Multiple Users Access same file

[Anonymous]

Came across a serious problem. I had 2 users accessing the same file at the same time:

User 1: Opened File and Made Changes. All worked as expected

User 2: Had the file open and was making his own changes. He saved the file after user 1 had saved his.

End result, User 2 became the latest version and User 1 lost all his changes.

This is quite serious and I am surprised BIM360 did not handle the multi user access or is it something I have missed with regards to setup.

Someone please help!

[ilai_rotbaein]

Hi,

Can you please clarify whether you were making changes in your desktop authoring tool (AutoCAD/Revit/etc.) and using the desktop connector to save those or whether the two users were not editing the file at all and simply adding markups through BIM 360 web/mobile interface at the same time?

Thanks,

Ilai

[Anonymous]

I presume he is referring to .dwg files. 

The permission settings in that folder are View-Upload-Edit and cannot be modified.

In other environments such as Google Drive or other Server, it will pop up the message that the file is read-only for the second user. Here not

@ilai_rotbaein

[ilai_rotbaein]

The BIM 360 desktop connector indeed does not provide alerts to users when the file is opened by someone else. We do allow users to lock files from the BIM 360 interface and will bring that capability to the desktop connector too as part of our roadmap. Please note that in the case you've listed, if user 1 saved his changes then they should be part of the file's history in BIM 360. 

[Anonymous]

Our company is having the same problem and I have been playing tennis with Autodesk and my cloud-based server company.  Both are telling me they can't/don't control this function that I think should be a critical piece of project management, especially when you have multiple users in different states.   What am I missing here?   This function should be automatic across any platform.  Any information would be helpful.  

[jack-stephen.riley]

Hi,

We are having the same issue in our company.

1. Yesterday colleague 1 worked all day on a file making changes to dwg file ==> then saved middle of afternoon
2. at the same time another colleague 2 had the file open making other changes (whithout us knowing) ==> then saved end of the day

==> all changes done by colleague 1 were incremented into an older version (so basically "lost", meaning we then have to start finding the differences between each dwg file.........) 

this is crucial and can cause huge huge problems on projects

Please make this change as fast as possible by a pop up "alert" saying file already open - or give the project admin the possibility to change a parameter that dwg cannot be open by 2 different people at the same time

thanks

[Jason_Kai_Jiang]

Hi @jack-stephen.riley,

Please refer to the lock functionality of Desktop Connector.

https://blogs.autodesk.com/bim360-release-notes/2019/07/29/bim-360-docs-update-july-25-2019/

Improved Collaboration with Desktop Connector File Locking

We have added support for file locking and unlocking in Desktop Connector.  This provides greater support for collaborative workflows using desktop applications such as AutoCAD and other authoring apps.  Now desktop users can be confident in the status of documents managed in BIM 360 and can lock and unlock files while editing and saving a new version.  Desktop users can also see the current locking status of a file (if it is locked and the user who locked it).

Thanks and best regards,

Jason Jiang

Autodesk BIM 360 Document Management team