Solidworks, VPN, Remote Desktop Connection

Has anybody ever tried to use Solidworks using a VPN connection and Remote
Desktop?

What I mean is, having Solidworks installed on a machine at work and then
using VPN and Remote Desktop from home to access the machine and run
Solidworks that way.

Richard

 

Yes I have. In my experience, VPN is just way too slow to open up
assemblies of any size. Individual parts and part drawings may be ok if you
are not in a big hurry. Just remember, every time you save a file, it saves
it through the VPN also. If you really want to use VPN, I advise simply
copying your files from work to home (still slow), working with them
locally, then copying them back to work. By the way, both my work and I
have cable connections.

There is one other alternative that I have never tried, but seems feasible.
You could use VNC software to remotely control your computer at work. There
is very little bandwidth used doing this, only the graphical image of your
computer screen at work. And when you open or save a SW document, the data
is only having to travel to and from your work computer and the server,
unless of course your files are located directly on your work computer in
which case it would be that much faster. Also, your work computer would be
doing all of the number crunching on its processor, not your home computer.
I've heard that VNC works really great for general software. But with the
fact that SW has constantly changing screen updates (rotations & zooms), it
may possibly not work very well either. If anyone has ever tried the VNC
solution, post your comments. By the way, VNC software is free.

 

Thanks for your input Seth. I'm going to look at the VNC option and see what
I can come up with.

Has anybody tried the VNC option?

Richard

 

Richard,

We've used VPN for file access and backups.

One of the problems I see right away is the display. There's some very
intense graphics stuff going on when you use SW. When you use a program like
PC Anywhere or Remote Desktop, all the remote system does is act as a dumb
frame buffer. This is several orders of magnitude too slow to support
interactive 3D graphics. Even the old X-Terminals did all the graphic
processing locally. Windows isn't set up to pipline these types of tasks to
a remote machine.

You're much better off installing SW on the remote machine and using VPN for
file transfer. Even then, it will be too slow for large files.

Regards

Mark



In a word processor or spreadshe

 

Ok, thanks for your input Mark.

 

You should try freeware called Ultr@VNC or similar, but I have a feeling
that it's still going to be too slow

 

I have used SW successfully over both VNC and RDC. It is just like using it
locally, although you do miss a screen refresh once in a while.

Remember, RDC comes free if you have a Windows XP machine.

 

RDC......I'm assuming you mean Remote Desktop Connection.
Do you use that with VNC or VPN?

 

I have used it for both.

To make it even more confusing... You can use either VNC or a VPN or RDC to
get into your machine from outside your firewall. Then, you use either VNC
or RDC to get to another machine on your network.

Are you confused yet?

 

Very intriguing.

Hadn't considered it before, but that means I could fire up WinXP on
my Mac in Virtual PC (yeah, I know it is slow) and try running my work
PC remotely on my PowerBook. I may try it when I get some time.

Bo

 

There's an installable version for Linux and source code for UNIX. You could
probably find an installable version for OS-X. Start at www.realvnc.com

 

What would be the difference in running a remote desktop via VNS from
running it via the built in remote deskotop in Win XP

Krister L

 

In a nutshell, the key difference between the two approaches, VNC and
Remote Desktop, is as follows:

a) VNC connects to (a live) desktop session and simply captures the
screen on the Master machine and forwards it to you on the listener
machine.

b) The remote desktop software in Windows creates a new session of its
own on the Master machine and is *completely* different from any
sessions running on the same machine. All resources of your desktop
(master machine) are shared across the two sessions.

I have seen VNC used extensively for connecting to a live session but
it has a few issues. One critical issue is that to be able to connect
you must know the IP address of the (Master) machine you are
connecting to. In addition, if this machine is behind a firewall, you
would need to set up an arrangement so this (Master) machine is
visible from the (listener) machine you want to connect from.

If both machines are behind the *same* firewall (for instance, when
using a VPN solution), then all you need to know is the IP address of
the Master machine, and plug it in the VNC viewer software on the
listener machine.

Another issue, with VNC, as pointed out by another poster is that of
performance when working with graphics intensive applications such as
SolidWorks.

Hope this helps.
- Rajiv
_____________________

Conferencing and Collaboration for the Knowledge Worker
http://www.pdmoffice.com

 

Thanks Raijiv

That helped a lot

Krister L