Docking Station- 3 monitor set up for home office? File access, sharing etc?

[Hammer]

I am at a point where my laptop screen isn't enough and I need multiple monitors at home like I do at my office. I don't have a spare bedroom/office unfortunately, so I think I'm going to turn the corner of my work bench (right next to the beer fridge ) into a "desk" with monitors mounted to the wall on adjustable arms. In hindsight, I guess I should have bought a bigger house our used the pull out method one more time.

I'd also like to simplify my access to large PDF files and sharing them on the road. Right now everything is in a folder on my laptop or a flash drive, but it's useless if I'm mobile. I have to open the file on my phone from an email, download it and try to scroll through blueprints or documents, on occasion, extract the pages I need and share the file is a pain in the ass, I'm over it. There has to be a much more efficient way.

I ended up getting an ipad for this use, but I don't have all my devices synced to one cloud service yet. I need to set that up and be able to give employees or clients access to it on occasion. What is the best/most cost effective solution for this? For you commercial copnstruction people, Procore isn't an option because I can't afford it and I'm not big enough to justify It. Bluebeam does just fine for what I need to do. I have MS Office, so I think I'm just going to use OneDrive and Sharepoint from my ipad?


What does everyone have for set ups ?

 

[King295]

Docking station for your laptop with dual monitors gives you the ability to quickly connect to multiple screens. If you are on a Dell, the Dell docking stations work well with limited issues.

OneDrive does pretty good for putting everything into the cloud, it is what we use here at my firm for local documents on our PCs but I hate the auto-save feature in Excel so I shut it off and use SharePoint for anything that really needs to live in the cloud.

 

[Hammer]

Docking station for your laptop with dual monitors gives you the ability to quickly connect to multiple screens. If you are on a Dell, the Dell docking stations work well with limited issues.

OneDrive does pretty good for putting everything into the cloud, it is what we use here at my firm for local documents on our PCs but I hate the auto-save feature in Excel so I shut it off and use SharePoint for anything that really needs to live in the cloud.

Thank you! I’m in my office 75% of the time. But it seems lately I need to get something done and I’m on my way home or not near the office, I’d rather just be able to do it from home.

 

[Done-it-again]

Not sure if this would work for you... But I keep my work computer on and I VPN/remote desktop from my laptop so I have all the information on 1 system and I share large DWG files with onedrive.

As for multiple screen I only use them at the work office as I'm there most of the time if I'm not travelling, seldom I work from home.

 

[Hammer]

Not sure if this would work for you... But I keep my work computer on and I VPN/remote desktop from my laptop so I have all the information on 1 system and I share large DWG files with onedrive.

As for multiple screen I only use them at the work office as I'm there most of the time if I'm not travelling, seldom I work from home.

VPN is hit and miss with connectivity. I don’t have patience for it anymore, I want to do what I need to do, when I want too.

 

[Icky]

I run 3 screens and a docking station at work as well as home. Some guys have been switching to one large monitor and doing split screens on it, cost is comparable since they're not running a dock.

 

[Hammer]

I run 3 screens and a docking station at work as well as home. Some guys have been switching to one large monitor and doing split screens on it, cost is comparable since they're not running a dock.

I like 3 separate screens personally

 

[rivermobster]

3 screens, One Drive, Google Drive and Dropbox. I don't keep Anything locally.

 

[Icky]

I like 3 separate screens personally

You can set it up that way, so it's seamless "3" monitors

 

[BHC Vic]

How expensive is procore? My understanding is cost is based on project value you’re running though it. That’s how it used to be anyways. Autodesk has PlanGrid now. Well it’s called something different but same thing.

 

[rivermobster]

FYI...

Docking stations are fairly cheap if your not running 4k monitors.

If you want to run 3 4k monitors, with lots of USB ports, that's when the cost goes up.

 

[rivermobster]

How expensive is procore? My understanding is cost is based on project value you’re running though it. That’s how it used to be anyways. Autodesk has PlanGrid now. Well it’s called something different but same thing.

Looks like one Hell of a lot more than 365 for 99 bucks a year!

 

[Icky]

Looks like one Hell of a lot more than 365 for 99 bucks a year!

View attachment 1444479

Plus one drive and SharePoint are syncd into the windows explorer rather than needing to upload something to procore

 

[rivermobster]

Plus one drive and SharePoint are syncd into the windows explorer rather than needing to upload something to procore

I didn't even know what procore was. Google hooked me up!

 

[BHC Vic]

Looks like one Hell of a lot more than 365 for 99 bucks a year!

View attachment 1444479

It’s much easier to use, does a whole lot more, and if gc’s and subs are using it it looks a whole lot more professional. I know some jobs won’t even let you bid if you aren’t using procore or autodesk. But if you aren’t using documents, 3d models, observations, or really running the job through it the. Yea it’s probably not worth it. Pretty cool to navigate 3d models of jobs right off your phone or tablet. It’s like a video game

 

[rivermobster]

It’s much easier to use, does a whole lot more, and if gc’s and subs are using it it looks a whole lot more professional. I know some jobs won’t even let you bid if you aren’t using procore or autodesk. But if you aren’t using documents, 3d models, observations, or really running the job through it the. Yea it’s probably not worth it. Pretty cool to navigate 3d models of jobs right off your phone or tablet. It’s like a video game View attachment 1444482

For almost six hundred bucks a month, it better do a fuck ton more!!!

 

[Done-it-again]

VPN is hit and miss with connectivity. I don’t have patience for it anymore, I want to do what I need to do, when I want too.

Interesting, never had an issue all these years. Works great at the hotel and airport lounges.

Good luck in finding a way, linking many devises to a source is a maze that I just can’t understand, especially when somthing has a hiccup. I’m not that computer savvy to fix it myself and get frustrated quickly with computers.

 

[Icky]

Interesting, never had an issue all these years. Works great at the hotel and airport lounges.

Good luck in finding a way, linking many devises to a source is a maze that I just can’t understand, especially when somthing has a hiccup. I’m not that computer savvy to fix it myself and get frustrated quickly with computers.

Both my laptop and surface pro are synced with onedrive. I can literally lose them both and sign into a new laptop and it will start downloading all my folders and files.

 

[BHC Vic]

For almost six hundred bucks a month, it better do a fuck ton more!!!

It’s not that much I can guarantee it. I don’t pay a cent.

 

[BHC Vic]

Both my laptop and surface pro are synced with onedrive. I can literally lose them both and sign into a new laptop and it will start downloading all my folders and files.

It would be the same with procore. I could use your phone right now and get everything in there.

 

[Icky]

It would be the same with procore. I could use your phone right now and get everything in there.

I have procore and a dozen or so other programs I have to use for different customers. I will admit i don't use most of them except for downloading the rfqs. I prefer to work out of SharePoint and one drive and I utilize bluebeam for pdf markups. Im not a fan of using webbased programs. Viewing a nwd file on building connected is not the same as using navisworks manage to hide and save views. But on large projects it's impossible to download the latest file every day so it makes sense to use the online viewer.