Compare Three

Team Collaboration with Green BIM Servers Vs. Revit Server, Autodesk Vault, and WAFS

Let’s compare three popular solutions with Green BIM Servers; Revit Server, Autodesk Vault, and WAFS.

Green BIM has developed the following article to address the problems that commonly arise in Revit Server, Autodesk Vault, and WAFS (Wide Area File Service). We will discuss the obstacles seen in each of these team collaboration packages and how Green BIM has developed a solution for these obstacles.

Green BIM Servers allow multiple teams that are geographically separated to work in the same files at the same time. This gives teams live access to files as if they were in the same office working together on them.

Revit Server

Revit Server is a software used to allow live collaboration between remote teams. It is a tempting choice for teams unfamiliar with live collaboration. This is due in large part to its free availability. However, teams often find themselves spending large amounts of man hours working on it due to lost work, file locks and many other issues. However with over over 933 thousand results on Google for Revit Server Problems, they might find a solution if they spend some time.

A team’s first obstacle is that Revit Server will only work with Revit files. Teams find themselves forced to use other methods when sharing AutoCAD, Bentley, MS Word, MS Excel, Autodesk Navisworks, or any other file format. What we have done with Green BIM Servers is designed a solution that is able to work with any file format, including Revit.

Their next obstacle on Revit Server is often file locks. As the team works in their file, they will suddenly find themselves unable to select components or work on the file. The solution is often restarting the server or creating a new Central Revit file. In the meantime, the teams have lost valuable time trying to find out why the file is locked, leading to the loss of numerous hours of work from a potential restart.

The most dangerous part of Revit Server is its need for VPN, or use of Trusted Domains. Linking one network to another is much like shaking hands. No matter how safe the other network is it takes just one person to go to the wrong website, or open the wrong file to take a network down for hours, days, weeks, or worse.

There are numerous problems in addition to what we discussed here, which are covered in greater detail in our brief but helpful guide titled Revit Server Problems.

Autodesk Vault

Autodesk Vault is a data management tool which does not offer live collaboration. Instead, it helps design teams track work in progress and maintain version control. Autodesk Vaults ability to integrate into popular Autodesk design software tools makes it a good choice for tracking changes.

Teams using Autodesk Vault will find that they are limited to only tracking changes, and are not able to work live together. This obstacle can be overcome by incorporating Green BIM Servers. This allows teams to work live as if they are in the same office at the same time and track their changes with Autodesk Vault.

WAFS – Wide Area File Service

WAFS or Wide Area File Service is a file replication software that has real-time mirroring and file-locking. WAFS does its best to reduce data latency by storing data locally. It is used by many companies as an option to keep data synced between sites.

WAFS has a critical flaw, it requires an extremely low latency to work with network intense design software like Autodesk Revit. Teams using WAFS technology find themselves with locked files and corrupt models. Green BIM Servers use our exclusive Performance Cloud to greatly reduce latency. This gives us the ability to provide 100% uptime guarantees that pays you back if the Green BIM Server goes down! We are so confident that we will not go down we will pay you back if we ever do.

Green BIM’s Service Level Agreement is unmatched in the industry. We have the track record to prove it. If you would like to get a presentation or learn more about Green BIM Server, please request a presentation.