Hi Grant,
In the latest release we added to Update Manager the possibility to
store the packages into a network folder (
File->Preference->Local Network Installation).
Using it, only it's necessary to download the packages from one workstation, and the others nodes can get the files from it.
I know this is not the same that using directly the assets from the network (which can be done
settings some registry keys, but sincerely we are reluctant to provide such functionality from the installer.
The reason is that actually Update Manager only handles assets, but in the future we want to include other type of packages which may require some kind of installation (i.e. plugin updates).
In this case, a simple asset redirection will not work, because UM must get the packages and install them.
Therefore, we will probably continue working on the first option, improving UM to install packages automatically from a network repository.
And for those users that prefer to use shared assets directly, they have the option to use the registry keys.