Last week I decided to start using OneDrive to back up my work.
The process involved uploading everything onto OneDrive and now I have nothing on my computer so everything is cloud based.
It has all gone fairly smoothly and working in the manner has been seamless… Except…
LAYOUT
This may be associated or not with cloud storage but since I have moved to cloud, I have been unable to change a viewport from Raster to Vector or Hybrid. It thinks about it then freezes. I wondered if it is the layout file trying to communicate with the sketchup file but not sure.
SCAN ESSENTIALS.
The point clouds are large files and since uploading everything to OneDrive, the sketchup files have lost the link to the point clouds. I could try relinking to the cloud version but was thinking that I would be far better to locally store the point clouds and relink that way - just looking for thoughts on this…
This is a very risky thing. Loads of anecdotal evidence here in the forum shows that this is a good way to wind up with corrupted, unrecoverable files.
problems with cloud storage - files are often only links on the PC and require the download of the content, and often there is contention for the file handle and in any number of cases, can corrupt the file (which is then dutifully written over the last good copy on the cloud).
so, what i do: keep my files on my external disk, then use synchronization software to copy the updated files to another external disk which has my OneDrive and Google Drive content. this way my files are always on my system whole and intact (and if damaged somehow by me or the system ) then i can typically still retrieve the previous version from the cloud storage, and i don’t have to fight the cloud service for the file handle…
a bit of extra work but as a result: i have multiple copies - source, cloud disk, cloud with the content, and the drives can easily moved across systems if needed.
1TB drives are reasonably priced (i’m using 3 2TB SSD drives as i have music production as well as architecture work + photos, videos, etc so i’m around 1.1TB locally and cloud-wise at the moment). finally, when the time comes to get larger, i can copy over the content onto the larger drive, then simply sync it to the cloud service.
net-net – skip using the cloud directly, or at a minimum keep the files local as well as cloud to avoid file contention or content downloads (as most apps don’t really do well with partial content during file loading)
My process:
I have everything to do with work in one folder on the D drive, let’s call it BUSINESS
I have subfolders for PROJECTS, LIBRARY etc, they each have subfolders etc etc
I’ve have my OneDrive folder on my D drive (D:/OneDrive)
I use the SyncFolder app from the MS Store: https://www.microsoft.com/store/productid/9NC73MJWHSWW?ocid=pdpshare to schedule regular backups.
Every night D:/COMPANY/PROJECTS is synced to D:/OneDrive/COMPANY_BACKUP/PROJECTS
Every week the D:/COMPANY/LIBRARY (Along with other folders such as Desktop etc) is synced the same.
This way I have 2 copies on my machine (Original and the copy in D:/OneDrive), 1 copy in the cloud, and another synced to a machine at home. But more importantly, should MS ever change how OD is used/operates etc I’m insulated from it whilst retaining its usability.
I’ve been using Onedrive for the last six months with no issues and no corrupt files.
The internet connection here at work is constantly dropping out so I had a button checked somewhere to always keep a copy of everything in my Onedrive actually on my hard drive too.
I basically use Onedrive so I can access my work at home on a laptop if required.
I’m not sure if this has helped and whether it saves to the hard drive first then backs up to the cloud or the other way around but I’ve certainly not had any issues that get reported on here.
Or maybe I’m just lucky and sooner or later I’ll get bit in the behind!
Now off to research the SyncFolder app, thanks Paul
By the way, you have a subscription license for SketchUp. You could be using the unlimited Trimble Connect cloud storage included with that subscription to back up your SketchUp models. Look at how that’s implemented. It avoids the issue of corrupted files and it automatically creates incremental backups so you can always go back to a previous version if needed.
) then i can typically still retrieve the previous version from the cloud storage, and i don’t have to fight the cloud service for the file handle…