Technical Details

What does a Newforma software deployment look like?

Newforma software can be deployed at your company in a single day. The software consists of a client application installed on each desktop and two server applications. (See "technical requirements" below for a description of the server components.) The application supports multiple corporate sites connected by a wide area network. A typical deployment follows the diagram below:

 

What changes to our technology environment are required to accommodate Newforma software?

The Newforma solution does not affect your existing IT infrastructure beyond requiring the addition of servers, as described immediately below.

What are Newforma Project Center's technical requirements?

Newforma software has been developed on the Microsoft .NET platform to operate on the Microsoft Windows® platform. It is compatible with MS Office 2003, 2007 and 2010. Dedicated Newforma Project Center Server(s), which sit on your network alongside your central file server(s), and one firm-wide Newforma Information Exchange server in your DMZ, require the Windows Server 2003® or 2008 operating system.

Will our server run Newforma Project Center? If not, what server should we purchase?

See the Newforma Project Center system requirements here.

What are the requirements for the Newforma Project Center client?

Microsoft Windows XP, Vista or Windows 7 32-bit or 64-bit operating systems are required.

Can I run the Newforma Project Center server in a virtual environment?

Newforma Project Center servers can be deployed in a virtual environment. However, the Newforma Project Center service is compute-intensive, network-intensive, disk-intensive and memory-intensive. Many customers find that a virtual environment doesn’t provide adequate performance.

Do I have to deploy a Newforma Project Center server at each office location?

The Newforma Project Center server is constantly monitoring your project files to maintain an index allowing fast searching and browsing. This requires a high-bandwidth, low-latency connection to the project files. WAN indexing is may be possible in certain circumstances. Newforma provides a lightweight “filter service” which can be deployed at remote sites to stream search text to a central Newforma Project Center server.

How many Newforma Info Exchange servers do I need and where should they be located?

Typically, you’ll only need one Newforma Info Exchange server, and it can be located at the office location of your choosing, or at an ISP. Parameters to keep in mind are latency and available bandwidth so that your external teams have fast responsiveness from this server. Offices that are spread across large geographic regions (e.g., European, ASEAN, etc.) may want to consider having more than one Newforma Info Exchange server.

How do I handle project data that exists at two or more office locations?

Many of our customers split project work between offices. Typically some subset of project data is modified at each location. Newforma customers can support this work process by creating a separate project at each office location. Newforma also supports remote project mirroring that is especially effective when used in conjunction with Windows DFS replication. This combination can give LAN access speed to remote offices.

Where is Newforma’s data stored? How do I back it up?

Newforma Project Center stores most project data in a dedicated database residing on the Newforma Project Center server. The data stored in Newforma’s database can be configured to automatically replicate to a location on your central file server. This eliminates the need to directly back up the Newforma Project Center server. Your existing project files remain on your corporate file server.

What database are you using?

Newforma Project Center stores project data in the MySQL database. We do not currently support other databases.

How do I create Newforma projects for all our existing project work? We have thousands of projects!

Newforma supports a batch project creation process that allows automated creation of many projects at once. The creation of these projects is part of your company’s initial deployment and configuration.

How can I integrate with my accounting system?

Newforma Project Center can query an external database for contact information and certain project parameters. The software allows users to create projects using Deltek Vision workflows. We commonly help customers integrate with Deltek Vision. Integration support for other systems is also available.

Can we integrate with our SharePoint intranet?

Newforma Project Center allows you to search SharePoint projects and integrate with SharePoint widgets such as discussion boards, wikis, etc.

What file types can Newforma's Viewer open and display?

The Newforma Viewer can open and display files of type DWG, DGN, DWF, DXF, PDF, PLT and most bitmap formats.

How does Newforma Search work?

The Newforma Project Center server maintains a database known as a “search index” by constantly monitoring your project folders. The search index allows very fast retrieval of project documents that match a specific search term.

What file types does Newforma Project Center search?

Newforma Project Center has built-in support for all Microsoft Office file formats and for the DWG, DXF, DWF, DGN, PLT, IFC, PDF and ZIP formats.

Can I search for data in files other than those you support natively?

To be included in our search index, each supported file format requires an IFilter. The IFilter is a special program that functions as a search filter, reading each file of a specific type and returning all text strings found. If the software vendor that creates your file format has an available IFIlter, it can be installed with Newforma to support searching.

Newforma Project Center is amazing. How did you come up with these great ideas?

We listen carefully to our customers! If you have a suggestion, problem or concern, our team wants to hear it. Here’s how to offer input:  

• Talk to your account rep or support technician.
• In Newforma Project Center, select the “Send a suggestion…” Help menu item and your suggestion will be reviewed directly by the product team.
• Visit www.newformant.com, our online community for Newforma users, and register to post a suggestion here.