Google Drive Cloud Drive Project Library Setup Guide

1 Overview

D5 Render Team Edition supports deploying project libraries on Google Drive. With Google Drive's online storage and sharing capabilities, team members can access the project library from anywhere via the internet, no longer limited by the corporate LAN.This guide covers the complete setup process for both Team Administrators and Team Members.

Important : To ensure sync efficiency and stability, projects saved to the cloud drive will have their archive format upgraded. Archives in the upgraded format cannot be opened in D5 Render versions prior to 3.1.

1.1 Prerequisites

Item	Requirement
Operating System	Windows 10 / Windows 11
D5 Render	Version 3.1 or above
Google Account	Google personal account or Google Workspace business account
Disk Space	Ensure sufficient space for project files (typically several GB to tens of GB depending on project size)

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2 Team Administrator Setup

The administrator is responsible for creating the project library folder, configuring D5 Render, and sharing the library with team members.

2.1 Install and Sign In to the Google Drive Desktop App

1. If the Google Drive desktop app is not yet installed on your Windows system, download and install it from the official Google Drive download page.

2. Sign in with your Google account during the setup process.

2.2 Configure Mirror Files Mode

1. In the Google Drive Desktop App, click "Settings" → "Preferences".

2. In the dialog that appears, select "Google Drive" , then choose the "Stream files" option.

3. Configure the stream folder location to a drive with ample free space.

2.3 Create the Project Library Folder

1. In Windows File Explorer, navigate to the Google Drive mirror folder configured in the previous step.

2. Inside the mirror folder, manually create a new empty folder to serve as the team project library (e.g., name it D5TeamProjects).

3. Double-click the project library folder to open it. Click inside the File Explorer address bar to obtain the full local path of the folder (e.g., G:\My Drive\D5TeamProjects). You will need this path when configuring D5.

2.4 Share the Project Library Folder with Team Members

Share the project library folder so that team members can access and edit the project files.

1. In the Google Drive Desktop App, click "Open Drive Web" to open the Google Drive website.

2. The project library folder will appear under "My Drive" on the Google Drive website.

3. Right-click the project library folder and select "Share".

4. In the sharing dialog, enter the email addresses of team members and set the permission to "Editor".

Note : You must grant "Editor" permission. If only "Viewer" permission is granted, members will not be able to collaborate in multi-user editing.

2.5 Configure the Project Library in D5 Launcher

1. Sign in to D5 Launcher as a D5 team administrator and navigate to the "Settings" page.

2. In the "Cloud Drive" tab, paste the Google Drive folder path from step 2.3 into the corresponding input field.

3. Click Save.

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3 Team Member Setup

After receiving the sharing invitation from the administrator, team members need to complete the following steps.

3.1 Install and Configure the Google Drive Desktop App

1. Download and install the Google Drive Desktop App (same as administrator section 2.1).

2. In the Google Drive Desktop App, click "Settings" → "Preferences" , select "Google Drive" , and choose the "Mirror files" option. Configure the mirror folder location to a drive with sufficient free space (The mirror folder name, path, and drive letter may differ from those configured by the administrator.)

3.2 Sync the Project Library Folder to Your Local Machine

1. In the Google Drive Desktop App, click "Open web version" to open the Google Drive website.

2. On the Google Drive website, locate the team project library folder under "Shared with me".

3. Right-click the folder and select "Organize" → "Add shortcut" → "My Drive" to create a shortcut in your My Drive.

Tip : Alternatively, you may drag the project library folder directly into "My Drive" from the web interface.

1. In Windows File Explorer, navigate to "My Drive" under the Google Drive virtual drive.

2. Locate the shortcut to the project library folder.

3. Double-click the project library folder shortcut to open the actual local storage location of the project library.

4. In the File Explorer address bar, click the parent directory of the project library folder to obtain the full path of the non-shortcut project library folder on the local disk.

5. Select the project library folder, right-click it, choose "Offline access" , and enable "Available offline".

Important : Wait until all files in the folder have finished syncing before proceeding.

3.3 Authentication in D5 Launcher

1. You can find the team projects from the Google Drive project library under the "Team Projects - Cloud Drive" tab in the D5 Launcher sidebar.

2. Click "Connect Google Drive".

3. D5 Render will automatically open your default browser and display a Google sign-in page.

4. Enter your Google account credentials to sign in.

5. If a consent screen appears, click "Allow" to grant D5 Render permission to access your Google Drive data.