Thursday, July 26, 2012

The archiTECH’s Corner Networking


Okay, let’s talk about networks, as in workstations, not cocktail parties.

Revit is a model based system, which is different from your traditional AutoCAD networks. Revit is very demanding on the network components and infrastructure. This means that the file sizes will be larger which will result in greater network traffic.   Therefore, before you start on your Revit journey, I recommend that you look at your total network architecture, as a whole, and determine the demand of Revit on your entire system.

There is a number of hardware and software solutions that will help you optimize your network.  Make sure you are spending money on one that:
1.     Optimizes your bandwidth (MPLS)
2.     Expands your server space. (SAN)
3.     Improves your connectivity (Riverbed Steelhead)

Revit is collaborative software; the key to its success is communication. Revit has built-in a couple of work sharing software enhancements that will help your project team communicate and share models. These enhancements will require dedicated server space and bandwidth in order to take full advantage of their power.

So, before you introduce Revit to your end users, make sure you do your homework and test some of these considerations on a segmented network.  Conduct thorough research and development before you roll out Revit to your end users. Remember an underperforming network, is just as bad as non-existing network.

Paul VelozContributor for Industry Speaks

Paul Veloz is part of the Industry Speaks community.  He has more than 20 years experience in information technology and BIM implementation in the architecture industry. To find him and learn more, visit us at www.industryspeaks.com



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