File sharing

[dbr2021]

Is there a firm that has more than one designer that is able to work on the same project and how do you go about sharing the file and making changes?

[Kbird1]

You can not have two people working on the same plan at the same Time.....Chief locks the File while in use , to prevent file corruption for just this reason.

 

M.

[DavidJPotter]

You can place the file on a cloud server for sharing with others but as Mick said, NO ONE can work on the same plan file at the same time.

 

DJP

[lbuttery]

my partner and I lived in different states

 

so we emailed the plan back and forth to keep conflicts down we added date and time to the file name

we also added LBX12 or JKX12 to the file name so we knew who last worked on the file - the ver id

was for times when we would need to work on a prior project to remind us which version it was done in

 

Lew

 

[javatom]

I keep the plan and layout files names the same throughout the project.  I place them in FOLDERS with the name containing the date completed.  This allows you to avoid having to set up the links every time you change the plan file name.  It will also help if you keep your materials limited to the ones provided by chief out of the box.  Custom materials would mean another step in the process of saving the layout.

[KTKArch]

While Chief's form of file locking works, it's antiquated and lazy. In the mid '90s I managed 140 ACAD 9 & 10 licenses and even more users across 7 design offices all around the US. While we had a constant backup system for catastrophic [user] errors, that seldom came into play at the file level. AutoCAD was/is able to lock a dwg file at the 'record' level so we often had Architects and engineers of multiple disciplines all 'in' the same file at the same time from multiple locations. The file was stored on a central server and accessed directly across the WAN and LAN. This was accomplished over Windows NT 3.5 & 4. So the current version of windows is not the problem, CA's unwillingness to troubleshoot networked installs of CA vs keeping CA program files under C:\user is. Each discipline had their own menu and layer sets. We designed, amongst other large buildings, the Boeing 777 expansion, 1.4 million SF, doing this. AutoCAD was doing this more than 20 file versions ago, yet Chief can't get the concept down as to how powerful this option is. dBase was doing this years before ACAD; and QuickBooks can do it without accountants getting confused.

CA would open themselves up to the large market of multi-personnel offices, giving them expanded growth potential. Giving all their users the potential to expand their businesses too. But sadly, we have to continue patching the process ourselves, spend time rehashing 'lost in the cloud data' and even use 'sneaker networks' e.g. Nike, Adidas, Reebok sneakers for those too young to remember that term. 

[RobUSMC]

I have 4 in house designers and three remote designers out of state.  We use Microsoft SharePoint (Basically the bad boy commercial version of One Drive).  Everything is saved to the cloud and anyone that has access can open, work on and save a plan. But again only one person can be working on a plan at a time.  I may have one of my remote designers do the as built, save it then one of my in house designers does the new proposed plans.   File naming is key to keep everyone on track. Note, the folder name is different from the plan name.  We name plans as follows  The main folder name would be "Smith Kitchen". Inside that folder are other folders with the plans in them each renamed with the date and design version.   If I started a new plan today the folder name within the Smith Kitchen folder would be 220413 - DSN  AB  (Todays date - Design Version is the AS BUILT)     Lets say tomorrow someone (the same person that did the AB or a different designer) is going to start the new proposed design they would just copy and paste that AB folder and rename it to 220414 - DSN A1. If they come in the next morning to continue to work on this same plan they make a copy of the previous days folder and rename it to 220415 - DSN A1.  If they do some "minor" plan changes for example painted versus stained cabinets or just flipping the frig and ovens then they copy the folder again, rename it to 220415 - DSN A2, A3, A4 and so on. If the homeowner wants to see a minor facelift and a full gut then that "major" plan change would be named 220413 - DSN B1, B2, B3..... When we do have these different layout options, saving a thumbnail of the plan is important so not to have to open each plan to see what is what.  Having the date format like this and being first in the file path is key to keep everything in chronological order. The other benefit to this is you are making a copy of your previous work in case of a lost plan.  For large projects, the main folder does get large with copy after copy. If you have unlimited cloud storage, not a big deal but you could go in and keep the last several days of plans and delete all the previous.  The other thing is how you name the actual plan.  We only have 2 plans associated with any layout.  The as built and the new proposed.  We would name these two plans, "Smith Kitchen - AB  and Smith Kitchen - NEW. So any folder after the as built is done would always have a copy of the AB and the NEW so when its time to start the layout you're only pulling from these two final plans.  The very last folder would be named 220418 - FINAL.   Sounds like a lot but when we all got the procedure down we have not had any issues for the past two years.  I have attached a few screenshots of what this looks like.