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Project Sharing Server


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@JuanP or @Tamsin Slatter - could you explain a little more about the benefits of using this? We have a NAS in the office but unsure if it's worth the effort to install the Project Sharing Server on to it in a docker container as has been illustrated. What are the benefits of doing this vs. remotely connecting to the NAS and working on a project file that is stored on there?

 

At the start of lockdown we found that remotely connecting to the NAS and working with project sharing this way was not very stable. Does project sharing server help with this?

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  • Vectorworks, Inc Employee

@_James

If you are using Project Sharing and working remotely, you should be using Project Sharing with a cloud service (Dropbox or Resilio provides the best performance). This setup is the best. 

If that setup is not feasible, you will have to connect to a shared drive using a VPN, but your internet speed must be fast relative to your file size. 
 

If you currently connect to a shared drive (Win, Mac, NAS) in an office or via a VPN, I recommend installing the Project Sharing Server on the shared drive. 

With the Project Sharing Server (PSS), we no longer rely on the operating system (OS) when locking the Project File. With users using different operating systems and multiple file protocols (smb, AFP, etc.), there was no reliable way to lock the Project File. The PSS eliminates this problem. We now have a process running on the server or NAS that handles all operations on the Project File - this gives us full control, and it eliminates any surprises. Also, we no longer rely on smb and AFP with the Project Sharing Server. Vectorworks communicates with the PSS using HTTP, which works irrespective of the OS you are using. 
 

You mentioned you had problems remotely connecting to a NAS. What were the issues? Did you get any alerts? Were you using a VPN connection? Understanding these problems might shed some light on the root problems, and I can provide a more specific recommendation.

 

Thanks,

Tolu

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Where I can find the psserverd.tar.gz to be installed/uploaded on the docker app (as from the instructions/video by @JuanP? Opening my installer (macOS) I only see this, but if I unzip the files they're 1KB (and not working). I've the feeling I am missing something, thanks for any help!

 

 

Screenshot 2020-09-17 at 15.49.58.png

Edited by str
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Hi @Tolu, thanks for the info. We were using project sharing with a direct connection to the NAS but have now switched to dropbox. I think our issues were to do with 2 things:

 

- no VPN connection

- slow internet speeds

 

Everyone's home internet obviously varies quite a lot but I know for myself at the beginning of lockdown it was about 15Mb/s. Are there speeds you would recommend or recommend nothing less than X Mb/s for example? What is a fast internet speed relative to file size, perhaps you could give an example as a ratio?

 

Finally to be clear, is working via dropbox better than working with PSS? Or will the performance and stability be roughly equal on both?

 

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  • Vectorworks, Inc Employee
9 minutes ago, _James said:

Hi @Tolu, thanks for the info. We were using project sharing with a direct connection to the NAS but have now switched to dropbox. I think our issues were to do with 2 things:

 

- no VPN connection

- slow internet speeds

I suspected as much. Using Dropbox is the best solution for your setup.  The Project Sharing Server will not help you.

 

Our hardware recommendations are here: https://www.vectorworks.net/sysreq. You need at least ~50 mbps.

 

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  • Vectorworks, Inc Employee
4 hours ago, str said:

Thanks @Tolu for your prompt reply, I can see it but the .zip is 1KB and the .tar is 0 KB and not working (installing from Vectorworks2021-SP0-564899-SeriesBEG-installer4-osx.dmg). Should I download the dmg again?

The docker installer seems to be corrupt. We are working to resolve the issue. Sorry for the inconvenience. 

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