Working over a network

[darling66]

My office would like to take the plunge and use Revit for a library addition. The addition is 12,000 gsf - 3 floors each about 4,000 gsf. Programmatically its pretty simple space; a couple of large seminar rooms, reading rooms, and exhibit space.

My question is related to file sharing in different offices. Although the project team is small, (max 3 people), the project manager is in a different office and she likes to draw on occasion. Our offices are networked, and we operate as "one place" with different network drives for each city. What is working over a network like - is the "save to central" time unmanageable? I'm curious to hear your experience - have you developed work arounds, ways of managing work sets, found a fast enough bandwidth to minimize the problem?

Thanks so much in advance for your help.

[Anonymous]

Our firm is also venturing into sharing Revit projects over a WAN link. At this time we have done some testing.

The first tests were performed over our standard T3 WAN using a 110mb project file. Working directly in the Central file over the WAN was impossible. Saving to central required upwards of 30 minutes.

The second tests were performed after Riverbed appliances were connected between three of our offices. The same file was usable and saving to central was reduced to several minutes.

Note that working on a checked out workset was never a problem once the user had created his/her local file. Creating the local file required about the same time as a save to Central.

We are now testing file sizes that better represent the type of work this firm does - 300mb and up. Over the Riverbed links, save to central requires about 9 minutes.

[darling66]

How big (square footage) are the projects you are testing?

[Anonymous]

I'd say your getting as good as performance as you are going to see. Revit
does work over a wan, but it is indeed s-l-o-w.
The Riverbed appliance is the best bet right now.

wrote in message news:5185924@discussion.autodesk.com...
Our firm is also venturing into sharing Revit projects over a WAN link. At
this time we have done some testing.

The first tests were performed over our standard T3 WAN using a 110mb
project file. Working directly in the Central file over the WAN was
impossible. Saving to central required upwards of 30 minutes.

The second tests were performed after Riverbed appliances were connected
between three of our offices. The same file was usable and saving to central
was reduced to several minutes.

Note that working on a checked out workset was never a problem once the user
had created his/her local file. Creating the local file required about the
same time as a save to Central.

We are now testing file sizes that better represent the type of work this
firm does - 300mb and up. Over the Riverbed links, save to central requires
about 9 minutes.