Goggle Drive Works Really Great For Sharing Chief Files

[Dave Pitman]

Scott, Off the subject of DB, and on the subject of files on your machine, here is a great shortcut to easily find most any file on your machine.

Click on the START icon. Your cursor will be sitting in a box at the bottom of a search box. Simply type in the name of a file or folder, and hit enter. A dialog with everything that is found matching the search criteria will be displayed.

You can either left click on the file to open it directly, or right-click on it, and choose the option to "open file location".

You can even use "wildcards" to find all files of a certain type, like this example: Type in *.plan and you will get all your chief plan files listed. Pretty cool.

[dshall]

Scott, Off the subject of DB, and on the subject of files on your machine, here is a great shortcut to easily find most any file on your machine.

Click on the START icon. Your cursor will be sitting in a box at the bottom of a search box. Simply type in the name of a file or folder, and hit enter. A dialog with everything that is found matching the search criteria will be displayed.

You can either left click on the file to open it directly, or right-click on it, and choose the option to "open file location".

You can even use "wildcards" to find all files of a certain type, like this example: Type in *.plan and you will get all your chief plan files listed. Pretty cool.

Nice, where were you 7 years ago, thanks.

[mehen]

Attached is how we organize our DB folder. It seems like there is some confusion on how it works and once you get the Dropbox app installed on each machine and signed to the SAME DB account everything works pretty seamlessly. I love it and cannot imagine anything more fluid and seamless. The only time we have syncing problems is when one user in is a plan doing new work, saves the plan and closes chief - You must make sure that the Dropbox icon is finished uploading the updated file - Blue spinning circle - once it is a green check then you can shut down the computer.

If my partner and I are in the identical file, save and close at the same time DB will add both files to the folder but rename one as conflicted. Generally not a big deal. Just make sure only one file is open on any of the computers involved.

Scott - I have the iphone app and love it. The app does NOT contain all of the actual files on your phone. Only the folder name - then file names. Once you click on a file it will download it. This is great for PDF's, Picture files and the like. It is great to be out and about - have a contractor call and say they need the pdf of the plans and be able to send them the link in seconds. There is an ability to save the file to the phone by using the Favorites button. This is handy if you want the file to be readily accessible and not have to wait for the download to happen.

[HumbleChief]

You've inspired me to move all my plan files to my Google Drive folder (on my hard drive) Thanks.

They don't recommend that a cloud service be used for backup but I read in the review posted above that Drive also offers a Backup utility that works with Drive. Anyone used that? And I wonder why using Drive or DB isn't that great as a back up system?

[perryh]

Scott, Off the subject of DB, and on the subject of files on your machine, here is a great shortcut to easily find most any file on your machine.

Click on the START icon. Your cursor will be sitting in a box at the bottom of a search box. Simply type in the name of a file or folder, and hit enter. A dialog with everything that is found matching the search criteria will be displayed.

You can either left click on the file to open it directly, or right-click on it, and choose the option to "open file location".

You can even use "wildcards" to find all files of a certain type, like this example: Type in *.plan and you will get all your chief plan files listed. Pretty cool.

Windows 8 even goes one better than that.

[perryh]

Here's a comparison review if anyone's interested. BTW Google Drive comes with 15BG free storage which seems like a lot for free. Not trying to sell Drive to anyone but really am intersted in others' experience.

http://blog.backupify.com/2012/05/17...sync-services/

Notice that they don't include Carbonite with their comparisons.

[HumbleChief]

I'm pretty sure Carbonite makes no claim to serve the same purpose (file synching/sharing) as Drive, DB etc. Carbonite is mainly a backup service which is different than Drive etc. hence no reason to compare?

[Dan Park]

Just to stir the pot a bit.

I want to re-iterate Drop Box and Google Drive are great tools for synchronization. But consider this:

If the latest version of your file becomes corrupt, that corruption can be synchronized to all your systems including the file at drop box.

Make sure to have historical copies of your files as backups. Both Google Drive and Dropbox have archival tools you can add on. I would strongly consider doing this if you use these services.

Archival means you have access to older versions of your files. This is important if you need to recover a corrupt file or need to find an older version of the file.

[perryh]

Guys, Dropbox is not a backup program it is a sync program and that's it. If you somehow crash/ lose the dropbox folder, then you have nothing at all. Carbonite is a backup and sync program and if you lose any file you choose to backup, you can still fine it at carbonite b/c they will keep all files for 30 days after it gets deleted. That's why Google drive won't compare their's to Carbonite.

[perryh]

I'm pretty sure Carbonite makes no claim to serve the same purpose (file synching/sharing) as Drive, DB etc. Carbonite is mainly a backup service which is different than Drive etc. hence no reason to compare?

Not correct Carbonite also sync's, share's and backup's

[saecurtis]

Guys, Dropbox is not a backup program it is a sync program and that's it. If you somehow crash/ lose the dropbox folder, then you have nothing at all.

Dropbox, by default saves a 30 day history of your files. You can also purchase the Packrat add-on, which is a back-up program, allowing you to restore deleted files and unlimited previous versions.

[HumbleChief]

Not correct Carbonite also sync's, share's and backup's

Great info you guys - didn't realize that Perry. I've got Carbonite too. Should look into its capabilities a little more.

The thing I like about Drive, and don't see carbonite behaving this way is when I transfer a file to my Google Drive folder (on my hard drive lol) I see it almost immediately on the web and others can see it within minutes (seconds actually) as well. Can Carbonite do that too? I always have Carbonite running in the background but never tried to upload and view a single file immediately.

No Carbonite folder that I can see either but have to admit I don't that much about Carbonite.

[HumbleChief]

Just to stir the pot a bit.

I want to re-iterate Drop Box and Google Drive are great tools for synchronization. But consider this:

If the latest version of your file becomes corrupt, that corruption can be synchronized to all your systems including the file at drop box.

Make sure to have historical copies of your files as backups. Both Google Drive and Dropbox have archival tools you can add on. I would strongly consider doing this if you use these services.

Archival means you have access to older versions of your files. This is important if you need to recover a corrupt file or need to find an older version of the file.

Was wondering how they determined the difference between a backup service and synching service and I'm sure this is it.

Thanks Dan

[perryh]

(No Carbonite folder that I can see either but have to admit I don't that much about Carbonite.)

No folder w/ Carbonite, you just right click on any file to save it automatically and it will update automatically also.
Your right , its not instant, but you can right click on the file and tell it to backup now.

[dshall]

Fred or Dave or anyone. I have fallen on my sword and now realize I did not know that I did not know. Now for question.

If I delete a file from dropbox on my PC, it is no longer on any of my computers. If I delete all the files from my dropbox folder on my PC, I no longer have any files in drop box or on any of my devices.

Now suppose I want to get rid of my PC and only use the IMAC, how do I delete the info on the PC without losing all the info on the rest of my devices. Do I throw away the drop box file on the PC, or do I somehow unlink the auto updates of the PC to the master drop box folder that I guess is sort of on the drop box website.

In about a month, when X6 comes out, I will be elimintating my PC, and I will pass on the PC to my Dad, I do not want my Dad effecting my files on drop box.

So how do I eliminate the auto sync of the PC to my dropbox folders?