Engineering and architecture firms break IT in ways most providers never see: 40GB Revit models, Civil 3D surfaces that choke a slow link, and project archives that have to be readable in ten years. Good engineering IT support starts with the workload, not a generic desktop fleet, and builds the network, storage and access control around it.
If you run a structural, civil or MEP consultancy, or an architecture practice, your IT problems are not the same as a law firm’s down the road. You are pushing large binary files across a network all day, multiple people need the same model open, and a single corrupted file or lost version can cost a fortnight of drafting. This post covers how we approach IT for these firms, what actually matters, and where the money is well spent.
Why design firms are a different IT problem
The defining feature of an engineering or architecture practice is the file. AutoCAD drawings, Revit central models, ArchiCAD teamwork files, Civil 3D corridors, SolidWorks assemblies and 12d projects are large, change constantly, and are worked on by several people at once. A 200-person office sharing Word documents barely registers on a network. A ten-person structural team syncing Revit models will saturate a cheap switch and a consumer NAS by 10am.
Three things follow from that. First, your storage and network have to move big files fast and reliably. Second, your workstations have to be specified for CAD and BIM, not for spreadsheets. Third, your backup and version control have to assume that files will get corrupted, overwritten or deleted, because over a project’s life they will. Get those three right and most of the day-to-day pain disappears.
Workstations: local high-spec vs cloud
The first real decision is where the compute lives. For a Revit or SolidWorks user, that choice drives spend, performance and how flexible your team can be.
High-spec local workstations
For most CAD and BIM work, a properly specified desktop is still the best value. The components that matter, in order, are a high-clock-speed CPU (single-thread performance drives AutoCAD and Revit far more than core count), 64GB of RAM as a sensible floor for heavy Revit and Civil 3D work, a professional GPU (NVIDIA RTX series) for ArchiCAD and rendering, and fast NVMe local storage so the working copy of a model opens quickly.
The mistake we see most often is a firm buying mid-range business desktops because that is what the office down the corridor uses, then wondering why a model takes four minutes to open. CAD workstations are a specialist purchase. We spec them per role, because a drafter, a project engineer running analysis and a director who mostly reviews drawings do not need the same machine.
Cloud workstations (Azure and Frame)
Cloud workstations, such as Azure Virtual Desktop with GPU-backed instances or Frame, run the heavy machine in a data centre and stream the screen to whatever device the user has in front of them. They make sense in specific situations: a fast-growing firm that does not want to keep buying physical hardware, staff who move between sites or work from home on light laptops, contractors who need a machine for three months, or a firm that wants drawings and models to never leave the data centre for security reasons.
The trade-offs are real. GPU cloud instances are not cheap to run all day, every day, so they suit variable or remote workloads better than a drafter sitting in the office eight hours a day. Latency to the data centre matters, so the user’s internet has to be solid. For a Melbourne firm, keeping the workload in an Australian Azure region keeps that latency low and your data onshore.
| Factor | Local high-spec workstation | Cloud workstation (Azure/Frame) |
|---|---|---|
| Upfront cost | Higher (capital purchase per machine) | Low (pay monthly) |
| Ongoing cost | Low once bought | Can be high with all-day GPU use |
| Best for | Office-based, full-time CAD/BIM users | Remote, mobile or short-term staff |
| Performance | Excellent, no network dependency | Good, depends on connection quality |
| Data location | On the local machine and NAS | Stays in the data centre |
| Hardware refresh | Every 3 to 4 years | Resize the instance, no replacement |
Most firms we work with land on a mix: local workstations for full-time drafters in the office, cloud workstations for remote staff, site engineers and overflow. That is usually the right answer rather than going all-in on one model.
Storage, networking and the NAS that can keep up
This is where the largest performance gains hide, and where the cheapest providers cut corners. When several people open and save large models all day, the network and the storage device behind it are the bottleneck, not the workstations.
Fast networking inside the office
For a CAD or BIM office we want at least 10 gigabit between the file server or NAS and the core switch, and gigabit to every desk as a minimum, with 2.5 gigabit or 10 gigabit to the workstations that pull the biggest files. Cabling matters: Cat6A to the desk, properly terminated, not whatever was already in the wall when the firm moved in. A model that opens in 30 seconds instead of three minutes pays for the upgrade in a week of saved drafting time.
A NAS specified for the workload
A business-grade NAS with SSD caching and dual network links handles a design team well, provided it is sized for the data and the number of concurrent users. The trap is a consumer NAS bought to save a few hundred dollars that then can’t keep up once the team and the project archive grow. We size storage for where the firm will be in three years, not where it is today, because design data only ever grows.
Version control that suits BIM
Revit and ArchiCAD have their own collaboration models (Revit central files and worksharing, ArchiCAD Teamwork via BIMcloud) that handle multi-user editing of a single model. Those tools manage who is editing what, but they are not a backup. You still need point-in-time snapshots of the whole project so you can roll back a model to last Tuesday when something goes wrong, and a clear structure for AutoCAD and Civil 3D files where there is no built-in worksharing. We set up versioned storage so an overwritten or corrupted file can be recovered to a known-good state, not just to “the last time it synced”.
Collaboration across sites and with builders
Design work is rarely done in one room any more. A structural team may be split across two offices, the architect is in a different practice entirely, and the builder needs the latest drawings on site. Sharing 40GB models by email is not an option, and dragging them across a slow VPN frustrates everyone.
For multi-site firms, the practical patterns are a properly sized site-to-site link or SD-WAN between offices so the model lives in one place and both sites work against it, or cloud-hosted BIM collaboration (Autodesk Construction Cloud / BIM Collaborate, or BIMcloud for ArchiCAD) so the central model sits in the cloud and everyone syncs to it regardless of location. For sharing finished drawings with builders and clients, a controlled portal beats emailing files around, because you keep one source of truth and an audit trail of who got what.
A civil engineering firm in Box Hill we work with runs exactly this setup: Civil 3D and 12d drafters in the office on local workstations against a fast NAS, two project engineers who split time between the office and client sites on cloud workstations, and a cloud collaboration layer so the surveyor and the builder always pull current drawings. The point is that no single approach covers every user, so the design has to match how each person actually works.
Backup, IP protection and access control
Your drawings and models are the firm’s intellectual property and, in many cases, the deliverable a client has paid for. Losing them, or letting them leak, is a business-ending event. Two things protect against that: real backup and disciplined access control.
Backup that assumes things will go wrong
We build to the 3-2-1 principle: three copies of the data, on two different media, with one off-site. For a design firm that means the live NAS, a local backup appliance for fast restores, and an encrypted off-site or cloud copy for disaster recovery. The off-site copy matters because a NAS failure, a fire at the Box Hill office, or a ransomware hit can take out everything in the building at once. We test restores, because a backup you have never restored from is a hope, not a plan. If you want the detail on how this is built, our data backup and recovery service covers it, and the RTO vs RPO explainer is worth a read for setting realistic recovery targets.
Protecting IP from leaks and ransomware
Ransomware is the most common way design firms lose access to their own work, and immutable off-site backups are what get you back without paying. On the leak side, the Notifiable Data Breaches scheme under the Privacy Act, overseen by the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC), applies where personal information is exposed in a breach, and your project data often carries client and contract details that fall under it. Aligning to the Australian Cyber Security Centre’s Essential Eight gives you a sensible baseline: application control, patching, multi-factor authentication and restricted admin privileges close off most of the common attack paths. Our cybersecurity services are built around that framework.
Project-based access control
Not everyone should see every project. Confidential tenders, defence work, or simply jobs where a staff member has a conflict all need walls. We structure file permissions by project and by team using Microsoft Entra security groups, so access is granted by role and project rather than file by file. When a contractor finishes, you disable one account and they lose access to everything at once. When a new project starts, you add the team to a group and they have what they need. It also gives you an audit trail of who accessed what, which matters when a client or a dispute asks the question.
Remote access that actually performs
Site engineers, directors working from home and interstate staff all need to reach the models, and this is where a lot of generic IT setups fall over. A plain VPN forcing a 40GB Revit file across a domestic connection is painfully slow and frustrates everyone into emailing copies around, which then breaks version control.
The approaches that work are cloud workstations, where the heavy machine and the file never leave the data centre and only the screen is streamed, so a director on home broadband gets near-office performance; or cloud-hosted BIM collaboration so remote users sync against a central model close to them rather than dragging files across a slow link. A blunt VPN to the office NAS is the option we move firms away from, because the physics of pushing large files over a consumer connection don’t change no matter how good the VPN is.
How TechAssist supports design firms
TechAssist is a Melbourne-based MSP, founded in 2014, with 13 Australian-employed engineers (no offshore helpdesk). We work with construction, manufacturing and professional services firms across Melbourne metro, and the engineering and architecture practices among them have exactly the workloads described here. We run per-user fixed monthly pricing with no hourly billing for in-scope work, so a busy drafting period doesn’t come with a surprise invoice, and we offer same-business-day on-site across Melbourne metro from our Tecoma NOC and CBD office at 575 Bourke Street.
Whether you need workstations specified properly, a NAS and network that keep up with Revit, or backup and access control that protect your IP, the work starts with understanding how your team actually drafts. Our managed IT services and professional services IT support pages cover the broader picture, and if you want to talk specifics, get in touch.
Frequently asked questions
Should drafters use local workstations or cloud workstations?
For full-time, office-based CAD and BIM users, a properly specified local workstation is usually better value and faster, because there is no network dependency. Cloud workstations (Azure or Frame) come into their own for remote staff, site engineers and short-term contractors. Most firms run a mix rather than picking one for everybody.
What spec does a Revit workstation actually need?
Prioritise single-thread CPU performance, then 64GB of RAM as a sensible floor for heavy models, a professional NVIDIA RTX GPU, and fast NVMe local storage. Core count and cheap RAM matter far less than people assume. The right spec depends on the role, so a drafter, an analyst and a reviewer should not all get the same machine.
How do we share large models with builders without emailing files?
Use a cloud BIM collaboration platform such as Autodesk Construction Cloud or BIMcloud for the central model, and a controlled sharing portal for issuing finished drawings. That keeps one source of truth and an audit trail of who received what, instead of multiple stale copies floating around in inboxes.
How do we protect our drawings from ransomware?
Immutable, off-site backups are what get you back without paying a ransom, so build to a 3-2-1 model and test the restores. Pair that with the Essential Eight controls, particularly application control, patching and multi-factor authentication, to reduce the chance of being hit in the first place.
Can we keep our data in Australia?
Yes. Local workstations and an on-premises NAS keep data in your office, and if you use cloud workstations or cloud backup, those can be hosted in an Australian Azure region so your IP and any client information stay onshore.
