Working from Home with ProjectWise Design Integration


Product(s):ProjectWise
Version(s):Multiple
Authoring Group:Project Delivery Business Unit

Document Purpose

This document illustrates best practices for ProjectWise Administrators and/or IT personnel to get ProjectWise users connected in a remote situation.

When working remotely, the best practice is to send a company issued laptop with the user to access either an on-premise or Bentley hosted ProjectWise implementation.

 

Internal On-Premise System

Public Facing
 On-Premise System

Bentley Hosted System

Configured Laptop

VPN

No VPN

No VPN


To get your users up and running successfully, follow the topics described in this document:

Note: Additional resources are listed after the topics.

How to Connect to ProjectWise

To connect to ProjectWise, each user needs a laptop with some basic requirements.

Laptop Requirements

  • VPN Software (where required)
  • Installed CADD Suite
  • Installed Office
  • ProjectWise Explorer
    • ProjectWise Network Configuration
    • Note: DNS Services Tab – possible routing/gateway information....
    • Note: May need to be disabled/removed if working out of the office

ProjectWise User Requirements

  • Ensure your working directory points to local drive with plenty of free space

Connection Troubleshooting

Your ProjectWise users may have some connectivity issues. In other words, the user may not see the datasource(s). If they do not see the datasources, edit the ProjectWise Network Configuration settings, particularly the Datasource Listing and DNS Services tabs. For detailed information, see the Configuring Network Settings from ProjectWise Explorer section in the ProjectWise Explorer help.

Datasource(s) Not Displaying

If the datasource(s) are NOT listed in ProjectWise Explorer, ensure that the correct servers are listed in the Datasource Listing tab.

File Transfer Issues

If files are not transferring, then the routing may be incorrectly configured for the user’s workstation. Ensure that the correct servers are listed in the DNS Services tab. For a quick fix, remove all servers and the files will route directly through the datasource listing tab server stated.

How to Improve Performance

The user may experience slowness or a perceived lag in performance. The perceptions may be caused due to a variety of non-ProjectWise hurdles such as Wi-Fi bandwidth, VPN bandwidth, etc. The following tweaks can be done for the ProjectWise User Settings and may improve performance during the users’ work from home experience.

Working Directory category

If the user’s working directory is located on a mapped drive/server share, be aware that files will download to the client workstation, and then uploaded back to the mapped drive.

Using the C: drive for the Working directory will reduce network traffic.

Note: Files may already be checked-out to the different working directory. PW Administrators should work to capture the checked-out file(s) and replace them on the ProjectWise storage to help cut down on data loss.

Document category

Leaving local copy on check in and using up to date copies on check out and copy out will reduce network traffic.

Note: PW Administrators should be certain to document user settings before adjusting so they can revert the settings if necessary. 


User Interface category > Show Select Reference Documents dialog

Possible use of “Show Select Reference Documents” dialog to select specific reference files to download or check.

Resources

Bentley Communities:

Bentley Help:

ProjectWise Learning Paths: