Topic: Managing family content between offices.

[alterego]

I work in the MEP design/install field and we have offices in multiple locations. 

I'm just trying to figure out what other people are using to manage the family and template libraries to ensure standards?

What do you use and what are the pros and cons of your chosen method please?

Thanks for anyones input/advice etc.

[Rob...]

Our offices share the same network.

[alterego]

Ours do too, but the other offices say its very slow as the drive has been configured as an internet drive to enable the sharing.  The net result of which is that people seem to be downloading families from manufacturers to their own local drives each time they want a family as its "quicker" than searching our library for the information.

[Rob...]

If the network is too slow, then people won't use it as you have found out. I haven't had to deal with this situation but I think the solution is obvious, someone needs to maintain a local network version of the library for each office. I'd be willing to bet that it could be done automatically. Directives would need to be put in place to only use content from those libraries and manufacturer's families need to be put through a vetting process so that they can be modified to suit your needs before being used in a project.

[John Kaul (Se7en)]

I'd suggest using Unison and a Windows Scheduled Task to keep things in order.

Binaries:
http://unison-binaries.inria.fr/

Quick setup example:
http://www.theswamp.org/index.php?topic=53513.msg582417#msg582417

Unison thread:
http://www.theswamp.org/index.php?topic=53713.msg584919#msg584919

[alterego]

Thanks for your input.  I'll take a good long look at Unison and see if it is the way to go.

I was wondering whether anyone here had tried any of the content manager type add-ins and what pros and cons there were to them.

[John Kaul (Se7en)]

Never seen/used a content manager plugin. ...I develop my content in a directory of folders (I manage them on my C drive and publish to the network). I also do NOT use a "template project" (a template with placeholder links and whatnot) because I make my users load the families they need for the project.

I wrote a small tutorial on how I publish my content to the network on my linkedin page.
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/using-version-control-software-when-building-content-john-kaul/

[alterego]

Thank you once again for your help.

I'm reading that now.  I may be back with further questions, and will put this option to management.