In the commercial world CAD/IT Managers and consultants are widely available to set up software applications to suit the requirements of companies and their projects. This kind of support is generally not available to student groups or academic institutions (at the specialised application level anyway).

Here is one possible approach to a minimally technical configuration for a group project. The example uses AECOsim Building Designer V8i but would apply equally well to MicroStation or other Bentley applications.

Assumptions:

This example assumes:

• Use of cloud storage with a local synchronised folder, e.g.: E:\Dropbox\ProjectData\ or C:\Users\<username>\OneDrive, etc.
  Ensure that you are aware of the actual path to your project data before proceeding further.
  For this example E:\Dropbox\ProjectData\ is used.
• Projects are based on the BuildingExamples project templates delivered by Bentley. For this example BuildingTemplate_GB has been used. To use this example with other regional datasets simply replace GB with the appropriate region code.

Initial project set up by group leader:

1. Copy the folder C:\ProgramData\Bentley\AECOsimBuildingDesigner V8i Ss6\WorkSpace\Projects\BuildingExamples\BuildingTemplate_GB and its contents to E:\Dropbox\ProjectData\ resulting in:
   E:\Dropbox\ProjectData\BuildingTemplate_GB.
2. Rename this copied folder BuildingTemplate_GB with your project name, e.g.: GroupProj_01, resulting in:
   E:\Dropbox\ProjectData\GroupProj_01.
   
3. In C:\ProgramData\Bentley\AECOsimBuildingDesigner V8i Ss6\WorkSpace\Projects\BuildingExamples, make a copy of BuildingTemplate_GB.pcf renaming to match the project folder, in this example, GroupProj_01.pcf. Note the PCF file name must match the project folder name.
   
4. Edit the new PCF adding the following statement which redirects AECOsim Building Designer to use E:\Dropbox\ProjectData\<projectname>:
   
   _USTN_PROJECTDATA = E:/Dropbox/ProjectData/GroupProj_01/
   
   
   Note I recommend Notepad++ or similar text editors when editing .cfg files, see Supporting Techniques- Making Configuration Files Legible in Notepad++ for more on this.
5. Synchronise D:/Dropbox/ProjectData/ and make available to all group members.

Initial project set up for each group member:

1. Identify the location of the synchronised copy of D:/Dropbox/ProjectData/. This may be different depending on where each individual has located their Dropbox folders. To demonstrate assume a group member has chosen C:\Dropbox\MyProjects\.
2. In C:\ProgramData\Bentley\AECOsimBuildingDesigner V8i Ss6\WorkSpace\Projects\BuildingExamples,  make a copy of BuildingTemplate_GB.pcf renaming to match the project folder, in this example, GroupProj_01.pcf. Note the PCF file name must match the shared project folder name.
3. Edit the new PCF adding the following statement which redirects AECOsim Building Designer to use D:\Dropbox\ProjectData\<projectname>:
   
   _USTN_PROJECTDATA = C:/Dropbox/MyProjects/GroupProj_01/
   
   

Using the Project

Open AECOsim Building Designer, look at the lower right corner of the Initial Open dialog, select GroupProj01 from the project pop-down list:

This will open AECOsim Building Designer in the synchronised Dropbox folder. All project files for sharing should be stored in the synchronised folder.

All participants can control how file are shared. For instance the group leader may wish to share site survey or other files as read-only for referencing. Group Members can store Work in progress files in folders that are not shared.

Sharing resources to a group project

In most commercial settings Bentley applications are set up with a workspace stored on a network location accessed by all users of the system. This would also be possible using a cloud service but is unnecessarily complex in the context of short academic projects.

In the scenario described above only project data files are shared via the cloud. In the standard AECOsim Building Designer project structure we include folders for shred project resources, cell libraries for instance. When a cell library is created for the project, create, or once created, move it to E:\Dropbox\ProjectData\GroupProj_01\support\dataset\cell. This is a location where AECOsim Building Designer will look for cells. As this is within the synchronised folders, a new cell library will be available to the whole group once synchronised.