It's been several months since I've posted here, and frankly little has changed except for the size of our image library. The university has more than 205,000 photos representing some 1.75tb of space on our network. Twenty people can access the library, most on Macs. But several using Windows 7.
We've had no major failures or issues accessing the library, although I still continue to have the occasional error message when trying to modify the metadata on images. Usually it just affects one or two photos, though. I hav no hard science to back up this next claim but my PC seems to be more sluggish in accessing the library than my Mac. Go figure.
Anyway, search speed is always the key variable and typically it's going to be slower the more files you have and the more spread out the network (we also use a DFS to ease the burden on our infrastructure).
Still, I've seen no unusual anomalies in search results; they seem accurate across most machines.
So far, so good.
is Bridge considered a cloud DAM solution, or does everyone have to cache the catalog on their local machine? im trying to estbalish whether we should be using extensis portfolio server 11 or we are okay with a catalog browser. we need to access from multiple locations around the world.
ReplyDeleteHi Darren,
ReplyDeleteBridge is NOT a DAM solution, cloud or otherwise and doesn't really use a catalog system. And you are correct, everyone has to cache each folder of images on their local machine. And sadly you cannot share caches. If you want to permit multiple users to access your library without the nuisance (with a capital N) of caching frequently to stay current, then a solution like Portfolio server is certainly worth considering.
Hi, Steve,
ReplyDeleteI have been combing your posts regarding Adobe Bridge the last couple of weeks. I was recently hired as a Digital Librarian for a major retailer and have been organizing their images in Adobe Bridge. Today I began testing the use of Bridge with other designers across the network. Please let me know if I am missing anything:
• centralized cache is stored on a server accessible by all
• export cache to folders when possible is checked in the preferences
• keywords have been exported and then imported into other users application
• Workspaces in the invisible user library/application support/adobe/Bridge have been copied to other Mac's library
Everything seems to be working fine except that the NUMEROUS stacks I made in each category of images did not transfer to the other user as I had hoped. Do you have nay advice regarding that?
Also, I did not see this mentioned anywhere but I wanted to share with you just in case you had not heard of this before. My first week, Bridge was giving me numerous errors such as a variety of out of memory errors, javascript errors, a variety of metadata errors, and a couple of different "undefined" errors. I was pulling my hair out with one hand and googling with the other. I finally found something that said USERS volumes cause errors in Bridge. Lo and behold, this company has a USERS volume that mounts on start up each morning. Anything with the name USERS, whether a server or a removable media device, cannot be mounted while using Bridge. I ejected that volume and everything has worked great since. Except for that one morning I forgot to eject the USERS volume. I could almost hear Bridge crying it was so devastated. Who would have thought?
Hi Rhonda,
ReplyDeleteNote that you cannot share caches; that is, there is no centralized caching system -- otherwise Bridge would be the go-to digital asset management solution. Each machine must cache your image library separately. Thus, exporting cache to folders is unnecessary.
Also, I don't now what you mean when you talk about copying workspaces to another user. Can you be more specific? And I'm not sure what you mean when you refer to stacks or categories of images?
I'm a bit puzzled. You need to explain what your workflow is like, how many users access the image library, what systems (including Bridge version) you're using, and if you have established a keywording/search strategy protocol yet and if so, how does it work?
You can contact me directly through my email instead of posting any responses here: steve at stevesoper dot com.
I sense you've got your work cut out for you. . .