Project management mode and Dropbox

[NewLeafHomeDesig]

Hi!

My company has been using Dropbox to share Chief files between team members working from different locations. This has worked well as long as we make sure Dropbox has synched before we start working on a file someone else recently updated. We just updated to X17 and are interested in using the Project Management mode. Since this doesn't store files using the regular browser, we don't seem to be accessing the same Managed Store with the most recent files including someone else's work.

 

What is the best way to share files between team members? Do we need to stop using the project management mode and go back to traditional file management with Dropbox?

[Renerabbitt]

12 hours ago, NewLeafHomeDesig said:

What is the best way to share files between team members? Do we need to stop using the project management mode and go back to traditional file management with Dropbox?

Delete your project in project management


It will prompt you if you want to 

then export to Dropbox
I suggest the naming convention
260213-DRVA-Briowning-RR
where 
260213 is Feb 13 2026
DRVA is Design Review A
Browning is the job name
RR is the initials of the technician who's version of the file this was

is yymmdd-design version-job name-technicians initials

If you don't delete the project upon export, that person will essentially have a presumably outdated copy of the project in their project management and also backups will take longer

 

[NewLeafHomeDesig]

Thanks! So it sounds like the project management feature really only works well for situations where only one person works on a project start to finish. Is that correct?

[Renerabbitt]

3 minutes ago, NewLeafHomeDesig said:

Thanks! So it sounds like the project management feature really only works well for situations where only one person works on a project start to finish. Is that correct?

no, my entire business is working with other designers and drafters, the above instructions is exactly how I share files back and forth with them

 

[lisabrooksga]

We are in the same situation as OP.

 

Our team has multiple users and multiple computers as well so Dropbox file storage has always worked well for us. Frictionless sync for us is critical because we might work on a plan with our studio machine and then a laptop at home a few hours later. With the PM feature it does appear you can define a folder on Dropbox (or any location) however there are numerous warnings that cloud sync could cause issues with this feature. And even if it fundamentally works, Chief won't support it so we are going to stick with the traditional file based for now. We have rarely had issues with plans and layouts getting discombobulated anyway.

Edited yesterday at 02:23 AM by lisabrooksga

[Michael_Gia]

The above is the correct response.

 

It's obvious that Chief is working towards its own cloud storage solution, so until then I think Dropbox is a bad idea if you want to use the PM workflow.

 

Stick to the old system for now, with Dropbox or else you will have a bad day.

[Renerabbitt]

16 hours ago, lisabrooksga said:

And even if it fundamentally works, Chief won't support it so we are going to stick with the traditional file based for now. We have rarely had issues with plans and layouts getting discombobulated anyway.

Absolutely zero difference between exporting your project to dropbox(X17 with PM) and backing up your project to dropbox(X16) cept for one remains a single archive file(X17 .caproj) and is ultimately a better system than having PM turned off.
When Chief says they don't support working in the cloud, they are specifically talking about working with cloud based files, as opposed to working with local files that are synced to the cloud from a client server like dropbox caching from your machine
Reference this video

 

Edited yesterday at 06:35 PM by Renerabbitt

[Michael_Gia]

17 hours ago, Renerabbitt said:

Absolutely zero difference between exporting your project to dropbox

There are two differences.
 

One difference is when sharing or saving files on Dropbox, all you’re doing is control or command S and it’s there for everybody and yourself to use on another laptop in another country or on another planet. 
using PM is extra steps to the simple one-command save process. (Export-Delete-Reimport) long and unsettling due to the scary dialogue box which you mention yourself in your very great video)

 

Second difference is, for example, I have pdf files which come from other applications such as excel. Those pdf files live on my layout or plan file as links. If I make a change in Excel and save or update a PDF, then I don’t have to do anything for Chief to have the latest saved version of that when I open the layout or plan file that contains it. The pdf gets automatically updated since it is just a link to that file that is also on dropbox. (Someone like my estimator might be providing the costing on a project)
In PM it’s a dead PDF with no link to the original Excel file that is shared with other folks, so it will not update. 

by the way, your video should’ve been the first video we all saw when this feature was introduced in X17. 
 

I also hope that in X18 if they do introduce a cloud service, which seems to be the solution to the problems I mentioned, I would also like to see a section where printed plant sets live, and are project specific. And along with the printing sets which other softwares refer to as publishing sets, then they could be automatically sent out to whatever list of people you have them to be sent out to. I hate the fact that we have to close Chief or go somewhere else on our computer, find our construction document,  remember who we email it to etc. etc. this should be handled within the project management window.

Edited 7 hours ago by Michael_Gia

[Renerabbitt]

3 hours ago, Michael_Gia said:

control or command S

Thursday is my day for arguing, haha.
I was very specific about my language here, I was not comparing it to "Save" I was comparing it to backing up a project.
Save As is not the same as backup, one includes all of the texture files you would need in a 3d view or elevation view if you were to share with someone that didn't have all of the same textures as you.
Even if you didn't need the textures, you would also need to hit save as for the layout as well, or easier would just be to backup the file.
Open is still an actionable thing you have to do, just like import. For either, you can double click your file and it will open. Even though open is a faster action, waiting for a cloud service to sync and index loose files(Backup-unmanaged) takes longer than waiting for it to sync one file(caproj-managed).

In PM, I hit the delete key, that's 1 key press, i click export and delete, i target my location and click okay. I don't find that this could be much easier than that action. With it comes a ton of extra features that you cannot otherwise get in unmanaged mode. In unmanaged mode, to get the same result, you would hit the file menu, then back up and restore, then backup with textures, then target your location. I might be off on the names, its been a while, but I'm fairly certain that it is more clicks. 
In managed mode, I can just share the caproj file, in unmanaged mode, you would need to share the folder containing all of your files.
People are arguing over 1 click or so, truly, yet unmanaged mode comes with a gang of additional features that you cannot do in unmanaged mode.
 

[Michael_Gia]

not sold on this yet.

 

at the moment it's half baked.

 

Not everyone working on the file needs textures.  

 

There's more than just 3D on a project.

 

Anyway, looking forward to the evolution of PM in X18.

 

@Renerabbitt

[Renerabbitt]

17 minutes ago, Michael_Gia said:

at the moment it's half baked.

I would 100 percent agree with this in terms of the terminology used. It is terrible. Hitting delete as the fastest way to share with a team is absolutely ridiculous. No "Save As" howver incorrect it may be, is breaking decades of learned behavior.
"Make a Copy With Links To New Folder" is one of the most ridiculous grammatically incorrect menu items ever. When what is doing is one of the best features of managed mode, copying a file, along with any plan/layout files it shares a link with, into a new folder to create a new independent and linked iteration.
The function in PM is not half baked, its really brilliant, but the support and terminology makes it a mystified workflow. I've been pushing for a change and not sure if I am getting any traction

[Michael_Gia]

1 hour ago, Renerabbitt said:

I've been pushing for a change and not sure if I am getting any traction

who do I need to pay to get you moved up the priority ladder?...