Autodesk B360 Connector
Hi @Anonymous
Thank you for your new post. To your points:
1. Am I doing something wrong? Every single time I open a word or excel through connector and press save it appears a random file in the same folder.
Could you give me more details? What type of file is created? I have tested and I can open and save an Excel file without having a new file created in my project. Can you see the source file is updated to a new version on the web, in you BIM 360 Document Management project after you save it? Also, if you are doing a Save As.., have you checked that the name of the file is the same?
2. I am wondering if Connector will allow to mirror company folder server with BIM360 folder connector host? It is possible with Dropbox desktop.
I am sorry, I am not sure I understand the question. Maybe you could clarify? Desktop Connector is already mirroring the contents of all the accounts we have access to and we can see all the projects we have the right to access on the connected drives on the local machine.
3. Autodesk intention will be to reach the same level of mature as Dropbox, speediness, open, save, symbol of sync, store local or on the cloud (smart mode).
We are constantly trying to improve and to provide our users the best possible experience and Desktop Connector is getting better and better with each version released. If there is any improvement that you would like to see, in particular, please send your ideas to our development teams using the BIM 360 Ideas portal. All the topics are monitored by our Product Management and Development teams and the best and most voted ideas are likely to be implemented.
4. Connector allow or will allow to use excel, words as Google docs? It is like revit in the cloud, multiple users can work at the same time. Or is there any workaround fir that currently?
We must keep in mind that the connected drives are an image of our BIM 360 projects created on the local machine and that the file versioning needs to be correlated with the source (BIM 360). Yes, multiple users can open the same file and edit, the changes will not be cumulated (as it is in Google Sheets) but a new version will be created for each save. For example, if we both open the same spreadsheet at the same time, make some changes and save, the file that was initially at version 1, will become version 3 (one new version added for each of us).
Again, if there is anything in particular that you believe it would make this product better, please send us you improvement requests on the BIM 360 Ideas portal.
I look forward to hearing back from you.
Best regards,
Bogdan
Bogdan Ciobanu
Hi Bodgan,
I hope you are well.
Let's focus with the first one (SYNC).
Please see Folder pic:
User 2 open the excel files through Connector, he modified the excel and press save. BIM360 will show a windows showing the saving process. This saving process will create radom files as shown: 1D0D000, etc... if you see the Last Modified... the date is increasing, it means we have been saving multiple times.
User 2 close the excel and he open the excel again. All modification are saved.
User 1 open the excel, not modification are saved.
User 3 open the excel, no modification are saved.
In the same point, I cannot see the reason why BIM Doc need to register as a files visible every time we click "save".
We can go to other points when we can find out what is going on with the core feature/function.
I hope it help more to understand the issue.
Thank you very much.
Thank you very much.
Hi @Anonymous
What version of Desktop Connector are you using? You can find that by hovering your mouse over the system tray icon. Could you share the build number with me?
Also, can you see the file version being modified on the web after saving and closing the file? Is this is a file that everyone keeps open and all users save on top of each other? As explained in my previous post, it will not work like Google Sheets.
Thank you for clarifying.
Best regards,
Bogdan
Bogdan Ciobanu
Hello again, @Anonymous
We did a little bit more research on our side and it seems like this might be caused by an Excel issue.
Please have a look at this article here on the Microsoft Support page - How to troubleshoot errors when you save Excel workbooks.
At the end of the article you will find the following:
Process to save a file:
Excel follows these steps when it saves a file:
- Excel creates a randomly named temporary file (for example, Cedd4100 without a file name extension) in the destination folder that you specified in the Save As dialog box. The whole workbook is written to the temporary file.
- If changes are being saved to an existing file, Excel deletes the original file.
- Excel renames the temporary file. Excel gives the temporary file the file name that you specified (such as Book1.xls) in the Save As dialog box.
For more information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
Could you have a look at your Antivirus and see if it is somehow blocking the process?
Best regards,
Bogdan
Bogdan Ciobanu
Hi @Anonymous,
Just wanted to know if my previous post helped with this issue.
Thank you for clicking on Accept Solution if any of the posts in this thread answered your questions. This will help other community members to find and benefit from the solutions easier.
If you still need help, let me know and we can continue working on this issue.
Best regards,
Bogdan
Bogdan Ciobanu
Hi @Anonymous,
I am sorry, I am not sure I completely understand.
Have you checked that your antivirus is not accessing the file and has the issue been solved? Could you confirm this?
This shouldn't be a Desktop Connector issue but something that Excel does if the saving process is disrupted by the antivirus or another software blocking the files.
From our tests, it seems like opening and saving Excel files do not generate any additional ones.
I look forward to hearing back from you soon.
Best regards,
Bogdan
Bogdan Ciobanu
