Material and material assets

[JasonLLINDNER]

Hi everyone

a couple of my classmates and I have set up a LAN at our residence and we are collaborating using file based worksharing...my question is related to materials and material assets created on local models...

I read somewhere here that when transferring the model to a different workstation using usb or external drive (sometimes) not all materials and assets are transferred with the model and one would need to copy the material library with it which got us a little bit confused. On a file based worksharing

1. are materials and material assets created on local model transferred to the central when syncing? (Currently each workstation has the material and asset libraries stored locally on each machine as per default Revit installation.
2. Is there a way to have a central materials and assets library on our server? If yes; How can we set up our Revit on the local workstations to point to those files and save to them?
3. do we need or is it better to have Revit or any other application also installed on the local server to manage things on the central or is it sufficient to do it through one of the workstations? (Currently no Revit on the Server; only the shared folder)

anyone knows of a guide on how to properly set up a file based worksharing on a LAN and what applications are required if any to manage the central model. I found lots on Revit Server but nothing worth noting on file base...

I am open to accept any information and thanks in advance

Jason

[L.Maas · Accepted solution]

Not really looked into it yet. I think the biggest issue is the images some material use. They are stored in C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Autodesk Shared\Materials\Textures\3\Mats. So if you create a new material with an image this might give problems to other users.

What you can do is create a user material library on the server (.adsk). If you use a new image in your material make sure that the image is also available on the server and that the material in the library is pointing to it. It requires that all users use the same path (drive letter) to the server.

If you have already (user) materials in the project/template you will need to reload them from the server location.

The standard Revit materials should be ok, because they will be the same between users and I believe they have not changed (much) between the latest Revit versions. But you always can consider to also place them in the shared library and use only that library for material selection

Here some links about material libraries

Sharing Autodesk Materials throughout an Organization

How are you managing your Autodesk materials?

With regards to LAN based file sharing. This is not that complicated and reading your post you are already doing this. Create your central (with your local Revirt) and copy it to local (rename it for clarity). Load the local and synchronize with central. Good practice to create a fresh copy every day. HERE some information on the differences between file based and server based.

Materials in the central file follow the same system as not workshared enabled files. The images in the materials come from the local directories. As most people will have the same libraries in the same location this is not a big issue. Only user made materials with images have to be accounted for (as in above)

[JasonLLINDNER]

Very nice detailed answer. Thank you @L.Maas