Desktop Connector local file location

[jeff_howard2]

I would like to see the option to change the location of where the desktop connector saves the local files.  The User profile is not ideal for a lot of reasons.  There are both size and speed limitation associated with using the C: drive for the large complex files associated with many BIM360 projects.  Having the option to use a different local drive, preferable a large capacity SSD hard drive that is not also used by the OS for page files and other high demand processes would greatly improve the performance of projects that relay on syncing file using the Desktop Connector.

I believe all design and construction disciplines would benefit from this option.  

[jamesongoringGQDQ5]

This is really important for all the reasons listed above. Really it can not be that difficult, many software do this, why must Autodesk insist everything software-related stays on the C drive?

[jeff_howard2]

So I see that Autodesk is putting Solidworks compatibility above its own Recap software.  What is wrong Autodesk, get your act together and listing to your users on this one.  Fix the Recap online functionality and make it compatible with BIM360. You team has been talking about it for over a year now. 

[michaelfeinstein]

@jeff_howard2 @jamesongoringGQDQ5 Upvote x100 on this one.  Especially for those of us who share Point Cloud data.

Desktop Connector's "Free Up Space" option which works similar to Dropbox "Smart Sync" is a possible/very clunky work-around if you keep your working files on a separate network drive or separate hard drive on your computer and are willing to manage version control manually for when you make changes to any of the files you are sharing via Desktop Connector.

Free Up Space sets the file status to "Online" (vs. "synced") when viewed in Windows Explorer and even though you still see the original file size in windows explorer, the same files listed from the dos command line show as 0 bytes which tells me that space is freed up for paging.

I checked with Autodesk Support and there is no way to view the properties of the ADrive folder or subfolders in Windows Explorer to see how much space its taking up on your C drive even though you are able to see the size of individual files in there.  I posted their response to my query at the bottom of this comment.

The DOS command:

C:\Users\your-user-name\ADrive dir /a/s

includes every file, including system and hidden files and is the only way to see total file/folder size saved in Autodesk Drive.  Apparently the same goes for BIM 360, etc.

Response from Autodesk Support:

"At this time, the Desktop Connector (ADrive or ACCDocs) does not support showing "folder" properties as you would expect in Windows. The location of the Desktop Connector program files can be changed at install, but changing the workspace location is also unsupported."

[jeff_howard2]

This issue may be resolved with the latest version of the desktop connector.  There is an option to move your workspace.  It's only taken Autodesk 2 years to address this. 

https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/desktop-connector/learn-explore/caas/CloudHelp/cloudhelp/ENU/...

Edit by @Tarek_K : links above has expired. Sharing a new one: https://www.autodesk.com/bim-360/desktop-connector/

[jeff_howard2]

Well once again Autodesk has broken something that was working so well.

The newest version of the Autodesk desktop connector (v16) has no option to move the workspace.

This is a huge step backward.

The big problem our company has with this is that our users are mostly remote, and when working on renderings they need access to the same materials.  Since relative paths are not working with the Revit materials library each user has to re-map the materials every time they work on a rendering.  Now if you have multiple people working on renderings at the same time your get into a situation that the paths for the materials on constantly changing and users cannot complete their task.

If I am wrong about this or anyone has a workaround that will works with V16 or higher or the Desktop connector, I would love to hear what you're doing.

[Dr_P_akbari]

We need this option as soon as possible. so even for every project we can save it in different path. part of our projects are on the cloud part on local server. and each project has its own network path so we should be able to save each project in different address. I hope it is to be done ASAP. Its been long that we have been waiting for this option. 

Thank you

[jeff_howard2]

Dr_P_akbari

In version 16.402026 the feature has been added again to the help menu.

The lates update that Autodesk has related 16.4.2.62 dose have the feature again.

They put it in the help menu.

[Kay_Rethmeier]

Hi Jeff,

totally aggree! - Drive C is only for installations and the operating system. All data's have to be stored somewhere else!

But as a workaround: did somebody checked the possibility by "linking" to a different drive via junctions or symbolic links? Dropbox is dumb enough and linked files are synchronized. - Will check it....

Cheers

Kay

[Kay_Rethmeier]

Hi,

I found my synched folder inside my user folder "C:\Users\myUser\DC\ADrive". Based on LinkShellExtension it was possible to move my folder ADrive to D:\Cloud\...  With a junction I linked the folder back to "C:\Users\myUser\DC\ADrive".

Active status:

Disconnected:

If somebody needs this feature urgently, that could be an idea. Nevertheless Autodesk has to provide this feature, even all other cloud-provider do have the option to switch the file location.

Best regards

Kay

[jeff_howard2]

Version 16.9.1.2222 has been released and Autodesk looks like they are headed in the right direction.

Unfortunately, there documentation for the new feature "Admin Change Workspace Guide" is filled with errors and inconsistencies.

1. The Registry Keys shown in the documentation don't exist.
2. If you manually create the registry keys, they don't work.