Engineering and GIS teams handle massive, complex datasets every day, from multi-gigabyte Autodesk Civil 3D corridor models to high-resolution Esri ArcGIS maps and imagery. These large files are essential to infrastructure, utilities, and environmental projects, but they also pose significant challenges to project collaboration.
Traditional file-sharing systems struggle to deliver the speed and reliability required for distributed teams. Slow sync times, broken file references, inconsistent coordinate systems, version conflicts, and VPN dependency all lead to lost productivity and project delays.
This post examines how Resilio Active Everywhere facilitates real-time collaboration for large CAD, BIM, and GIS files, eliminating the challenges associated with traditional systems. You’ll learn how Resilio’s peer-to-peer architecture lets teams instantly stream and cache project data, eliminate VPN latency, and maintain version control across multiple sites.
Jump to a section:
- The Limitations of Traditional File Sharing for CAD, BIM, and GIS
- Best for AEC Collaboration: Resilio Active Everywhere
- Use Case 1: Autodesk Civil 3D Collaboration
- Use Case 2: Autodesk AutoCAD Collaboration
- Use Case 3: Esri ArcGIS Data Sharing
- Core Features that Power Seamless Collaboration
- Benefits for Architectural, Engineering, and Construction Teams
- Case Study: How Dar Overcomes Data Replication Challenges and Accelerates Sustainable Architecture and Development
- Future-Proofing Design and Collaboration
The Limitations of Traditional File Sharing for CAD, BIM, and GIS
CAD and GIS projects are among the most data-intensive workflows in the AEC field. Files often reach hundreds of gigabytes, containing 3D models, geospatial layers, terrain data, and imagery stored across multiple references and dependencies.
Legacy file-sharing systems and cloud sync tools simply weren’t built for this scale.
- Centralized servers create latency and bottlenecks, causing users in remote offices to wait hours to open or save files.
- VPNs are slow and unreliable, particularly for users connecting over long distances.
- Cloud-based sync tools often break linked file paths, XRefs, and web feature layer connections in Civil 3D, AutoCAD, ArcGIS, and similar applications.
- Manual file transfers introduce risks of overwrites, outdated drawings, and lost CAD data.
As a result, collaboration becomes siloed and inefficient as teams resort to sending project snapshots or using shared drives, which quickly fall out of sync.
Best for AEC Collaboration: Resilio Active Everywhere
Resilio Active Everywhere takes an entirely different approach to data replication and collaboration. Instead of relying on a single cloud or server, it utilizes a peer-to-peer (P2P) architecture that directly connects every site, device, and server, without altering existing CAD plug-ins, GIS databases, or BIM coordination workflows.
Key advantages include:
- Speed and scalability: Every node can send and receive data simultaneously, drastically reducing transfer times.
- Resilience: If one server or connection goes down, data automatically routes through another peer.
- Real-time synchronization: Changes are propagated instantly, keeping all users and sites aligned.
- Full control: Organizations maintain complete ownership of their infrastructure and data.
Active Everywhere transforms distributed teams into a unified data environment, which is ideal for AEC, GIS, and design workflows that demand both performance and precision.
Learn more about how Resilio Active Everywhere supports AEC teams with fast, secure, and scalable collaboration workflows. Explore our AEC solutions.
Use Case 1: Autodesk Civil 3D Collaboration
Civil 3D projects rely heavily on large DWG files, surface models, and multiple external references (XRefs). In traditional setups, engineers working from different offices struggle with slow access times and file locking issues.
With Resilio Active Everywhere:
- Teams can work from local storage, while Resilio keeps every change synced in real-time.
- Streaming on demand provides immediate access to specific sections of a model without requiring the entire dataset to be downloaded.
- Conflict prevention ensures that no two users overwrite the same file version.
For example, a transportation engineering firm with offices in Boston, Denver, and Singapore can work on the same roadway model simultaneously. Each office edits local files at LAN speed, while Resilio synchronizes all updates globally within seconds.
Use Case 2: Autodesk AutoCAD Collaboration
Architects, engineers, and designers use AutoCAD to create and manage 2D and 3D drawings across a wide range of disciplines. However, collaborating on large or interlinked DWG files often leads to version conflicts, slow file transfers, and broken XRefs, primarily when teams work from different offices or remote environments.
Resilio Active Everywhere enables:
- Real-time synchronization of AutoCAD drawings, sheet sets, and reference files across all locations.
- Streaming access that lets team members open large DWG files instantly without waiting for full downloads.
- Automatic version control ensures that project revisions and layers stay consistent.
- Local caching, giving every site a high-performance copy of project data with near-zero latency.
For instance, an architectural team designing a high-rise structure across New York, Toronto, and London can share AutoCAD project files instantly. As designers update floor plans or details in their local environment, Resilio synchronizes every change to other offices within seconds, preserving XRefs, layer structures, and project integrity.
This approach eliminates the delays and complexity of VPN-based file access while maintaining full compatibility with AutoCAD plug-ins, sheet set managers, and networked workflows.
Use Case 3: Esri ArcGIS Data Sharing
Geographic Information Systems (GIS) professionals often work with enormous geodatabases, raster imagery, and shapefiles, which can be terabytes in size. When shared through VPNs or centralized cloud systems, these files become nearly impossible to manage and control.
Resilio Active Everywhere enables:
- Instant access to GIS layers and datasets, even across low-bandwidth or high-latency connections.
- Local caching of frequently used data, reducing network load and ensuring offline access.
- Efficient distribution of updates to field teams, regional offices, and partners.
Whether managing a nationwide utility network or an environmental survey project, Resilio ensures that everyone works with the latest GIS data, without waiting for downloads or uploads to complete.
Core Features that Power Seamless Collaboration
Resilio Active Everywhere delivers more than just fast file sync. It’s built to support the unique demands of AEC environments where teams depend on large, interdependent project files that must stay consistent across offices, servers, and devices. Below are the core technologies that make real-time collaboration possible
Streaming on Demand
Resilio’s on-demand streaming lets users open and work on files immediately, even if the entire dataset hasn’t finished transferring. For example, an engineer can begin editing a Civil 3D corridor model or a GIS technician can view raster tiles immediately, while the rest of the data continues to download in the background. This dramatically reduces downtime and keeps project workflows moving efficiently.
Local Caching
Each site maintains a complete, synchronized copy of the project locally. Cached data is automatically refreshed as updates occur, ensuring all users always have the most current version. Local caching provides remote offices and field teams with LAN-speed access, allowing work to continue seamlessly even during internet interruptions or low-bandwidth conditions.
Smart Versioning and Conflict Prevention
Resilio includes intelligent version control that prevents overwrites when multiple users modify the same files. It tracks revisions and automatically resolves changes or flags conflicts for review. This ensures that Civil 3D drawings, GIS layers, and BIM models remain consistent, protected, and recoverable throughout the project lifecycle.
VPN-Less Access
With Resilio, teams no longer need to rely on slow or unreliable VPN connections to reach project files. The peer-to-peer engine connects endpoints directly and securely across any network, providing instant access without the overhead of centralized routing or authentication tunnels. This eliminates latency, simplifies IT management, and enables users to collaborate from anywhere—whether at the office, job site, or home—at full speed.
End-to-End Security and Access Control
Data security is built into every layer of Resilio’s architecture. Files are encrypted both in transit and at rest, and administrators can enforce role-based permissions with detailed activity logs for auditing. Architecture and engineering firms can meet strict client and compliance requirements while maintaining complete ownership of their data.
Multi-Site Synchronization
Resilio replicates data simultaneously between multiple offices, job sites, and cloud environments. It automatically routes transfers between peers to maximize speed and reliability. Distributed teams can collaborate in real time, without relying on centralized servers or WAN accelerators.
Scalability and Automation
The platform integrates easily with existing IT infrastructure through APIs, enabling automated replication, deployment, and policy-based management. IT teams can scale Resilio across hundreds of endpoints while maintaining visibility and control over every data flow.
Benefits for Architectural, Engineering, and Construction Teams
Resilio Active Everywhere delivers measurable gains for civil engineers, architects, GIS specialists, and IT administrators across the AEC industry:
- Faster collaboration: Work in real time across offices and time zones.
- Lower bandwidth consumption: Peer-to-peer data transfer minimizes dependency on central servers.
- Reduced costs: Eliminate expensive WAN accelerators, cloud sync licenses, and VPN maintenance.
- Simplified IT management: Works with existing infrastructure and integrates with standard file systems.
These improvements enable teams to focus on design and analysis, rather than data movement or troubleshooting network bottlenecks.
Case Study: How Dar Overcomes Data Replication Challenges and Accelerates Sustainable Architecture and Development
Dar is one of the world’s leading multidisciplinary engineering consultancies, delivering architecture, infrastructure, sustainability, and digital solutions across 54 global offices. With more than 9,000 professionals collaborating across regions with slow bandwidth and high-latency VPN links, the company struggled to move large BIM, CAD, and GIS files reliably and quickly between sites. Traditional replication tools like Robocopy and Microsoft DFS-R could not keep up, especially as file sizes grew into the multi-gigabyte range.
To solve these challenges, Dar selected the Resilio Active Everywhere Platform as its unified solution for resilient, high-speed data replication and global file access.
Overcoming Latency for Collaboration
Dar’s teams regularly work with massive Autodesk AutoCAD, Autodesk Revit, PDF map sets, and other design files that must be exchanged between design centers in minutes, not hours. Resilio’s UDP-based transfer engine maximizes throughput across long-distance VPN links, utilizing the full available bandwidth and overcoming long fat-pipe latency. Features like differential transfers, compression, and WAN optimization ensure that only the changed portions of BIM or CAD files are transmitted, dramatically reducing sync times.
The result is near-real-time file updates across offices, eliminating the delays that once slowed engineering workflows and jeopardized project deadlines.
Today, Dar runs hundreds of Resilio Synchronization Jobs across six countries to keep project files continuously up to date. Engineers no longer wait for models to arrive; they can collaborate immediately, stay aligned across locations, and keep projects moving on schedule.
Future-Proofing Design and Collaboration
As CAD and GIS datasets continue to grow, the need for high-performance, secure, and scalable collaboration tools becomes critical. Resilio Active Everywhere provides a modern foundation for distributed teams to work seamlessly on large Autodesk and Esri projects, without the pain of slow transfers, cloud limitations, or VPN complexity.
By combining real-time synchronization, local caching, and a peer-to-peer foundation, Resilio empowers engineering professionals to collaborate anywhere, anytime, at full speed.
Learn more about Resilio Active Everywhere for AEC teams or request a demo to see how it can accelerate your CAD and GIS workflows.
