BIM 360 for multiple small projects

[Anonymous]

Hello - I need a workflow within BIM 360 design for coordinating multiple small projects. Many firms work on hundreds of small renovations for a single client. Setting up and managing a new project for each different renovation - all with small variations is far too cumbersome in BIM 360 design. How can we use BIM 360 to coordinate drawings using one "master project" and use different folders for each renovation project?

[don_simpson]

Hello GreggJD,

Thank you for contacting Autodesk.

Can you provide a bit more background on the nature of the projects?

Would the same or a very similar folder structure be used on each project?

Would the same users consistently be used on each renovation? Does the group of users all belong to the same company?

Is the intention to restrict access by folder or project in some way or do you intent on giving everyone access to every folder/project with full access?

Are there some Revit models used for each renovation? Would these Revit models be Revit cloud workshared models? Would the models be linked to other Revit cloud workshared models that are more specific to individual renovations?

What do feel is the biggest potential hurdle or difficulty in having large numbers of projects?

With answers to the questions above, we can help guide you further.

Thanks,

Don

[don_simpson]

Hello GreggJD,

Please see my previous post. Is there any additional information to provide?

Thanks,

Don

[don_simpson]

Hello GreggJD,

Please see my previous responses is this thread. Please let me know if additional assistance is still required or if this issue may be considered resolved.

Thanks,

Don

[KentBurns]

Hi Don, 

I'm interested in this - we often work between our studios, before projects are fully fledged projects, competitions and the like. It's typically the same users, and same set up -

I'm really just wondering if it's a terrible Idea to have more than one project file within a BIM360 project, as I am a bottleneck in getting these quick projects up into the cloud for collaboration between the studios. It's all internal, and sketch phase, so there's no permissions issues I can think of.

As well as helping the list of projects in the BIM360 to not become as cumbersome as our server project drive.

Any thoughts?

[Anonymous]

Hi Kent,

So far I have my team set up on BIM 360 Design working in one folder for each small project. There are still a few limitations using the cloud for this: 

Sheet sets - unable to print combined PDF sets. Sheet sets created automatically when publishing the from model from Revit to BIM360 console are all separate pages. This may work for large projects but for quick coordination of multiple small buildings, combined sets are best.

I can manually print a combined PDF of the set, then re-upload it into the "Project Files" folder for each project… but now I've lost connection to the model and the set that is being marked up is now separate from the sheet sets being published automatically - this defeats the whole purpose of cloud coordination.

Also the default folders are Plans and Project Files... Our team was uploading project models into the Project Files folder… but according to Autodesk the Plans folder should host the models. This was confusing so I renamed the folders "PROJECT MODELS" and "PROJECT FILES". This has to be made Error Proof by Autodesk - meaning that no files of the wrong type can be added to the wrong folder.

Lastly - Publishing. I had my PM freak out when she reviewed an entire set that was out-of-date and included several unused pages. Basically - someone on every project has to manage the sheet sets to include in publish, then manually publish it to the cloud. They may neglect these steps if they are working on several small projects at once. 

Thats all for now. Once the projects are set up the system works great - however consider that training an entire team to design the project, manage the set, control issues, and make sure everything is showing up on the BIM 360 console consistently is proving difficult.