AutoCAD recommended File Storage Help (On premise/ SharePoint / OneDrive)
Depending on Company size (in-house IT staff) you might consider Autodesk VAULT
Rick Jackson
Survey CAD Technician VI
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As you're already using cloud storage with OneDrive, I assume you do not have a definitive requirement for files to be on-premises?
While the AutoCAD team has expanded support for major cloud storage providers (OneDrive, Box, Dropbox, etc.) in recent years, that integration is only designed for "vanilla" AutoCAD. Working in Civil 3D, specifically Data Shortcuts, introduces complexities the AutoCAD cloud storage integrations really were not designed for.
That said, the solutions that will work best with Civil 3D include:
- Vault: It's technically designed to work with Civil 3D, but I very rarely recommend Vault for Civil 3D users as the overhead for getting it setup and maintaining it is steep. There are some very specific use cases, such as a contractual need for everything to be on-premise, where it becomes an option, but apart from incredibily specific use-cases, I stay away from it for Civil 3D.
- Remote Desktop: This one is perhaps the simpliest to implement. Basically keep your Civil 3D workstation in the office (where the data is located), and then use Remote Desktop, Chrome Remote Desktop, TeamViewer, etc to remotely access that machine from a second (lesser powered) machine at home.
- Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI): Services like Workspot offer an experience similar to the Remote Desktop option outlines above. The difference is you more-or-less rent a Civil 3D workstation from a VDI provider, and then access that Virtual Desktop from a cheap computer. For smaller companies, this can be a cost effective solution.
- BIM 360 Docs and BIM 360 Design: So far as cloud storage is concerned, the only cloud storage solution designed to work with Data Shortcuts is Autodesk's own BIM 360. The basic solution works a lot like Sharepoint/OneDrive in the sense that you install a small utility (Desktop Connector) on your computer, and it syncs files between the cloud and your local machine. It handles file locking when multiple people are working on a project. The nice thing is, with BIM 360 you're working on a local copy of your DWGs, so there's no network lag when saving DWGs and doing that sort of thing. That said, like any cloud storage, it will take time to sync your changes back to the cloud, so others working on your project might not see updates in realtime.
Based on the little you've shared; BIM 360 would be toward the top of my list for your use-case.
While a good solution, I must warn you, the BIM 360 terminology can be confusing.
Your Civil 3D users would need two licenses; BIM 360 Docs and BIM 360 Design. BIM 360 Docs gives you unlimited file storage (including unlimited file versions), file sharing, and file viewing, whereas BIM 360 Design is what makes Civil 3D Data Shortcuts and Revit Worksharing work. Basically, everyone in your company would need a BIM 360 Docs license, but only Civil 3D users would need the BIM 360 Design license.
In getting started with BIM 360, you would begin by creating projects inside BIM 360, and then migrating your data from wherever it exists (Sharepoint) today to those BIM 360 projects. There are several strategies for doing this. As such, while you can purchase BIM 360 direct from Autodesk, I would highly recommend working with your reseller to identify and develop the strategy that is best for you.
With Autodesk's business model shift to named users, BIM 360 Docs might provide you a way to reduce your AEC Collection/Civil 3D licenses. Reason for that is, BIM 360 offers web-based viewing and markup tools for Autodesk file formats (like DWG). As such, people like Project Managers who you might give Civil 3D so they can open and review drawings, could possibly achieve everything they need to with a simple BIM 360 Docs license (no BIM 360 Design license would be needed for them as they wouldn't be using Civil 3D).
With regard to pricing, I'm honestly not sure what things are currently priced at. That said, the more licenses you purchase, the cheaper the per-user cost becomes. With that in mind, I would be sure to ask my reseller where the price breaks are. Sometimes it can be adventageous to buy more seats than you need as the per-user cost could be lower. For example, if you're a 45-person company, it can sometimes be cheaper to buy 50 licenses than it would be to by 45 licenses.
Yes. OneDrive is awful. When we stared working from home I synced all our project file to OneDrive. When I opened it from home. All of the folders were there but NONE of the files. Many other problems. I only use it as backup.
Our IT is begining to roll out OnBase. But I don't have any experince with it yet.
Allen Jessup
CAD Manager - Designer
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