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VW Cloud Services and Google Drive


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I have set up my VW Cloud Services account and linked it with my Google Drive.  There are some folders in my Google Drive that don't appear in the VW Cloud web browser.  I think it's because those folders were created by someone else.  Is there a workaround for this?

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  • Vectorworks, Inc Employee

Hi @tpenna,

Vectorworks Cloud Services currently does not show files that are shared with you on third party integrated storages. We will investigate the possibility to add this feature. 

 

A workaround that I can think of would be to have the person who shared the file with you on Google Drive to also integrate with Vectorworks Cloud Services and share the file with you through VCS. This way, you will see the file in your Vectorworks Cloud Services' "Shared with me" folder.

Regards,

Iskra Nikolova

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  • 2 years later...
  • 3 months later...
On 5/6/2021 at 12:13 AM, LCarm said:

Any luck in getting "Shared Drives" google workplace drives integrated with Cloud Services?

I would also like to know this.

 

With the below update from Dave Donley, i've come back to take a look at VCS,

 

 

As a practice, we have all our documents on GoogleDrive. For big projects that require project sharing, this is obviously an issue. A workaround for this is to have a free dropbox account, but this adds a bit more friction, spreads files out across multiple services and is very annoying when you bump up against the free limit.

 

Is there a way for VCS to access GoogleDrive Shared Drives and then administer the project sharing?

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  • 2 months later...
On 9/2/2021 at 5:46 AM, _James said:

I would also like to know this.

 

With the below update from Dave Donley, i've come back to take a look at VCS,

 

 

As a practice, we have all our documents on GoogleDrive. For big projects that require project sharing, this is obviously an issue. A workaround for this is to have a free dropbox account, but this adds a bit more friction, spreads files out across multiple services and is very annoying when you bump up against the free limit.

 

Is there a way for VCS to access GoogleDrive Shared Drives and then administer the project sharing?

100% agree, please help us Google Workspace clientelle... I will keep trying and see if it gets fixed

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  • Vectorworks, Inc Employee

Hi All,

I have some good news for you! We are currently developing support for Shared Drives on Google Drive. I don't have an exact estimate of completion. Unless we run into any major issue, it could be released before the end of this year.

On 9/2/2021 at 8:46 AM, _James said:

Is there a way for VCS to access GoogleDrive Shared Drives and then administer the project sharing?

Even if you integrate Vectorworks Cloud Services with Google Drive Shared Drives, those will not sync to your desktop via the Vectorworks Cloud Services desktop app. So, you wouldn't be able to do project sharing this way. The SharedDrives would only be accessible via the Vectorworks Cloud Services web portal, so you could use the cloud processing, as well as the viewing capabilities of Vectorworks Cloud Services web portal. Have you tried doing Project sharing with the files stored directly on the Shared Google Drives? 

 

Best regards,

Iskra Nikolova

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I haven't tried project sharing through a shared google drive as I was advised not to do so in a forum post by @Tolu who recommended using dropbox instead (I think due to the delta sync functionality that would make the experience much better/more stable but please correct me if i'm wrong).

 

Great to hear more support for Google Drive is in the pipeline, thanks for the update.

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  • Vectorworks, Inc Employee

Hi @_James,

That's correct about Google Drive and delta sync. Project Sharing would still work with Google Drive, but your experience with Dropbox would be better because it syncs changes to the Project file much faster, so the time periods in which others are blocked from working with the project file are smaller. I asked if you have tried it, because there is still a chance that it might work satisfactory for your needs, if you are mindful of this limitation. I suggest you give it a try before giving up on that option, because that would be the only way for you to keep all of your files on Google Drive and use Vectorworks Project Sharing. All other options would require you to store your project files elsewhere.

 

I hope this helps.

 

Best regards,

Iskra Nikolova

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  • 9 months later...

Hi all,

We are working on vectoworks 2023 and felt like we would give the cloud services a try! 

As we already use the Google drive we tried the integration which worked. But from there we are a bit lost on what is the process to get our files syncing ?

If everything is on the drive, and I connect through the VCS, then do I need to download the file to work on it ? But I would loose the SYNC feature I guess...

 

For example, could we use the 'copy to home' option to get this folder copied to our VCS folder on our computer. Work on it for a bit, it syncs back to the drive and once we are done we remove the home copy. Would that work ? 

 

We can't seem to be able to share a google drive folder through SYNC and EDIT option. is that normal ?

Also we can't download any file that sits on the drive, we all get error messages 'failed - Network error'.

 

Everything seems so complicated ! We would be happy to migrate everything to the Vectorworks cloud and only use from here as we got how it works now but we only have 20GB and can't find anywhere how to buy more storage space, that doesn't seem to be available.

 

We are just curious to see how everyone is using this, are we doing the right thing ? 

We work across cities and would lo have all our projects sitting on the cloud and syncing , able to access anything from anywhere as vectorworks says.

Thank you !

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  • Vectorworks, Inc Employee

Hi @Florane,

The purpose of the Google Drive integration with Vectorworks Cloud Services is to allow you to use the Vectorworks Cloud Services features without having to modify your existing Google Drive workflow or file structures. You can submit cloud processing jobs from files stored in Google Drive, and you can view 3D models (.vgx files), panoramic images, or 360° animation movies via the Vectorworks Cloud Services web portal or the Nomad mobile app, for example. Syncing and collaboration with the files should be done with Google Drive directly.

20 hours ago, Florane said:

If everything is on the drive, and I connect through the VCS, then do I need to download the file to work on it ? But I would loose the SYNC feature I guess...

The file needs to be downloaded by the Google Drive destop app. If you download it from the Cloud Services web portal, the updates you make won't sync back to your Google Drive.

 

20 hours ago, Florane said:

For example, could we use the 'copy to home' option to get this folder copied to our VCS folder on our computer. Work on it for a bit, it syncs back to the drive and once we are done we remove the home copy. Would that work ? 

Copy to home creates a copy of the file on the Vectorworks Cloud storage, which is not connected to the original in Google Drive. The changes you make to the file copied to the Vectorworks Cloud storage will be synced only to the Vectorworks Cloud, if you use the Vectorworks Cloud Services desktop app, but the changes won't make it back to Google Drive automatically.

 

20 hours ago, Florane said:

We can't seem to be able to share a google drive folder through SYNC and EDIT option. is that normal ?

Yes, Sync and Edit permission is only supported for files on Vectorworks Cloud storage. You should share the folder with Edit permissions through Google Drive directly.

 

20 hours ago, Florane said:

Also, we can't download any file that sits on the drive, we all get error messages 'failed - Network error'.

We will investigate. This should work, but it doesn't seem to work for me at the moment either. I have notified our developers.

 

20 hours ago, Florane said:

Everything seems so complicated ! We would be happy to migrate everything to the Vectorworks cloud and only use from here as we got how it works now but we only have 20GB and can't find anywhere how to buy more storage space, that doesn't seem to be available.

I think it becomes very simple when you understand when it is appropriate to use the integration, and when it is better to use the app that stores the data. You don't have to migrate everything to Vectorworks cloud, but if this is your desire, we will be happy to accommodate your needs. Purchasing additional storage is not available at the moment, but we are able to increase individual quotas as needed, free of charge.

 

Please feel free to message me directly and I will be happy to help you further.

 

Best regards,

Iskra Nikolova

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