Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Public Revit Server?

Imagine you could work efficiently with others outside your office on workset-enabled Revit files without being within the same network infrastructure or connected together via VPN. Wouldn’t that be cool?

I’m not implying this will work (yet) but I think it’s actually possible. See for yourself by clicking here! Note that this is a temporary URL and will only work for a short period of time after this post. If testing is successful, I’ll follow up with details.


Share/Save/Bookmark

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

I can see it no issues.

I was wondering if you had the IP address for the connection to the Project folder.

I did add and delete a folder so it's just getting Revit to connect to the IP.

Dave Baldacchino said...

I've been playing around with some settings...try now using dourevit.dyndns.org as your central server name.

Unknown said...

I think it will work, but the issue is going to be connection speed. You should check out this model hosting system by Collaboration Systems Group. http://www.civilsystemsgroup.com/revitmodelhosting.htm
The key here is using Riverbed's Steelhead devices for WAN acceleration. Revit Server isn't even needed in this scenario.

Dave Baldacchino said...

Thanks for the link, I'll definitely take a look.

We've done some tests and it's actually working. I cannot stay it's 100% stable, but considering we have 3 separate networks (one for each local server for 2 users and one central server on another public network), it's very promising. Securing the Admin panel will be the next task.

Anonymous said...

Hey Dave

I can connect to you from Australia, but once I try and access the Revit server Folder it throws up an error. it will show it however, just no access.

get the usual server not available due to seerver or network failure.

It says to contact admin so here I am.

Interested to see how it goes since we are having good success with it running on local laptops for on the ground users.

Adam Sheather

Dave Baldacchino said...

Hi Adam,

Not sure why that is happening. A while ago I was testing with my buddy Daniel in Canada and it was doing the same thing. Then all of a sudden, it quit giving us errors and worked fine both on RAC2011 and RAC2012 Beta. I suspect that either the local server has not yet received all files or there is some problem with the internet connections.

I am currently at work and can create folders on my Local server just fine (and they go to my Central Server, which is at home on another network). I just created a folder named "Adam Test by Dave" to verify.

Dave Baldacchino said...

Adam, I would make sure to disable Windows Firewall too and see if it works. I believe all that's needed really is to open up port 80 for http and perhaps port 443 for https traffic, but disabling the firewall would easily confirm that it is a port issue. Then you can start narrowing down which one. I'm gong to try and see if I can find some other info. through my router's log files tonight to see exactly which ports need to be opened/forwarded.

GeoffB said...

FYI, there is an project being promoted in the ArchiCAD Group on LinkedIn to get people from a minimum of two thirds of all time zones to collaborate on an experimental project using the Graphisoft BIM Server.

You may need to join the group to see the discussion here: http://www.linkedin.com/groups/Get-connected-global-experimental-worldwide-796267%2ES%2E46918302?view=&gid=796267&type=member&item=46918302&trk=EML_anet_di_pst_ttle

Best,
Geoff Briggs

Dave Baldacchino said...

Thanks Geoff, I was able to see the discussion. Interesting times!

Joe Stott said...

Interesting stuff, not too sure how security works though. I just managed to unlock some folders..

Dave Baldacchino said...

Correct, right now I have it all open but in actual practice, you'd want to lock the admin panel down. In a public setting like this experiment though, I don't know how you would lock it since it seems you can only use Windows authentication:

http://docs.autodesk.com/subscription/REVIT/2011/ENU/filesUsersGuide/WS1a9193826455f5ff-7d5f8a95129ad2c3b01-7fb5.htm

Anonymous said...

Dave, Keep up with your experiment and be backed for later developments.
- Silleke

Post a Comment