gCADPlus and OneDrive

Most modern Windows computers come pre-loaded with a free tool called OneDrive, which enables file storage in Microsoft’s cloud. OneDrive is also available on the Mac, but only for later versions of the operating system.

The free version of OneDrive is limited to 5 Gigabytes of storage, but that’s not a lot of space for the number and size of CAD drawings that professional landscape designers create. However, if you do purchase a subscription to Microsoft Office 365, you get access to a massive 1.0 Terabyte of storage space. You can then store as many CAD drawings as you like. In addition, it is possible to do some clever things with gCADPlus and applications in Office 365 such as Excel, Access, and Word  – exporting plant schedules, rearranging columns, etc.,

The benefits of using OneDrive

With OneDrive, files are synced between your computer and the cloud. You can access your files from any device – your computer, your mobile device, and even via the OneDrive website –  [OneDrive.com]. Once OneDrive is set up, if you add, change, or delete a file or folder in your OneDrive folder, the file or folder is added, changed, or deleted on the OneDrive website and vice versa. As an additional bonus, you can also work with your synced files directly in File Explorer and access files offline. Any changes you or others make will sync automatically whenever you’re online.

Microsoft would suggest that you have confidence in OneDrive, put all your CAD work in one folder with many subfolders, connect it to OneDrive, and everything will be fine. To set it up, use FileExplorer, find the folder, copy it to OneDrive, right-click on it, and paste.

Tip: Make sure to set the new OneDrive folder so that the files are always kept on the device on your computer, as shown below.

We have tested this approach exhaustively over a week and were surprised by how well OneDrive works with CAD files.

Relying on OneDrive for CAD – some drawbacks

As a gCADPlus user, it is very important to understand the implications of working with CAD files in OneDrive. We have emphasized many times that CAD files are precious. It is common to stay on a single design file for days. If you lose that file, much valuable work is lost.

If you work exclusively in a OneDrive folder, any change to a file is immediately transmitted to OneDrive over your network connection when that drawing is saved. So if your file is accidentally corrupted or maliciously encrypted, OneDrive will still pick up that change.  The synchronized copy of the file in OneDrive will now also be corrupted or encrypted.

Admittedly, after an inadvertent deletion error, the file is available in your local computer’s Recycle Bin (or Trash on a Mac) and temporarily available inside the Recycle Bin of your OneDrive.com portal on the web. However, the item is permanently lost if your Recycle Bin or the web-based Office 365 Recycle Bin is emptied after deletion.

There’s an interrelationship between what gCADPlus controls and what OneDrive controls. OneDrive interacts with a local “cache” of your drawing files on your computer. This arrangement optimizes the speed of file operations. When you open or save a file, gCADPlus operates like opening and saving your files to your local hard drive. Then, after you save your changes, OneDrive will save back or “sync” your changes to your cloud account. This is not under the control of gCADPlus. After you close the drawing, OneDrive will sync the changes you recently saved to the cloud. Until you close the drawing, your changes will only exist on your local machine’s OneDrive cache. Microsoft holds all your drawing data, so you must keep your subscription current.

A recommendation for gCADPlus users

Rather than working directly with OneDrive, we suggest working with CAD files in a local folder, just as you did before using OneDrive. In the example below, we work in a Tradgard folder on the local C: drive. This folder is not connected to OneDrive. We make a folder on OneDrive called TradgardBackup, and at the end of the day or at the end of a sustained design session, we copy the changed work files in the local Tradgard folder to this backup folder.

Some caveats

The figure below compares the standard installation of gCADPlus against an installation of gCADPlus with drawing files managed by OneDrive.

This movie compares the two different methods of working.