BIM 360 Docs - Documents can be shared with non-project members of BIM 360 Docs

[Lolke_Tjerkstra]

Hi there!

Documents can be shared with non-project members of the BIM 360 Docs.

Similar to a public link where users do not have to log into the platform.

As an example a lot of governments orgs that do not want to have to log into receive documents.

This governments need the documents as a progress update only. They are not collaborators.

Thanks!

[joan_allen]

Hi,

Thanks for the feedback.  We are reviewing this request and considering it for a future update.

Best Regards,

Joan Allen

Sr. Product Manager, BIM 360 Docs

[Anonymous]

This is a great Idea

[Anonymous]

Yes

[Anonymous]

The following extentoins of this Feature would be usefull as well:

-create a log of externaly shared documents.

-get feedback if document was downloaded.

-Create temporary shared Folder where externs could upload documents as well.
i.e. a new Section: "Plans", "Project Files", "External Files"

This would help in 90% to avoid having to use a secondary platform for filesharing in parallel.

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[Chad-Smith]

Just adding in that I get asked this a lot.

I feel the users I talk to who are familiar with, and use BIM 360 Team, rely on this feature to share with non-authoring/commenting users.

[Anonymous]

Hi Chad-Smith

I didn’t quite get the point.
Do you recommend to use BIM 360 Team in addition to Docs to send links to people without Autodesk account?

Regards, Philipp

[Chad-Smith]

Sorry, reading what I wrote again I definitely wasn't clear enough. I'll try again.

Some companies start on BIM 360 Team, which has the ability to share to external (non-licensed) users.

But then these companies 'upgrade' to BIM 360 Docs which doesn't have the feature. But they then find themselves wanting this sharing ability which they were accustomed to using in Team.

Docs is definitely more advanced than Team. But Docs is still missing some favourable features from Team (like external sharing), which if added would make Docs even better.

[gmuehlemann]

additionally, it should allow to set the duration of the public link - the link should expire after e.g. 30 days

[Elijah.Driscol]

On behalf of many people at my firm, I agree that this is a critical feature.  I can't think of a single project on which we did not need to share documents outside our core project teams at some point.  The current functionality requires us to split our workflow across platforms in order to do so.

In particular, I'd like to second the suggestions to allow logging of external shared documents, tracking downloads, and setting an expiration date.  We have used other platforms such as Newforma and PlanGrid which have these features.  It would be ideal to have them in the same place that we share models, design issues, etc...

Thanks!

-Elijah

[Anonymous]

I would agree with the comments above. Docs is not a complete collaboration solution without the ability to share information externally. We need this included within Docs. 

[Chad-Smith]

There is a level of irony with the current inability to share a link when dealing with product Autodesk support cases.

Let's say a file exists on Docs which is having issues and needs sending to Autodesk Support for investigation.

To do so, the file must first be downloaded (from Autodesk's own platform), and then uploaded to a different platform (like Dropbox), where a private link is generated, and then this is added to the Autodesk Support details.

So yes, we need the ability to share files with links to users outside the platform.

[gmuehlemann]

Hi Chad-Smith,

thanks for your comment. In such cases, you can also invite the product support specialist to the folder in Docs and allow permission level accordingly (e.g. view only).

Gilbert

[Chad-Smith]

Not without consuming a user license, which may not be available, nor should a company have to provide.

https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/bim-360-ideas/free-viewer-role-like-your-competitors-products-have/id...

Unless all Autodesk staff can be added to BIM 360 projects with consuming a license?

[Unknown_Account59]

We 100% support this idea, it would give our estimating and tendering teams, in particular, the ability to send out packages/orders without having to download information and then issue via Dropbox or Dropbox which takes more admin time/work.

We definitely aren't able to give licenses to all of the different companies that price each of the packages of work, as this would consume hundreds of additional licenses. 

[Anonymous]

Just wanting to contribute towards keeping this request alive (to share documents with non project members) and the urgent need for this functionality.  As consultants, we have made the decision to move from TEAM to DOCS, loving the new functionality however regretting the decision as a result of not having this critical functionality available.

Now trying a work-around by hosting two CDE's one for team collaboration and one where documents are shared with third parties.. you can quickly see that we are running into major uncoordinated problems and the thought - what's the point of DOCS???

[Unknown_Account59]

Hear hear!

[j.arnott]

This needs to happen ASAP. As a spokesperson for one of Autodesk’s key accounts, certainly in the UK, I cannot stress enough how quickly this MUST happen. 

We have been convinced to move from Buzzsaw to BIM 360 Next Gen for obvious reasons which we are happy to do, but cannot roll this out business wide until simple features such as this are resolved. Teams across our business need to share files daily with external parties but they just want to be sent a link to download from. Similarly we need two options, secured and unsecured link sharing. The first can be sent to anyone (even forwarded to others) and those with it can access the content, the second would need a password or one time access pin to obtain access - we’ve done the above using SharePoint at present. 

Finally, having the ability to allow external users to upload files to our system (like Newforma, sharepoint etc) without having to sign in / take a user account would be beneficial too. 

To discussj in more detail please don’t hesitate to get in touch. 

[morgan-farrand]

Need this feature ASAP. I Agree with j.arnott. I cant roll this out business-wide until its fixed. After countless hours of research i come to find out that, no it doesn't have all the functionality of Team. Lots of features need to be added to make it workable. No drag and drop folder structure...really

[wlc]

We also need support for more types of documents, Word, excel are just a couple of file types that need to be added to the project and plan side of 360 Docs.  We were trying to push ASI's our to the team using 360 Doc's, but had to retain our  3rd party sharing in order to get the write-ups to the team.  Seeing a cloud in a plan is ok, or even using the compare plan function, but it is not useful when trying to understand the change.

The same issue arises with RFI's, ECO's...  

[bassem]

CAN THIS BE SORTED ASAP PLEASE...