construction cloud

[patrickwsd]

Hello all, I hope this is the correct forum for this question. TIA

I just purchased Autodesk build for a project management software. I am a small detailing company with just myself and one other full-time detailer. We do structural and misc. steel detailing with advance steel. My contractors are not interested in purchasing build "which I did not know they needed to when I did" so I am trying to figure out or come up with a workaround for how to create submittals and RFI's to track them and actually be able to use this software.

It doesn't make any sense to me that everyone would need a license to receive a submittal or an rfi. e.g. my one contractor has two project managers and say if I have 5 projects with them and each project has a different architect and E.O.R. that needs to review my drawings that would be 12 people so 12 licenses I would need to purchase. 

I thought maybe I could create the submittal export it and then send the export or something like that but then it shows me as the "ball in court" "the responsible contractor".

any ideas or help would be greatly appreciated.  TIA

[S-SUTTER]

Hi there.

As a subcontractor (primarily) we have the same issue.   GCs or Architects will not typically even want to dive into our Project Management tool.      What we are doing is adding as a member but not providing a licenses.   When we workflow the submittal (or RFI) we still reference but we always will send an email with the embedded PDF attached or linked.   It requires a separate step unfortunately and you don't have record of when you actually sent it out.   I have made suggestions that this be changed.    Note:  RFIs you can email a "non member" and they can reply.   Works great if there is no attachment but most of our RFIs there is an attachment such as a sheet and those are not sent with the notification. 

[patrickwsd]

Thanks for your response. To clarify when you add them as a member they get an email they have a trial but you can still tag them after the trial expires correct? You just then export the submittal and attach it to an email?

[S-SUTTER · Accepted solution]

Yes, that is exactly what we do.

[patrickwsd]

thank you for the help

[shai.friling]

Hi @S-SUTTER, thanks for your helpful answer!

I'll take this opportunity to let you know that we have made some updates to the feature recently, and it now allows sending attachments as part of email replies. Those attachments will be added to that RFI as File references. We hope that this will improve the user experience and make it easier for everyone to use the feature.

For more information, you can check out the RFIs Email notifications help section: https://help.autodesk.com/view/BUILD/ENU/?guid=RFI_Notifications 

Thank you again for your support and for being part of our product community.

[S-SUTTER]

Hi Shai,

The challenge we have is if we add a reference to the RFI such as a PDF File or photo, the referenced file is only accessible if you log into Build.  So if you are sending to an email address (vs a project member) and that person does not have an autodesk build account, they will not receive the attachment.   Even if you are a project team member, you need to log in, navigate to the RFI to review.   That is why we end up exporting and sending via email.   Sheets  unfortunately don’t export (only PDF and Photos) which is another limitation as many of our questions reference a drawing. 

You are correct, if reviewers  reply with an attachment it gets added as a reference and any comment gets put in as the official response.  

[shai.friling]

Thanks for raising these concerns. Both including RFI exports in non-members email notifications and including Sheets & Markups in exports are known issues that we plan to address in the future. You can follow up with your Customer Success Manager or join the bi-monthly What's New, What's Next sessions to learn more about future releases.

[03301969a]

Typical "Pay-to Play" Autodesk! Go to Bentley you'll find peace there.

@03301969a - this post has been edited due to Community Rules & Etiquette violation