BIM 360 Design: Licensing (Bring your own subscription)

[johan.cantryn]

In the FAQ, one can read:

Collaboration for Revit and BIM 360 Team allows for subscribers from another account to be added to a Project Hub
without utilizing one of the host account’s subscriptions. This is sometimes referred to as Bring Your Own Subscription
(BYOS). Will this be allowed with BIM 360 Design?
Yes. This is allowed for BIM 360 Design.

Now, BIM 360 Design is composed of different modules like Design Collaboration and Document Management (Docs).

I think is is obvious that Design Collaboration falls under the "Bring your own subscription" rule.

But what with the document management component. Will the other user will also brings his license with him.

Example:

Company ABC has 25 license of BIM 360 Design. All licenses are is use by internal staff members.

Company DEF also has 25 license of BIM 360 Design. All licenses are is use by internal staff members.

Company ABC will now invite 5 users of Company DEF into one of their projects.

What is the correct answer?

• Company ABC needs to buy 5 additional BIM 360 Design licenses so that they can invite the 5 users from company DEF.
  (In my opinion this is not correct, because in this case we do not have the "Bring your own subscription license" principle).
• Company ABC needs to buy 5 additional licenses only for BIM 360 Docs, because for the Design Collaboration part company DEF is bringing their own licenses, but they still need acces to the document management module of comapny ABC and therefore extra licenses are needed for the hub of company ABC.
• Company ABC nor Company DEF don't need to buy additional licenses. If you invite a user with a BIM 360 entitlement he will bring his Design Collaboration AND Docs license to the hub of company ABC.

[KyleB_Autodesk · Accepted solution]

Johan,

Great post, and I love how you wrote out the example here so others can follow.

The answer is the 3rd scenario in the list you made.  Company ABC can add 5 project members from Company DEF - for both Design Collaboration and Document Management modules - and no additional Subscriptions are required to be purchased.

Company ABC will see subscriptions deducted within their next gen BIM 360 Account when they add employees, so it may look like a Company ABC's account is "over-subscribed", but that is not a hard enforcement in the Account Administration of next gen BIM 360; the administrators can continue to add team members.

We're working to improve how this is accounted in the product UI, but know that Company ABC is within the boundaries of our licensing agreement when they add company DEF's employees to their Account without purchasing additional subscriptions.

-Kyle

[support]

Hi Kyle,

Thanks for your crystal clear answer!

Johan

[johan.cantryn]

In my previous post I was assuming that both companies owned BIM 360 Design. Thanks to your answer we now know that Bring your own subscription principle counts for all modules within Design (Docs + Design Collab).

Now an additional question: What happens if a company  ABC just owning Docs will invite somebody with a BIM 360 Design license from company DEF?

I see 2 scenario's. Ca you help me to point the correct one?

-Because "bring your own subscription" is more a kind of advantage for the user who bought BIM 360 Design, the user from company DEF will bring his Docs license with him. So company ABC does not have to provide (pay) him a license.

-Because company ABC does not own BIM 360 Design, they don't have the "bring your won subscription" advantage. This means that if the invite a project member, company ABC needs to provide the license even when the invited member owns a BIM 360 Design license.

[KyleB_Autodesk]

---

@johan.cantryn wrote:

In my previous post I was assuming that both companies owned BIM 360 Design. Thanks to your answer we now know that Bring your own subscription principle counts for all modules within Design (Docs + Design Collab).

Now an additional question: What happens if a company  ABC just owning Docs will invite somebody with a BIM 360 Design license from company DEF?

I see 2 scenario's. Ca you help me to point the correct one?

-Because "bring your own subscription" is more a kind of advantage for the user who bought BIM 360 Design, the user from company DEF will bring his Docs license with him. So company ABC does not have to provide (pay) him a license.

-Because company ABC does not own BIM 360 Design, they don't have the "bring your won subscription" advantage. This means that if the invite a project member, company ABC needs to provide the license even when the invited member owns a BIM 360 Design license.

---

The second scenario is the current behavior.  The "Bring Your Own Subscription" behavior is inherent in the BIM 360 Accounts that have subscribed to BIM 360 Design.

-Kyle

[johan.cantryn]

Thanks Kyle for the quick answer.

To be 100% sure. If the Bring Your Own Subscription" behavior is inherent to the BIM 360 Accounts that have subscribed to BIM 360 Design, i assume that this will only happen when both companies have BIM 360 Design licenses.

I'm thinking about a last possible scenario. Company ABC owns BIM 360 Design licenses and is inviting someone from company DEF which only bought BIM 360 Docs licenses. I assume that in that case there us no "Bring your own subscription" behavior and that company ABC still needs to provide the user from company DEF a license.

Is this correct?

[PaulFrancoisStorm]

Hi Kayle,

If you don't mind confirmation of the following: "company ABC needs to provide the license even when the invited member owns a BIM 360 Design license."

1. Would it be correct to state then that company ABC needs to own at least one BIM 360 Design license (in addition to the other BIM 360 Docs licenses) in order to invite company DEF onto their BIM 360 Docs Project? 

[KyleB_Autodesk]

---

@johan.cantryn wrote:

Thanks Kyle for the quick answer.

To be 100% sure. If the Bring Your Own Subscription" behavior is inherent to the BIM 360 Accounts that have subscribed to BIM 360 Design, i assume that this will only happen when both companies have BIM 360 Design licenses.

I'm thinking about a last possible scenario. Company ABC owns BIM 360 Design licenses and is inviting someone from company DEF which only bought BIM 360 Docs licenses. I assume that in that case there us no "Bring your own subscription" behavior and that company ABC still needs to provide the user from company DEF a license.

Is this correct?

---

Indeed it is correct.

-Kyle

[KyleB_Autodesk]

---

@PaulFrancoisStorm wrote:

Hi Kayle,

If you don't mind confirmation of the following: "company ABC needs to provide the license even when the invited member owns a BIM 360 Design license."

1. Would it be correct to state then that company ABC needs to own at least one BIM 360 Design license (in addition to the other BIM 360 Docs licenses) in order to invite company DEF onto their BIM 360 Docs Project? 

---

Correct; in order to enable the BYOS behavior in the BIM 360 Account, at least one BIM 360 Design Subscription must be active on that Account.  Otherwise, company ABC would need to pay for a Subscription that provides the Document Management Module (BIM 360 Docs or BIM 360 Build).

-Kyle

[Anonymous]

I don't ever see the point of ever buying standalone Docs if you plan on trying to invite other consultants into a group. What if both Company ABC and Company DEF only have standalone Docs? Would one have to provide the other with a Docs license?  Even though they both have licenses? 

And last question. if Company ABC invited Company DEF to a project, and Company DEF brought their own subscription, Can Company DEF use that same subscription to be invited in to Company GHI's project? Company DEF is a consultant working with several companies on different projects. 

[Anonymous]

I’d like to know the answer to this scenario from someone at Autodesk as I have asked many Autodesk employees with no clear consise answer.  When does someone need to buy a license of Docs?  If a non-Revit user needs access to the data in Docs, can they be invited and access the data without  owing a license of Docs or consuming a license of Docs/Design from the invitee?  If so, what limitations, if any, do they have over a user with a license of Docs.l?

[RobertWallis]

Agree with previous post, the whole reason for docs licences is very unclear.

The Docs licences have no means of being assigned to a user.

So how are they managed?

BIM360 Design is clear as the licences are assigned to staff.

Regarding Docs:

At present if we invite consultants we can assume they have their own licences, but have no 'visibility' regarding that unless they specifically tell us. 

So if an invitee accesses the Docs part they have no idea on whether they have a Docs licence or not.

Therefore is the onus on the invitee to determine if all (non-Design) users are licenced with BIM360 Docs, or on the user themselves? With no assignment of BIM360 Docs licences we have no confidence if the licences we have purchased are being used by our staff (who have no need for BIM360 Design licences, so we purchased BIM360 Docs licences for them) or other invited parties who have no licences at all?

I suspect the Docs part has only been partially implemented, hence the confusion. The most logical conclusion is licences should be assignable to users as per BIM360 Design.

Look forward to some clarification.

[KyleB_Autodesk]

---

@Anonymous wrote:

I’d like to know the answer to this scenario from someone at Autodesk as I have asked many Autodesk employees with no clear consise answer.  When does someone need to buy a license of Docs?  If a non-Revit user needs access to the data in Docs, can they be invited and access the data without  owing a license of Docs or consuming a license of Docs/Design from the invitee?  If so, what limitations, if any, do they have over a user with a license of Docs.l?

---

Glad to try and help clarify this. "When does someone need to buy a license of Docs?" Any time a member of the Project is using the Document Management module, that use needs to be backed by a Subscription.

1. If that Subscription is BIM 360 Design, then that use of Document Management can span Next Gen BIM 360 Accounts via Bring Your Own Subscription.
2. If that Subscription is any other product that contains Document Management (Docs, Build, Glue, etc), then the subscription that enables the use of Document Management needs to be associated with the Account that contains the Project.

-Kyle

[Anonymous]

@KyleB_Autodesk first off, thanks for replying to my post!!  I have one further question - if a person is invited to a project hub and does NOT have a Subscription of any BIM 360 product (Docs, Plan, Design, Build, Glue) can they participate in any way within the hub and if so, to what degree - view only - and does this consume a Docs license from the invitees account - a guess that's a few questions 😉

[jbayne]

This is the same questions we are having. Just talking about BIM360 Docs. If we have a license of BIM360 Docs and we upload a project. If we invite somebody that does not have a license to the site to view and download that project will they be able to do that?

[KyleB_Autodesk]

---

@Anonymous wrote:

@KyleB_Autodesk first off, thanks for replying to my post!!  I have one further question - if a person is invited to a project hub and does NOT have a Subscription of any BIM 360 product (Docs, Plan, Design, Build, Glue) can they participate in any way within the hub and if so, to what degree - view only - and does this consume a Docs license from the invitees account - a guess that's a few questions 😉

---

No, they cannot participate without consuming a Subscription.  If an Autodesk ID joins a Project, and that Autodesk ID is not a member of any other active Project in that Next Gen BIM 360 Account, then a Subscription is consumed.

We agree that there's scenarios where broader team members benefit from workflows on BIM 360, but would want to use a more limited and low cost subscription to do so, and are looking at options to deliver on that need.  There's also scenarios where no subscription at all is desired, and in that case we are considering what experiences to deliver in that case.

-Kyle

[KyleB_Autodesk]

---

@jbayne wrote:
This is the same questions we are having. Just talking about BIM360 Docs. If we have a license of BIM360 Docs and we upload a project. If we invite somebody that does not have a license to the site to view and download that project will they be able to do that?

---

Yes they will, but a Subscription from your account will be consumed.

-Kyle

[brenttY9XRJ]

Kyle - sorry about this... but I've been reading through the afore Questions regarding BYOS.

We don't have any support here in NZ, I'm waiting for the Australian guy to get back in touch with me next week - but I really need to bounce on this... so here's my situation - 

• I want to host the collaborative Revit environment in BIM 360 Design
• we have a number of subs currently working for us in C4R (now defunct)
• we don't have a C4R license - our 'lead sub' has been managing this for us!!
• Assuming these guys already have BIM 360 Design Licenses - 
  • Do I only need to provide myself with a license?

this will ultimately be the defining point on whether or not we can do this, as we simply can't afford to by multiple licenses for all participating subs.

[markus_briglmeir]

Hey @brenttY9XRJ, 

I am not sure what you mean by 'Do I only need to provide myself with a license?'
In any case, either you can use a BIM 360 Design license (which includes the C4R one) of your subs, or you need to get one of your own. In case you have other colleagues, who want to use BIM 360 Design (including C4R), they need one as well. 

Best regards, 

Markus

.   

[brenttY9XRJ]

I thought C4R is now de-funct. I don't have a C4R license