BIM Collaborate Pro

The new Autodesk^® products Build, Takeoff and BIM Collaborate/BIM Collaborate Pro – form the unified engine (Unified Platform) that empowers general contractors, specialty trades, designers, and owners to drive better business outcomes.

Compared to the legacy product BIM 360 Design, BIM Collaborate Pro is the next generation of what BIM 360 Design was and still is. Both include Design Collaboration and Model Coordination, and while the workflows are very similar, there is a difference in licensing.

In the recent Applied Software webinar, “Work With the Best of the Best: Autodesk BIM Collaborate Pro,” Matt Dillon clarified the licensing. Whereas you have to provide BIM 360 Design licenses for each person you invite to the project for document management, BIM Collaborate Pro is a “bring-your-own-license” (BYOL) product, so each person invited to the project has to use their own subscription.

Document Management – “Docs” is the foundation for the BIM Collaborate products, and everything else plugs into it. Docs gives you insight capability, and the unified data includes file formats that BIM Collaborate Pro can handle (models, drawings, etc). In comparing BIM Collaborate Pro and BIM 360 Design, Docs looks very similar in both platforms. The Docs service includes basic file management, folder permissions, and a document viewer that allows DWGs, Revit files, PDFs, Navisworks files (NWC), and other formats. In Docs you can:

• create markups/electronic redlines and issues, including comments;
• notify people of issues;
• assign redlines and other issues to one or more people;
• manage what happens to the issue until it’s resolved.

Revit Cloud Worksharing – With this service, you can host a central model in the Autodesk cloud for collaboration. Multiple organizations and offices can work on a Revit central model, increasing efficiency. Anyone invited to the project can collaborate on it and work in the same model – the same central file – even if working from behind different firewalls.

BIM Collaborate Pro also provides non-Revit cloud collaboration for AutoCAD, Plant 3D and Civil 3D files. Your files can be stored in that environment using BIM Collaborate Pro, and multiple people can edit them at different times. They won’t be working in the same drawing, because of the file locking feature, but it does provide a central file location.

Design Collaboration – This is another BYOL service for either platform. Design Collaboration allows controlled sharing of data between design teams. It can accommodate both low-trust and high-trust workflows, allowing teams to choose who to share data with. Folder permissions are automated based on team membership.

For instance, if an architectural, structural engineering and MEP engineering teams are all working on the same project, only their immediate team members can see their live data until they decide to share it. Although they may not all work in the same model, data can be shared efficiently in a controlled environment. When other teams are notified that a package of data has been shared, they decide whether they will consume it at that time, either by viewing it or linking it to their own Revit model. They are not able to edit the shared package.

Model Coordination – This is a new addition for doing clash detection[MD1] . It works basically the same way with either BIM Collaborate Pro or BIM 360 Design. The coordination workspace provides clash management by using filters. The tool shows the clashes on the model, and the user can opt to create issues or classify certain things as “not an issue” if there are extenuating circumstances. This automated clash detection and the way it limits confusion promises to save companies a lot of time.

Up & Ready Service

Applied Software offers an “Up and Ready” service for either Design Collaboration or Model Coordination, and it is available in three levels:

• Silver level has a 2-hour overview of either Design or Model Collaboration – provides a basic overview to get your staff familiar with what the packages to.
• Gold level provides 4 hours of training for administrators and users – hands-on, live, remote training, which is interactive with an instructor.
• Platinum level includes 4 hours of training for administrators and users plus project mentoring for your first project. The goal is to reinforce the training and get you through issues as they arise.

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The expert help is here to get you Up and Ready and back to productive work quickly. To learn more about BIM Collaborate Pro Up and Ready service, contact Applied Software today and talk to a collaboration expert.