Git style team file management

[AlexWHughes]

Hello, 

 

I love the inclusion of the collaborative workflow for Vectorworks with the capacity to check out layers, etc but as a company that works across many locations and timezones the limiting file sync location preference (self hosted or using file sharing) makes our specific use case of Dropbox hard to manage, especially on mac. 

 

So I come with more of a question rather than a specific feature request. Has Vectorworks ever considered looking into a Git style collaboration and commit system? The benefit here is mainly the capacity to "approve" changes and rollback or even "fork" and merge changes as required. 

 

There are details here from a development perspective but I would be keen to see something like exist that didn't just work on a layer by layer basis and would solve the issue of two people working on the same layer etc as it would be object bound rather than simply just layer based.

 

https://www.atlassian.com/git/tutorials/comparing-workflows#:~:text=A Git workflow is a,in how users manage changes.

[Matt Overton]

Given the developers of the program mostly likely use Git or similar subversion management system to deal with exactly the same issues but in code not vectors. I'd hope they'd have considered. It has certainly been suggested before. 

 

Might be a file mass issue. 

Code tends to be lots of smaller files. That eventually merge, our files have structure but are monolithic so potentially would need a way to break them up into say one layer per file, resource libraries as own files. But then the editor needs to deal with single editor multiple file drawing info from multiple files then also enabling multiple editors. I could see how that quickly becomes a bridge to far. 

 

But last time it was suggested I know some people suggested Architectural users weren't sophisticated enough for it which is why no CAD vender has done it. 

 

Still think it would be great, amazing even help cross company / platform / country teams.  Even for a solo designer for option management.

I'm really surprised Coders haven't solved their customers problems with the tools that solve their similar problems.

[AlexWHughes]

I think especially with projects getting larger and more complex it is worth trying to raise to ask what we can do as users to get features like this discussed, considered at least. 

[_James]

I mentioned this to some members of the vectorworks team a few years ago on one of the vectorworks open house sessions. They seemed positive about it but I don't think it went anywhere.

 

I think it's a great way to consider changes too, rather than make new fews or duplicate layers. Say for example a change to a bathroom layout - you can quickly and easily see the new vs. old and decide which to press ahead with, with just a mouse click to merge the proposed change. This data would be incredibly valuable to assign/link it to change requests from clients and then track the time spent making the changes. 

 

I think a system such as this could be very powerful and I hope that the Project Sharing item on the "In Development" roadmap looks at this, although i'm not hopeful with it's description being "Improve performance and reliability of transactional operations in our project sharing solution." which sounds like just an evolution of the current system.

[_James]

Sorry, some more thoughts on this - 

 

Having a more formal approval process (i.e. the administrator needs to merge the branches) helps the administrator/project lead stay up to date with the project. For example they could sit at their desk on a Monday morning and go through the all the pull requests from the previous week, merging the data into the main file both giving their approval of the change but also understanding it fully and, more crucially, understanding what the current status of the project is.

 

I think this is underrated in projects that are large/complex/have many people working on them in that the 'current' information can be in flux for long periods of time, and can also change very rapidly when a few people commit changes. In the current system, people can just press 'save and commit' and change the project entirely without the administrator approving the change.

 

I'm probably getting carried away, but if they system could detect what is changing, say a bathroom layout, and show a summary of the change on a sheet that could then be viewed by the administrator or sent to the client for review, that would be a huge feature for us.

[Matt Overton]

15 hours ago, _James said:

Sorry, some more thoughts on this - 

 

Having a more formal approval process (i.e. the administrator needs to merge the branches) helps the administrator/project lead stay up to date with the project. For example they could sit at their desk on a Monday morning and go through the all the pull requests from the previous week, merging the data into the main file both giving their approval of the change but also understanding it fully and, more crucially, understanding what the current status of the project is.

 

I think this is underrated in projects that are large/complex/have many people working on them in that the 'current' information can be in flux for long periods of time, and can also change very rapidly when a few people commit changes. In the current system, people can just press 'save and commit' and change the project entirely without the administrator approving the change.

 

I'm probably getting carried away, but if they system could detect what is changing, say a bathroom layout, and show a summary of the change on a sheet that could then be viewed by the administrator or sent to the client for review, that would be a huge feature for us.

With the push for digital twins at the moment it could be a real market win to have files that are set up for the long term life of the building and know the history of the building now and as it response to change in the future.

[_James]

18 hours ago, _James said:

rather than make new fews or duplicate layers.

rather than make a new file* or duplicate layers.