Plant 3D - allow custom spec file location within BIM360/ACC

[Michiel_Valcke_GeoIT]

When creating a Plant 3D project and uploading it to BIM 360 or Autodesk Construction Cloud all project related paths and files (like spec files) have to be contained within the project folder. They cannot afterwards be re-referred to another (BIM360/ACC) location.

With a non-collaborate project the spec file folder can be referred outside of the project. This allows several projects to share the same spec files. In turn this makes it easier for a CAD-manager to ensure that all specs on all projects are up to date and in sync with the latest edits.

With a collaborate project this is impossible. An administrator cannot setup multiple projects and have them refer to the same spec files. Any update to a spec file that is shared by multiple projects has to be manually updated in several projects. Since there is no link to see which projects use which spec files this information has to be kept seperately from the Plant 3D environment.

Allowing collaborate projects to refer other folders/files outside of their project map (but maybe still within BIM360/ACC) would maintain the SPOT (Single Point of Truth) philosophy of BIM360/ACC.

As it stands now, in certain cases, a non-collaborate project setup turns out to be more SPOT friendly than a collaborate project.

[Michiel.Valcke]

similarly a user could be allowed to refer in a project setup to a template to be used from a common template folder on the ACC docs environment. That way changes to the templates do not need to updated to each user's individual workstation.

[Michiel.Valcke]

At the moment you can use the Bridge function or the Autodesk Replication Tool to copy files from one location to another. This could be a possible solution to update specs in collaboration projects.

The only issue at the moment is that Plant 3D will not register the changes to the spec if the spec file itself has been updated. Even clearing the collaborationcache will not fix the issue. If you fix this issue, then the Bridge or ART tools can give a CAD/BIM manager enough flexibility to update specs across different collaboration projects.

The only viable option at the moment is not sufficient for agile spec sheet management:
https://www.autodesk.com/support/technical/article/caas/sfdcarticles/sfdcarticles/How-to-update-proj...

[jed_freeman]

very well articulated...this is a major quality control issue. as it functions now there are multiple copies of the same spec across projects, to manually track and update the files will only lead to user error.

this issue should be of the highest priority to fix. if anyone has a workflow that they can educate me on i would be very grateful.

[robert_pennells4ZXMA]

Great comment and very valid issue to be dealt with. It would also be useful to have Autodesk Plant 3D to set up and ACC Collaboration environment for a single client with Multiple projects at different phase, each with its own unique project number. Currently if this is done you have a Plant 3D folder and file structure that is created to each project. If you could somehow merge all SPECS and DATA driving folders to one container for the client, then it will also streamline the whole process of control and uniformity across the client base of multiple projects.

[jed_freeman]

I could not agree with you more. We are having the same issue where we have a Client with multiple Phases.

The Bridge option in ACC is useless in Plant 3D. I wish there was a way to link projects in Plant 3D/ACC.

[lfitzhenry]

Bump

Still hoping that this will happen one day.