Skip to main content

Contribute to a workspace

You can connect a workstation to a workspace to contribute to jobs, even without having access to the original Reality Studio project.

Start a contribution in the application

After a distributed process is submitted to the workspace, workstations can start their contribution once they are connected.

To connect a workstation and start contributing, complete the following steps:

  1. Click the Project tab.

  2. Click Distributed Processing.

  3. Under Select a Workspace, click Browse .

    If you have a default workspace configured, it will be shown here.

    Tip:

    You can define a default workspace in the Processing Path Settings section. When you create a job or connect to a workspace to monitor or contribute, the workspace field is then automatically filled.

    The Select a workspace folder dialog box appears.

  4. Select the workspace you want to contribute to, and click OK.

    If the specified path does not point to a workspace, a workspace is created at that location.

  5. Optionally, select your Cloud Connections.

    Cloud connection files are necessary to leverage cloud support in Reality Studio.

    To select cloud connections, complete the following steps:

    1. Expand the Cloud Connections section.

    2. Click Add and browse to your cloud connection file location.

    3. Select your connection file (.acs) and click OK.

    A new entry appears in the table showing your cloud connection file name and it's location.

    Repeat this procedure if necessary for each connection file.

    Tip:

    To remove a cloud connection, select its entry in the table and click Remove .

  6. Click Start Contribution .

    Note:

    If there's an open project, it will be closed to open the contribution mode.

The workstation now contributes to the selected workspace as a node and can receive processing tasks.

While the workstation is contributing to a workspace, you can also monitor the distributed processing.

Start a contribution on command line interface

This video was created with ArcGIS Reality Studio 2025.2.

After a distributed process is submitted to the workspace, workstations can start their contribution once they're connected.

To connect a workstation and start contributing using the command line interface, complete the following steps:

  1. Open a command line window.

    Call the ArcGISRealityStudioNode.exe from your Reality Studio <installation folder>\bin.

  2. Specify a workspace, a temporary processing directory, and cloud connection files, if necessary.

    • To specify the workspace, use the workspace flag --workspace-location (shortcut -w), followed by a space, and the path to the workspace you want to contribute to.

    • To specify the temporary processing directory, use the flag --temporary-processing-location (shortcut -t) followed by a space, and then the path to the temporary processing directory.

    • To specify cloud connection files, use the flag --cloud-storage-connection-files (shortcut -c) followed by a space, and then the path to a connection file. If multiple connection files are necessary, use a space to separate them.

    Code sample:

    <Installation_Folder>\ArcGISRealityStudioNode.exe -w <Path_to_Workspace> -t <Path_to_Temporary_Processing_Location>

  3. Press Enter.

The workstation now contributes to the selected workspace as a node and can receive processing tasks.

While the workstation is contributing to a workspace, you can also monitor the distributed processing.

Stop a contribution in the application

Once you start a contribution to the workspace, you can stop it to remove the workstation from the process.

To stop contributing to the workspace, complete the following steps:

  1. In the Workspace Monitor pane, click Stop Contribution.

    Note:

    Stopping a contribution cancels the current processing task and deletes its progress.

  2. On the warning dialog box, click OK.

The workstation stops contributing to the workspace but remains connected for monitoring purposes. To start contributing again, click Start Contribution in the Workspace Monitor pane.

Stop a contribution on command line interface

Once you start a contribution to the workspace, you can stop it to remove the workstation from the process.

To stop contributing to the workspace, in the command line window, press Ctrl+C.

Note:

Stopping a contribution cancels the current processing task and deletes its progress.

Once the exit request is finished, the command line window closes automatically.

Back to top