Relative path option needed.

[CVDemick]

I created a Navisworks Manage .nwf and appended files using the BIM 360 Team Desktop Connector, which is great because I don't have to download files off the internet and store them on my server. The only issue is that the file path for all of the Files that were appended have C:\Users\Username in front of them. So I cannot share my .nwf with other people in my office. Is there a way to use Relative Paths when using the Desktop Connector so we don't have this issue and have to create a model for each individual user on a project?

[routman]

We are having this same issue here as well. This used to work, but appears to be broken again. Based on some older posts, it looks like this was an issue back in November too.

I had great troubles with Desktop Connector (specifically the b360 Provider) and gave up for a bit to wait for it to mature. Today I had the need to use it again so I installed the latest version (Build 6.0.0.658) with the b360 Provider and am running into more issues.

A coworker (in a distant office) has placed a file in the BIM 360 (Preview) folder and linked to it. I assumed that upon opening the model on my end that it would download the model to my connector drive. BUT it shows the file is not found and you can see that it is pointing to her user folder.

Please help!

[patrick.beattie]

Hi @CVDemick,

Thank you for posting to the forum.  I understand you are looking to link to a file that is stored in your BIM 360 account.  

You should be able to link to the BIM 360 account and the file for your project.  Based on the screenshot, it still sees like you are linked locally.  Please take a look at To Connect Your Local Workflows to BIM 360 to assist with linking your models hosted on BIM 360.

If this answers your forum post, please choose Accept as Solution so that other members can find it as well.

Best regards,

[CVDemick]

Patrick,

Thank you for the response. The solution you provided seems to be for a workflow using BIM 360 Docs. The issue I am having right now is with BIM 360 Team (see the attached screen shot). 

[patrick.beattie]

Hi @CVDemick,

I'm following up with regards to your last post.  I reached out to some colleagues on this discussion.  

The way Desktop Connector works is that it gets installed on the C drive on the machine, and provides access to the files hosted on either BIM 360 Team or BIM 360 Document Management.  There cannot be a relative path for Desktop Connector because the files need to be stored somewhere on the machine.

The reason you are having trouble sharing the NWF file is related to Navisworks not able to change paths and Desktop Connector having to be installed locally on the machine.  This combination is causing the behavior you are seeing.

In Navisworks, you may need to append the files when trying to open the NWF but it should still allow the changes to the file to be updated.  

Let us know if you have any questions or comments.  Thank you and I look forward to your reply.

Best regards,

[patrick.beattie]

Hi @CVDemick,

I just wanted to follow up with regards to my last post to see if you had any questions with the information provided.  

Did the information I provided help clarify behavior you are seeing within Navisworks?

If you consider this forum post resolved, please choose Accept as Solution so that other members can find the answer as well.  Let us know if you have any questions or comments.  

Best regards,

[CVDemick]

Patrick,

thank you for the response. When you say we would need to append the files when we open the NWF, I'm thinking you mean that we would need to re-path each of the files as they come up "path not resolved". We tried that and came to the conclusion that it was faster to re-create the NWF from scratch. 

Another issue we came across was that the model wouldn't refresh while it was open. If someone updated an appended .nwc on the BIM 360 Team site, we would need to close Navis and re-open it in order to see the changes. This was the straw that broke the camels back for us. We ended up just downloading the files from BIM 360 Team onto our local server and created an NWF like we normally have done in the past. Hopefully the BIM 360 products will be upgraded to be more functional and efficient in the future.  

[patrick.beattie · Accepted solution]

Hi @CVDemick,

Just following up with regards to your last message.  I understand there are defitenly some limitations with this workflow, including the NWC not updating automatically.

If you are looking to see improvements using Desktop Connector and BIM 360, I strongly encourage you to submit your feedback to the BIM 360 Ideas website.  The Product Management team likes to hear from our customers on workflows they are trying to implement.

At this point, it seems like the workflow for Navisworks and Desktop Connector will not allow you to see your changes by refreshing.

If you consider this post resolved, please choose Accept as Solution on the post that best helped.  Let us know if you have any questions or comments.

Best regards,

[joe_truitt · Accepted solution]

Go here and Vote and ask your buddies. 

https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/community-ideas/a-navisworks-ideastation/idc-p/8129288#M1658

[Anonymous]

Hello, 

Has there been an update to this issue since 7-5-2018? I'm experiencing this issue in BIM 360 Document Management. 

[RobertAGlover]

404 Link not found.

[Anonymous]

This link was not found. Can you try again please? Thanks!

[RobertAGlover]

My sincere apologies for the confusion.

My post from yesterday was tongue-in-cheek a "quick comment" in response to @patrick.beattie's 2018-06-27 01:53 PM post with a link "To Connect Your Local Workflows to BIM 360" and I had hoped it would show directly below his post. I was in error.

[andyvm]

We recently implemented a potential workaround for this situation and I'll highlight it here.

Important Note: The Desktop Connector 360 did not work for this solution, so we are using a SharePoint site library.

Here is what we did:

1. Setup a Sharepoint Site and library for the Navisworks files ("Navisworks Projects" is the title of the library).
2. Set the library to sync to the users workstation
3. Once the sync appeared on the workstation, browsed to the path (c:\users\<user profile>\<Organization Name>\Navisworks Projects (However it shows in the OneDrive sync location for Sharepoint)
4. The magic step: Shared the Navisworks Projects folder as "NavisworksProjects" for the local user. Also important, click on "Permissions" and make sure "Everyone" has Full Control. (NOTE: This permission is just for the share itself, not the folder permissions. "Everyone" will not have access to your files. Just stating if someone has security level to access your files, then they will be able to write to them.) (ANOTHER NOTE: Sharing the folder did not work in the Autodesk Connector, which is why we had to use a Sharepoint library)
5. Open file explorer and browsed to \\127.0.0.1\, added the NavisworksProjects folder to the quick access list for later
6. (IT here so be gentle) In the Navisworks manage, rebuilt all the links using the quick access link, which ties the location to \\127.0.0.1\NavisworksProjects
7. Repeated steps 1-5 for all other users and it seems to be working well.

More Info:

127.0.0.1 is known as a loopback address for all computers. It's basically a local only IP for your computer. 

With using \\127.0.0.1\NavisworksProjects\xxx all users will be able to have this path on their computers and it will be consistent, even though the actual path is under c:\users\<user profile>

Hopefully this helps, please test and let us know if you experience any snags we should be aware of!

[CVDemick]

Thank you for the ongoing responses to this issue and I hope this works and helps out anyone that is trying to work off the cloud during these odd times. Unfortunately Sharepoint is not an option for us, we are trying to leverage the BIM 360 Docs platform as much as possible. If this is a viable solution I hope that Autodesk will pick it up fairly soon. 

[ramon.a-VEC]

Hi @CVDemick ,

We fixed this problem changing the Username to %username% on file path when Navisworks can't find the external reference. You just need to do it for the first file.

It will change the path to a dynamic path for all users. The limitation is that the user must have permission to edit the NWF file on B360. 

I hope it will help you.

Best,

[Anonymous]

Including Username in file path breaks all kinds of potential uses for desktop connector. Why not make a user specified path optional C:\MyBIM360\ or whatever which a company could determine and secure appropriately.

[Footrot]

Hi All,

I work with ProjectWise and Navisworks Manage. What I have found in this instance is that I can get a degree of connectivity between different users by setting up the Navisworks file on one users computer and appending all the  files required via the ProjectWise cache folders. When done this way it will include the username withing the full path.  Save the file and check it back into Projectwise. The step to trick Navisworks into remembering where all these files are is to jump onto another users computer and open the file in Navisworks Manage. Copy out all the files required in the Navisworks file first. It will ask you to locate the missing files. At this step remove all the user specific content of the hard path and replace with the old fashioned dos command for going up one level in folders, that is the double full stop before the folder slash and file name ie "..\filename" and hit enter. This will assign a relative path to the first file missing. Navisworks will locate all the other files missing using this first path definition. Then simply save and check in the file. I am not familiar with BIM360 yet but would assume a similar method might just work for it also.  For the record I am working with Navisworks Manage 2019 version and 2018 version. The catch here is that any new user has to copy out all the required appended files before they open the Navisworks file. To manage this process I simply use a text file and label it "read me first".  🙂 Hope that is of some benefit.  

[ben.sicklingPGASB]

Hi, could you maybe put some screenshots on showing the steps as my machine doesn't allow me to click OK after adding the DOS style prompts

[o_kappert]

I tried this but i didn't get an active OK button after i change the file path to c:\users\%username%\...

Does anyone konw that the problem is with this. I can't change the file path