At Autodesk, we’ve been hard at work to address design collaboration and data management challenges across the project lifecyle that you told us about. With the launch of BIM 360 Design, design joins construction on BIM 360, the common data platform for all AEC teams. Now, integration between design and construction workflows is not just a pipe dream.
I am excited that BIM 360 Design on the unified BIM 360 platform is now live.
Here’s what you need to know about BIM 360 Design
BIM 360 Design is Autodesk’s Revit cloud worksharing, design collaboration, and data management product for all teams in the project lifecycle. It joins the unified BIM 360 portfolio with a familiar composition — it enables the same Revit cloud worksharing that you’ve come to love in Collaboration for Revit, except that this worksharing functionality is now also built on the new BIM 360 platform. It includes a new “Design Collaboration” module in the new platform that was developed to make BIM management and design deliverable coordination on projects a whole lot easier.
Altogether, BIM 360 Design has these components:
- Revit Cloud Worksharing for multi-user model co-authoring (available both on next generation BIM 360 and also with BIM 360 Team as you have been doing in Collaboration for Revit*).
- Document Management module for data management, access controls, and web and mobile collaboration
- The new Design Collaboration module for milestone tracking and deliverable coordination
- Other administration modules for account and project setup (for more information, please read the Getting Started guide)
- Autodesk Desktop Connector, to connect your cloud repository to your desktop.
Is Collaboration for Revit going away?
Collaboration for Revit isn’t going anywhere! In fact, if you subscribed to C4R and BIM 360 Team (aka our classic products) and are currently using them on existing projects, you can continue to use both—and enjoy uninterrupted access to your services and projects—for as long as you renew.
C4R has been rebranded and repackaged into BIM 360 Design, so if you are an existing subscriber, you will see the branding update in Autodesk Account. Access to BIM 360 Design is included in your subscription.
For more details on the rebranding, activating access, and more, please read the FAQ on the rebranding of Collaboration for Revit to BIM 360 Design.
What about BIM 360 Team?
As of April 9, 2018, Autodesk will no longer offer new subscriptions of BIM 360 Team. If you are a current BIM 360 Team subscriber, you can continue to use BIM 360 Team with uninterrupted access to your services and projects for as long as you renew.
However, BIM 360 Team subscribers will have access to document management functionality on the new BIM 360 platform, and the option start new projects on the platform. For more details on the end of sale of BIM 360 Team, activating access and more, please read the BIM 360 Team FAQ.
The story behind BIM 360 Design
It all started with a simple question: “How can we allow companies to collaborate across domains?” When we launched Revit Server, we knew it was providing a valuable service to our customers, but multi-discipline workflow required companies to work together on many projects.
What ensued was radical collaboration across the company that involved the use of a human-centered design framework to deliver a highly reliable, performant, and easy way for teams to author BIM models anywhere on the globe with an internet connection. We called it “Cloud Worksharing” — or Collaboration for Revit — and our subscribers adopted it in droves. We were onto something.
Adoption of C4R was not only on test projects. Some of the largest, most demanding projects around the world have used C4R successfully — today, over 17,000 users work on cloud workshared Revit models on a typical work day, carrying out 125,000 Sync With Central (SWC) operations across over 6000 global projects that are active daily.
But this is a new page for all of us on Autodesk’s cloud worksharing team — and hopefully for you too. After over 18 months, we’ve raised the bar for how AEC project teams can work together.
What Can I Do With BIM 360 Design?
BIM 360 Design is made for distributed and multi-disciplinary teams. You can co-author Revit models with greater access controls, issue management, deliverable coordination, trackable project activity, change visualization, and unlimited storage.
With BIM 360 Design, design teams can say goodbye to ‘open’ environments as the only way to work, and hello to flexible dynamics using granular access controls. Here’s a quick look at features and functionality:
PROJECT SETUP
- Quickly set up teams by user, role, or company
- Easily define data workspaces, i.e. a separate workspace for internal design development and a shared folder for data that other teams can reference and use
- Use more granular project- and folder-based permissions and access controls, if desired
CONTROLLED WORKSHARING
- Enable multiple users to co-author Revit models with Revit cloud worksharing
- Extend worksharing to project teams in any location, while centralizing efforts of distributed teams
- Manage 2D sheets and 3D models in a central repository
- Better allocate resources and assign the best team members with the most relevant skill sets to each project
- Control and manage Work In Progress data exchange so that only reviewed, approved information is shared with other teams
- Allow the entire project team to take part in the BIM process.
- View the video here.
DELIVERABLE COORDINATION & MILESTONE TRACKING
- Track project progress in a shared project timeline
- Easily understand the current state of the project model in an aggregated view
- Exchange curated packages containing Revit sets & project models between teams
- Reduce rework with trackable activity recorded for all teams
- Enable transparency and ensure accountability for deadlines and milestones
- View the video here.
CHANGE VISUALIZATION
- Enable change visualization with one click on any BIM artifact contained in a package. (No more hunting for revision clouds or exporting the 3rd party tools)
- Easily compare differences between versions of Revit models shared between project lead and consultants.
- Explore shared deliverables before accepting into your team’s space to understand how new design information will impact work in progress.
- Navigate change information by team, project phase, or building level.
- View the video here.
BIM ON-THE-GO
- Provide feedback on project data, with markups and closed-loop issue management via mobile device or browser
CONNECT CLOUD TO DESKTOP
Use Autodesk Desktop Connector to connect your cloud repository to your desktop.
- Download the BIM 360 plug-in for Autodesk Desktop Connector here
- If you haven’t already, download Desktop Connector here
Note: You’ll need to install both applications to connect to next generation BIM 360
BRING BIM DATA TO DOWNSTREAM PROCESSES
- Use BIM data downstream for construction workflows across the Field Management, Project Management, and Model Coordination modules on the new BIM 360 platform.
How Do I Get Started with BIM 360 Design?
If you are a current customer, to start a new project with BIM 360 Design, you’ll need to:
1. Get a BIM 360 Account
- If you have an existing BIM 360 account, the Design Collaboration module should have been enabled for your account already. If not, please contact your Autodesk sales representative or reseller.
- If you don’t have an existing account, your Contract Manager can activate access via Autodesk Account.
2. Install Revit 2018.3 or Revit 2019
- Both versions of Revit have been released and should be available in the Autodesk Desktop app. Direct download can be found here. Only Revit versions 2018.3 and later are optimized to work with BIM 360 Design.
- For more information on how this impacts your work in Revit, also check out the Revit blog for a post coming soon.
- Stay tuned, we’ll follow up with additional posts on Revit workflows.
3. Read the Getting Started Guide
- We built this kickstart guide to help you onboard into BIM 360 Design! If you are an account and/or project admin, check it out now to set up a new account and project.
4. Sign up for our webinars
- Our webinar series has unfortunately run out, but you can watch a recording here.
BIM 360 Design does not have a trial experience at this time, but we are working to deliver it to new customers. To purchase new subscriptions, please visit the Autodesk eStore.
When we set out, our vision for BIM 360 Design was to make a design collaboration product that allows you to use it for both Work-in-Progress and shared data on a multi-firm, multi-discipline project. That was our core intent from the start: to deliver both workflows in an integrated, lovable way.
And we’re just getting started. With this new product, we hope to challenge the norms of how file-based collaboration solutions operate, prove how BIM data can reduce risk and increase profitability in construction, and delight you all with experiences that reflect how you think about data.
Hopefully, you all are as excited about this as we are. We’re biased though; we’ve worked hard based on lots of feedback and customer engagement to deliver this new way to work, and your continued feedback and engagement will make sure we deliver on what you most need.
Look out for subsequent posts on BIM 360 Design, the new Design Collaboration module, features, industry workflows, and more.
Cheers,
Kyle & the BIM 360 Design Team
Watch Kyle demo BIM 360 Design at Autodesk’s 2018 One Team Conference below
Resources & helpful links:
- If you have questions about how to use BIM 360 Design, please visit our forums. We’d love to hear from you, and you may already find an answer to your question looking up key terms in the search bar.
- For questions regarding activating access and account setup, please contact a your Autodesk sales representative or reseller partner.
- If you need help resolving an issue once your new BIM 360 account has been created, please contact Autodesk Support.
- Bookmark the BIM 360 Design Kickstart Guide — it will come in handy as you start using the new module and features.
- Watch this webinar for a live demo of package creation and exchange, and follow along with the Kickstart Guide above if you can
- FAQ on the rebranding of C4R to BIM 360 Design is here.
- FAQ on the end of sale of new subscriptions of BIM 360 Team is here.
- Desktop Connector:
- To purchase BIM 360 Design, visit the eStore.
Learn more about design collaboration for your teams or visit the BIM 360 Design product page for more information.
The post What is BIM 360 Design? It’s next gen design collaboration from Autodesk appeared first on Convergence.
