offices and are considering the Tacit Networks appliance or Availl
software. Both replicate files between home and remote sites, lock files at
the opposite location during editing, and synchronize the changes when files
are saved. This supposedly works well for most apps, but I think there may
be problems with Revit because of the large single file per project and the
database structure of the Revit file. I wonder if the locking and
synchronization work correctly when multiple users are editing only pieces
of it in the single file instead of individually working in files like they
do with AutoCAD's xref structure?

Is Autodesk actively working on any solution to this huge limitation for
multiple site customers?
Are they working with the leading WAFS providers to develop a solid,
high-performance and integrated solution?

This shouldn't impede our pilot project, but will definitely put the brakes
on wider deployment.

Rusty Gesner, IT/CAD Director
Group Mackenzie, Architecture, Interiors, Structural, Planning, Civil,
Traffic & Project Management
PORTLAND, OREGON | SEATTLE, WASHINGTON | VANCOUVER, WASHINGTON

[JamesVan]

Rusty,

Back in 2003, using Revit 5 on a remote team setup via WAN was a disaster. We had to restructure the team in our local office and unfortunately the project went on hold. One clunky option we considered was to separate a part of the project as a second Revit model and link one into the other.

Now, in Revit 8.1, the factory is getting much closer to a seamless solution with fundamental changes in worksets and element organization. Right now, we are working on a project between LA and San Francisco and collaborating on the same model over our WAN. We have not had any connection problems during saving like we did in 2003. Saving to the central model is definitely slower than it would be locally, but if planned properly - can be unobtrusive.

Prior to commencing work, we created a few dedicated worksets for the work to be done out of LA. Our staff in LA (the satellite office) knows to check out these worksets in the morning and to refrain from saving to central until defined points in the day such as before lunch and end of day. (STC takes about 5 minutes they're telling me, however, the project isn't very big)

Hope this helps in your research.