Connect(er) in times of social distancing
You can get up to 3 months free trial for Connecter Suite as we aim to support the companies struggling as the aftermath of the COVID-19 outbreak…
We hope that you are healthy and the COVID-19 outbreak hasn’t caused much distress to you and your friends and family. There’s a huge chance that you are reading this from your home while following the social distancing measures that are introduced in many countries around the globe. The situation is far from ideal, but if we can paraphrase the famous song from The Great Gatsby — “A little homestay never killed nobody”.
A quick word about the Design Connected team — we are all well and since the end of last week, we work from home. We are trying to minimize the social interactions as much as possible and lift each other’s spirits in Skype with good humor. The real problem will begin when we run out of coronavirus memes and jokes.
For us, the transition was almost seamless — a part of our team had already been working from a distance and we have the main part of our assets library shared through Dropbox and available to everyone. The organization is of course made in Connecter and all artists have access to it using Connecte Suite. So, the transition required bringing a few PCs home and creating a remote connection to the office for the stuff that’s not shared through cloud storage.
But we know that’s not the case for everyone. There are a lot of studios out there that rely on Connecter and Teamwork Workspace, which requires LAN connection, which makes the transition harder. That’s why in the next months we will offer:
- 3 months of free trial (instead of 30 days) for all new Connecter Suite subscribers. Subscribing doesn’t require a credit card and any kind of payment. It’s totally free.
You will find a step by step guide on how to switch from Teamwork Workspace to Connecter Suite here.
What do you need to switch to Connecter Suite and work together only this time from distance?
- Share your assets with the team — Connecte Suite doesn’t store any assets and it’s up to you how to make them available. We recommend using cloud storage services like Dropbox, Google Drive, oneDrive, etc. They are easy to set up and affordable.
NOTE: You will probably have to change the location of your files — copy them from your server to a cloud folder for example. In order to transfer all metadata to the new folders right-click the old folders in Connecter and use the “Relocate folder” option to point to the new location. - Sync the assets to every connected PC — the 3d software products require local access to the files, so you will have to store them on your HDD. That can be tricky with huge libraries to use options like selective or smart sync to get only the files that you need the most at the current time.
- Ensure that everyone has the same path to the synced asset folders — the easiest way is to share it and then use “Map as network drive” to give it a name. Keep in mind that all of your teammates should use the same drive letter.
- Follow the aforementioned guide to set up your Connecter Suite and invite the rest of the team.
- Migrate your existing Teamwork Workspace to Connecter Suite.
If you have any issues during this process, feel free to contact our support team. They’ve been kind enough to answer some of the potential questions here:
FAQ:
- Can I use Connecter Suite to store my assets?
No, the server that we offer is only for storing metadata about your library. - Can I switch from Connecter Suite to Teamwork Workspace at any time?
The changes made to the Suite Workspaces can’t be transferred to Teamwork. The platforms are different and the translation of the data isn’t possible. - Will I keep all my asset previews and settings?
Yes, if you migrate your existing Teamwork Workspace once you are logged in your Connecter Suite workspace.
Our whole team will be at your disposal and will help with any questions you might have. You can send us an email or ask your question in the Connecter Insiders Facebook group, where people who already have gone through the process can help you with practical advice.
One last thing — all of our services and products are made to save you time — time in finding the right asset, relinking its external files, or just the gruesome process of creating it from scratch.
Please, use some of the time we’ve saved you to connect with your loved ones or help the people in need. We all are fortunate to work in a digital industry, which is far less affected by the COVID-19 outbreak. It will be good to help the ones that aren’t that lucky.
Stay safe!
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