Pros and cons of "Project Sharing" vs "xRef design layer viewports" as a way to share and organise projects across multiple users ?

[Sam Lee]

We are running VWX 2017 Architect with 4 users.

 

To organise our projects for the past 5 years we have been using xref design layer view ports and we share the various files using dropbox. 

 

This works fine, but i noticed a few years back VWX introduced the project sharing feature. 

 

What are the pros and cons of "Project Sharing" vs "xRef design layer viewports" as a way to share and organise projects across multiple users ? 

 

In addition to dropbox we has a NAS if project sharing requires it.

 

[digitalcarbon]

have not used Project sharing...except for testing.   use wgr all the time...

 

1. big projects need to be broken up and not all kept in one big file.

2. I have a lot of sub-systems that need to be made in a separate file and drawings/BOM need to be made of those sub-system.

these sub-systems need have their own layering system so i can turn on and off various features...if its in one big file then you are going to have a hard time keeping sub-systems separate..

 

Example a hospital with many bathrooms.

i would have a separate vw file with all the bathroom configs and make drawings/BOM in that file. then wgr into the main assembly vw file 

if you make VPs of the bathroom in the main assemble file and dimension and then relocate then you need to readjust your sheets etc....but if I dim in my sub-system file then the location of the bathrooms never changes in space hence it never moves on my sheet....

 

so i have"

VW Site DTM - this locates the bldg on the site in relation to the UTM Grid.

VW Assembly - wgr all sub-systems into one big file, would contain walls general

VW Sub-system 1 - Maybe structural 

VW Sub-system 2

VW Sub-system 3  

etc

 

sample of sub-system drawings/BOM

 

 

sample of assembly wgr into the VW Site DTM file... note how its rotated...but the original assembly file is not rotate..

 

 

sub-systems like ponds can be kept separate and dimensioned in the source file this way any changes to their location on site does not mess up my sheet work

 

[digitalcarbon]

wgr also helps with units...the VW Site DTM is could be in decimal ft (100.00ft) or Meters...but the various sub-system depending on where they are made can be in ft-in, mm, or whatever....this allows me to work in mm but when a particular sub-system is made in US i can work in Imperial and not "dirty" up the rest of the project..