1Adam12 wrote:
Hi,
I'm curious about other's experiences with Teamwork. I'm on the IT side of things and am supporting a group of ArchiCad users using Teamwork with a file in the 150MB range for a large project. The endusers are using high end dual cpu XP workstations, minimum 2GB RAM, gigabit ethernet, local, optimized libraries, latest ArchiCAD SP's, and are seeing 10-15 minutes minimum for Send-Receive to complete. It's quite a thorn in my side.

What do you see in practical use? What are your best practices with Teamwork?

I went through this about a year ago on a file of comparable size. I was working on the project as well, and these seemed to work.

We came up with a set of rules to regulate the problem, since it did not seem fixable:
1) Keep the staff working on the same tasks as much as possible. This could keep someone in the same workspace for several days.
2) Figure out what workspace users will need for the next 4 to 8 hours. Users should not need to change workspace more than once per day that way.
3) Save your changes to the "Local Draft" format (PLC) whenever you feel like but preferably to your local drive since it is faster than saving 150+ MB over the network.
4) Only Send & receive when changing workspace. (if they follow Rule 1, that's once per day).
5) Stagger the Send & Receive times, so some people are saving at 4, some at 4:30, some at 5:00, etc.
6) If someone will use the same workspace the next day, they do not sign out at the end of the day.

Yeah, it was a pain, but it cut down on a LOT of lost time.

We also tried dividing the file up a bit, so some of the non-model stuff like typical details, the cover sheet, and some other things were in a separate PLN file. You couldn't use automated detail linking, but it was a small price to pay.