What's your favorite OS file syncing software? Perhaps OSArch could host a solution?

T by theoryshaw on 9 May 2021, edited 19 Oct 2021 # +1 votes

What's your favorite open source file syncing software?

Proposal: if we could find a relative consensus, would be awesome for OSArch to host a solution. Peeps could pay per the percentage of gigabytes used.

These fees could be structured where OSArch makes a modest profit, which in turn, could be applied to OS AEC development.

T by theoryshaw on 9 May 2021 #

Nextcloud, is my favorite.

C by Cyril on 9 May 2021, edited 9 May 2021 #

I use Nextcloud for external storage and Syncthing to sync between my different computers/phone.

Y by yorik on 9 May 2021 # +1 votes

GIT ?

Nextcloud would be my number 2.. But for working with others with binary files, nextcloud can be quickly problematic (lots of file conflicts) while git stays really solid...

What i would like to try some day is using nextcloud with some cheap ftp/webdav hosting as external storage... you can get 1 or 2 Tb for half the dropbox price. But it should be tested under pressure

S by stephen_l on 9 May 2021 #

under linux i do rely on rsynch but i guess cross platform is a requirement here

M by Moult on 9 May 2021 #

I also use rsync but it's not really "graphical" so I'm happy to cast a vote for Nextcloud too :)

D by duncan on 10 May 2021, edited 10 May 2021 # +3 votes

I'm thinking that a lot of services like this could be good as membership benefits, with membership based on a donation. Otherwise I think we'd be selling something and that brings a lot of tax issues. For now I thought we could get people to start donating to this Liberapay Team

https://en.liberapay.com/OSArch/

... and as we bring more services online we can pay for it personally and be reimbursed at cost. Details of my thoughts are on that Team page.

I'm not so sure about the business case for selling something quite a few people are already selling. I'm thinking of Nextcloud and BigBlueButton for example. That would just be a business selling a product and giving us a donation. Which is great - but I feel like that up to anyone to just start doing.

In the longer run something like what you suggest @theoryshaw is totally possible and could be very useful. It hink it should focus on AEC services that either don't exist or are poorly supported. Automated clash control, Open Source CDE, issue tracking, asset library, speckle ... the list goes on and on.

PS. I like Nextcloud. Maybe an AEC extensions pakc to Nextcloud with visible revision control ... hmm, an OpenSource CDE based on Nextcloud + IFC & BCF? Interesting?

H by htlcnn on 11 May 2021 #

I'm using Syncthing. It has web interface for Windows and Linux (I use both). Maybe there's one for Mac OS.

https://github.com/syncthing/

T by theoryshaw on 11 May 2021, edited 11 May 2021 #

@yorik said:

GIT ?

Nextcloud would be my number 2.. But for working with others with binary files, nextcloud can be quickly problematic (lots of file conflicts) while git stays really solid...

agree on git! and agree on the annoying conflicts with syncing.

T by theoryshaw on 11 May 2021 #

I wonder, would a more simplified IFC schema, such as this, allow for version tracking on GIT itself.

T by theoryshaw on 11 May 2021, edited 11 May 2021 #

...and perhaps sprinkle a little of this on it, as well?

Y by yorik on 11 May 2021 # +2 votes

The problem with git tracking of ifc files mainly that the order of entities changes...

Now an idea strikes my mind: what if, instead of going by "object order", we would go "by type". ie:


#1=ifccartesianpoint;

#2=ifccartesianpoint;

...

#255=ifcshaperepresentation;

#256=ifcshaperepresentation;

...

#548=ifcwall;

#549=ifcwall;

even better, in that case, the step id number would be superfluous, implicit; it would simply be the line number. This would make the ifc file much, much more friendly to diff tools...

hmm this might deserve another thread..

J by JanF on 19 Oct 2021 #

So I'm starting to do more stuff in Blender and co. and would like to use an OS CDE. Does anyone have a working solution?

@theoryshaw you're using Github, can you please describe your workflow? I tried it's nod trivial to set up, I'm still not sure how to get the SSH working correctly.

Did anyone try using ownCloud? I have it on my NAS but I haven't managed to make it accessible from the internet.

There's also Blender Cloud, which does this somehow (https://cloud.blender.org/blog/introducing-private-projects/) but it doesn't seem to allow selfhosting.

T by theoryshaw on 19 Oct 2021 # +4 votes

We mostly use gitlab now-no limit on pushed file size. Workflow here.

D by duncan on 19 Oct 2021 #

It would be great if someone wanted to turn this discussion into a wiki page on CDEs and some FOSS options. @theoryshaw has already written a great guide so we should help push trafic that way, also pushing people towards the OpenCDE project, IFC.js etc all as relevant elements to making a robust FOSS CDE.