Your Questions, Answered – Autodesk’s Three New AEC Cloud Offerings for Design

For design and construction firms, project delivery has become more complex in a COVID-changed world. As companies like yours gear up to accelerate the pace of digital transformation, you’re reworking your approach to data management and project collaboration across teams, projects, construction phases, and beyond. Your challenges are manifold, but they also present windows of opportunity to reimagine these aspects of your business.

At Autodesk this year, we saw your use of AEC cloud collaboration tools grow tremendously since March. As you used these products, you told us you need access to more powerful workflows in simplified packaging for more than just the designer on a project.

We’ve also heard from you that you need better connections between design collaboration and coordination processes early on in the project to avoid the inconsistent exchange of design data between companies. You asked for greater access to clash detection and issue management for multiple stakeholders, better project analytics, and deeper connections to design tools you already use, like Revit and Navisworks.

This is why you heard in our recent announcement at Autodesk University 2020 that next year, we will release three new cloud offerings for AEC design workflows on our unified platform for the AEC industry. The updates announced at AU are:

• Autodesk Docs, our centralized document management solution on Autodesk Construction Cloud, will be included in the AEC Collection next year.
• Autodesk BIM Collaborate, our new offering for non-authoring team members to be released next year, will help project stakeholders to follow along with real-time design progress and annotate design clashes
• BIM 360 Design will be renamed to “Autodesk BIM Collaborate Pro” and include new capabilities such as access to unified products in the Autodesk Construction Cloud. It will also include coordination and project analytics capabilities.

We gathered your most-asked questions and have answered them below. Take a look:

1. Why is Autodesk making these changes?

We continue to evolve our offerings as your needs change. With these changes, we are giving you, our design customers, access to our unified platform that includes capabilities tailored to your needs and workflows. In the wake of the unprecedented demands you’ve had to face this year, we want to support your digital transformation goals by providing access to a common data environment that includes unlimited cloud storage.

2. I’m a current customer of BIM 360 Design, BIM 360 Docs, and/or AEC Collection. What should I do to prepare for these changes?

If you are a current BIM 360 Docs, BIM 360 Design, or AEC Collection, you may continue using these products without interruption to your projects. When these new offerings become available next year, you can work with your Customer Success Manager, Partner, or the Autodesk Support team to start new projects on the unified platform. See details below:

1. If you are an AEC Collection customer, you will automatically get access to Autodesk Docs, which includes access to BIM 360 Docs. Seats of Autodesk Docs will be added to current AEC Collection subscriptions at a 1:1 rate.
2. If you are a BIM 360 Design customer, you will be automatically upgraded to Autodesk BIM Collaborate Pro which means you can start new projects on the unified platform and continue to access and work on BIM 360 projects.
3. If you are a BIM 360 Docs customer, you may continue using BIM 360 for your projects without interruption. You will not receive automatic access to Autodesk Docs, as these two offerings are not the same.

3. Why would I want to start a project on the unified platform?

Starting a new project in Autodesk Construction Cloud (ACC) enables you to prepare for the future of project delivery with the support of Autodesk’s most comprehensive design and construction cloud platform. You will be able to:

• Connect your design data to construction partners’ data in Autodesk Build via Autodesk Docs.
• Connect to an interoperable ecosystem of integration partners that build solutions for design and construction needs.
• Participate in full project lifecycle workflows with a more robust data schema, from common data environment to digital handover

4. What is the difference in functionality between these three offerings?

Autodesk Docs is a centralized document management solution that acts as a single source of truth across the project lifecycle for all teams.

Autodesk BIM Collaborate enables project teams to align and execute on design intent by managing the entire design collaboration and coordination workflow from a single solution to reduce rework, improve productivity and accelerate project delivery.

Autodesk BIM Collaborate Pro is the next evolution of BIM 360 Design and adds the Model Coordination and Insight modules to connect the collaboration services of Revit Cloud Worksharing, Collaboration for Civil 3D, and Collaboration for Plant 3D to downstream construction workflows like clash detection on both BIM 360 and the unified platform. BIM Collaborate Pro will enable authors of design documentation to work anytime from anywhere in their Revit, Civil 3D, and Plant 3D standalone or multi-disciplinary projects.

5. Why are we changing the name of BIM 360 Design?

Autodesk is committed to adapting our products and adding value to them as our customers’ needs are changing. This name change reflects the shift of document storage and management from BIM 360 Docs to Autodesk Docs and the addition of new capabilities, such as model coordination.

6. Are Autodesk Docs and BIM 360 Docs the same offering?

No. While each offering contains many of the same common data environment features today, Autodesk Docs supports document management for projects on our unified platform as well as BIM 360, while BIM 360 Docs only supports document management for BIM 360 projects.

7. What is happening to BIM 360?

We will continue to provide customers with the access and support they need to work on their existing projects and within their existing workflows. All unified products on Autodesk Construction Cloud will also enable access to BIM 360 projects.

8. Are Autodesk Docs, BIM Collaborate, & BIM Collaborate Pro available on Europe data center? What about ISO compliance?

Accounts on the Europe data center will not be available in the launch time frame next year but is targeted for availability a few months after. BIM 360 Document Management is targeted to be ISO 19650 compliant in the launch time frame next year. ISO 19650 compliance for Autodesk Docs will follow a few months later as well.

9. What versions of Revit, Civil 3D, and Plant 3D are supported?

Projects on BIM 360 will support Revit 2018.3 or later, Civil 3D 2020.2 or later, and Plant 3D 2021 or later. Projects on the unified platform will support Revit 2018.3 or later, Civil 3D 2020.5.1 or later, and Plant 3D 2021 or later.

10. How will I be able to manage my licenses and entitlements? Will I be able to buy user packs for my team? How does BYOS work?

We’ll make more information regarding license and entitlement usage available closer to launch date. User packs and the “Bring Your Own Subscription” or BYOS policy will also be available on these three offerings – stay tuned for more details.

11. Will I be able to trial these new offerings?

More information on trial experiences will be available closer to the launch date.
We’re so excited to get these offerings ready for you – stay tuned for more information. You can also check out these blog posts with more information – the announcement from Amy Bunszel on Autodesk News, more info on BIM Collaborate for construction teams and on Autodesk Build and Autodesk Quantify on our Digital Builder blog.

From all of us at Autodesk,
Happy #AU2020!

SAFE HARBOR STATEMENT

During the course of this blog post, we may make statements regarding future events and/or statements regarding planned or future development efforts for our existing or new products and services. We wish to caution you that such statements reflect our current expectations, estimates and assumptions based on factors currently known to us and that actual events or results could differ materially. Also, these statements are not intended to be a promise or guarantee of future delivery of products, services or features but merely reflect our current plans, which may change. Purchasing decisions should not be made based upon reliance on these statements. The statements made in this presentation are being made as of the time and date of its live presentation. We do not assume any obligation to update any statements we make to reflect events that occur or circumstances that exist after the date of this presentation.
Autodesk, the Autodesk logo, BIM 360, Assemble, PlanGrid and Building Connected are registered trademarks or trademarks of Autodesk, Inc., and/or its subsidiaries and/or affiliates in the USA and/or other countries. All other brand names, product names, or trademarks belong to their respective holders. Autodesk reserves the right to alter product and services offerings, and specifications and pricing at any time without notice, and is not responsible for typographical or graphical errors that may appear in this document. © 2020 Autodesk, Inc. All rights reserved.

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