Software engineers do a much better job of tracking versions than architects.
I've long thought that Vectorworks could benefit from a system of Forking/Branching, not only as a means of enabling better collaboration but also tracking changes over time. This is particularly important when projects are being built and changes are being requested - it can be very valuable to keep track of these changes.
I was impressed by Onshape's implementation of something like this where versions of a file can selectively be merged to the main file, and the main file also compared with previous versions visually to compare the changes.
I think this is a viable alternative to the current project sharing system, which for our office at least, is the source of a lot of frustration and time wasting.
Some clear benefits I see are:
Better file integrity: You remove many people trying to commit to a project file at once which for us leads to problems. The merging is controlled by a project leader at specific points, and merging could take place collaboratively as a team whilst reviewing them in a meeting for example, not all at once at 5pm on a Friday
Better approval process: Files are only merged by project leaders after reviewing the potential change and its impact. Information is "pulled in" by a project leader with an oversight of the whole project rather than "pushed in" by whoever made the change who may only be working on a small aspect of the project.
Clear overview of project history: See who made changes (branched file), when and why. Project Sharing has project history, but there is too much noise and not clear enough data. The branched file is a clear mark of "we were asked to make this change by this person" not "Chris checked out this window object".
I wouldn't be against these types of files being hosted exclusively on Vectorworks Cloud Services to avoid the current "Project Sharing works well on Dropbox, but not Google Drive" etc.
Would be interested to hear other's thoughts or if they have other software that tracks these kinds of things for them.
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_James
Software engineers do a much better job of tracking versions than architects.
I've long thought that Vectorworks could benefit from a system of Forking/Branching, not only as a means of enabling better collaboration but also tracking changes over time. This is particularly important when projects are being built and changes are being requested - it can be very valuable to keep track of these changes.
I was impressed by Onshape's implementation of something like this where versions of a file can selectively be merged to the main file, and the main file also compared with previous versions visually to compare the changes.
I think this is a viable alternative to the current project sharing system, which for our office at least, is the source of a lot of frustration and time wasting.
Some clear benefits I see are:
I wouldn't be against these types of files being hosted exclusively on Vectorworks Cloud Services to avoid the current "Project Sharing works well on Dropbox, but not Google Drive" etc.
Would be interested to hear other's thoughts or if they have other software that tracks these kinds of things for them.
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