Xrefs and the cloud [Box.com]

macoidh · ‎03-14-2014

Our company is switching over from using on-site servers to the cloud [specifically Box.com].

As far as I can tell from my own testing, Box.com has no work arounds for AutoCAD's inability to path xRefs to a URL.

This means that we would have to have anyone who needs to access CAD files to have the entire CAD portion of every project directory in a sync'd folder local to each machine in order for xRefs to resolve correctly which is something I would like to avoid.

Can anyone confirm this or have I missed something?

If it matters, I am using AutoCAD v2011.

And if it does matter, is there a newer version of AutoCAD that does allow for xRefs to be pathed into the cloud?

Thanks in advance.

Alex

pendean · ‎03-14-2014

Autodesk's cloud is Autodesk 360 (http://thecadgeek.com/blog/2012/05/autodesk-360-xref/): can BOX.NET not be installed as a vritual folder on every PC? I can with my Dropbox account (but I don't use it for Xrefs sharing with others).

jggerth1 · ‎03-15-2014

Dean, while that's technically do-able, it's the situation he's trying to avoid. On a good sized project, that would be a huge amount of data being synch on an ongoing basis, whether necessary or not. Current synching models are workable for a certain amount of sharing, but maintaining everything that way .....shudder. having 20 copies of the same 259Mb file being kept synchronized on 20 ocs in the same office is not exactly efficient IMO. But to answer the OP -- no, not at this time. I might suggest you look at EDMS packages, like Adept from Synergis.

macoidh · ‎03-19-2014

JGerth,

Thanks, you understood my dilemma.

I have found a workaround by mapping a network drive to a Box.com location and and have just started testing it.

Mapping a Network Drive in Box.com [read to the end because the first suggested syntax no longer works].

Thus far it seems to be quite a bit slower than working off of the cloud directly through a browser, but I have a very small sample size.

Also, unfortunately, you cannot use relative addressing with this pipeline, which is also problematic for me.

jggerth1 · ‎03-19-2014

Thanks for the update -- i'll be interested in your results as you progress. And hopefully the 360 folk are paying attention.....

Possible workaround, untested. Set up a local LAN server, with enough local disk space to hold your active CAD files, and have your users connect to that to get their drawings and Xrefs. That PC then becomes the machine that synchs to Box.com. Essentially you're then using BOX as the remote backup, but maintaining local access to dwgs and Xrefs, while also making them available to remote users connecting via BOX.

rdaane · ‎06-02-2015

Hi,

We've been manageing CAD on our international projects for quite some time now and the last time I looked we had about 300.000 CAD drawings with linked xrefx on Box.

It requires using relative paths instead of absolute paths and if we have an old project with absolute paths we bulk change them into relative ones.

Box and Box sync, specially the version 4 really works and with Box I'm also looking at further integration.

The technicians work in their CAD applications storing the data in Box Sync and because you can sync at subfolder level not everyone needs the whole project.

Then we also add stuff like Autocad360 or Autodesk360 which you can also link to the Box folder giving projectmanagers loads of functionallity they normalyy don't have.

If you want more info please feel free to reach out to me.

cpico · ‎10-09-2015

Wanted to find out if you could give me some advice on how your company is using AuoCad and box.com. Currently we have a work around which is using an onsite server and it is not going well. Our CAD technicians absolutrely hate box because it makes their life harder. They often can't work remotely and files regulary duplicate or disappear randomly. Any advice you can give would be very appreciated!

Thanks!

sdmxz700 · ‎10-28-2015

@rdaane wrote:

Hi,

We've been manageing CAD on our international projects for quite some time now and the last time I looked we had about 300.000 CAD drawings with linked xrefx on Box.

It requires using relative paths instead of absolute paths and if we have an old project with absolute paths we bulk change them into relative ones.

Box and Box sync, specially the version 4 really works and with Box I'm also looking at further integration.
The technicians work in their CAD applications storing the data in Box Sync and because you can sync at subfolder level not everyone needs the whole project.

Then we also add stuff like Autocad360 or Autodesk360 which you can also link to the Box folder giving projectmanagers loads of functionallity they normalyy don't have.

If you want more info please feel free to reach out to me.

Hello rdaane,

I am very curious about how you're using this setup because I think we are heading in the same direction.

How smooth does it run? I am assuming pretty well with Box Sync because it is stored locally first, correct?

What does the saved path turn up as? Is it still recognized as a letter drive somehow for xrefs?

I read somewhere that you can view file versions on Box somehow and rollback if needed? To be honest I have never seen this.

Right now we have our own on-site server and everyone works off of that. When we need to work remotely we have VHD's setup on our laptops and have a mimicked drive path of the on-site sevrer so we do not have to mess with fixing any xrefs. However, we have had a few unfortunate 'file overwrites' that really screwed us over.

Thanks for your input.

rockitglider · ‎01-15-2016

Hello all,

We are also changing to a cloud drive through Google Drive and we also had the xref problem. We are using a work around of relative paths for the xrefs, and the way to do it is load the xrefs and right click each one and go to Path>Make Relative, do this on all the xrefs, then save the file and let it resync to the cloud drive before opening the file on another machine. I hope AutoDesk comes up with a better solution as this can take a considerable amount of extra time if the job has alot of xrefs.

Sincerely, Kit O.

wispoxy · ‎01-18-2016

Hello @macoidh and Welcome to the Autodesk Community!

Use the external application Refrence Manager. It comes free with AutoCAD, if you don't have it download it.

Xrefs and the cloud [Box.com]

Xrefs and the cloud [Box.com]

Forums Links

Post to forums