/Project Files/Shared – Permissions

[phil.mundell]

I think this is working as intended but just in case I’m missing something.   Firstly let me explain the scenario we are currently experiencing.

We are an ISO19650 accredited practice who work with several external 3rd party consultants all of which have completed competency assessments which includes a section on operating in a CDE environment.  They are issued with BEP’s and SMP’s so should understand how we want them to work, however this is often not the case.

When using Design Collaboration you need to define a “Shared folder location” which we have done.  Once the teams have been added this then sets up the swim lanes etc, all good.  My team are using this system of publish and package but the 3rd party consultants are simply downloading our packaged models directly from the “/Project Files/Shared” and then uploading their own models there without going through the publish/package routine that populates the swim lanes.  

Obviously at the higher level this is a consultant management issue but I would love to be able to remove the permission to do this from this folder but from testing this also prevents them from creating their own package to share.  Ideally I would like this folder to be given an option to remove it from view from the folder tree to everyone but admins, whilst retaining the required permissions.

I know they can simply download the models from the consumed folder but we need the swim lanes populating to show process during accreditation and auditing.

Any Ideas?

[gareth.spencer1]

Hi @phil.mundell,

I assume each  3rd party consultant has agreed with the BEP which states the actions to take when working within the project CDE. If so, whoever is the lead-appointed party should enforce this on the project in my option. Also if this is an agreed way of working and it is what they are contracted to then they should follow it.

Have you given any formal training on how this process works to all the parties working on the project?

The problem you have is that you need to have specific permissions to access the shared folder, as you mentioned.

What permission levels are you assigning? 

I typically do this only to give access to the shared folder for critical members who will be sharing the files. For example, a technician will edit the model in their WIP area, and then issue it for approval within Autodesk Docs. The approval workflow will have an action when a file has been approved upon completion a copy of the file is copied over to the shared folder.

The member or role who reviews the file will need to have the correct permissions to transfer the file over.  This should give you better control of the files.

[Chad-Smith]

@phil.mundell It is unfortunately a weakness in the design process.

I too have experienced similar appointed party behaviour, to the extent that their deleting and reuploading of models caused a platform issue which required Autodesk Support's guidance of un-deleting some files, renaming others, and then deleting files to clean it up.

Without that package sharing record on the DC swim lanes, it also makes it more difficult for all other parties to consume it into their own team and therefore the Project Model.

At this stage it remains a consultant management workaround, rather than platform solution.

But this aspect of the platform certainly could be improved, particularly to bring it in line with ISO expectations.

As a start, a project setting to hide the entire Design Collaboration folder structure from the Docs UI. This would then force users to use the DC process, which would greatly reduce or even remove all confusion.

[phil.mundell]

Hi Gareth,
Thanks for the reply, I agree with the sentiment of enforcing the BEP/SMP's and that is what we are doing. We have provided training and shown them how to use this but I think we all know that the reality is that if there's a lazy "wrong" way to do things people will, unless there's a way to physically prevent them. Without Document Controllers the responsibly falls to the Lead Design to police the CDE and when it goes south it starts to significantly eat into project time.

We have made some progress with this by not increasing the default applied permissions to the selected “Shared folder location” which by default prevents upload. It still doesn't stop them downloading the files though and bypassing the swim lanes completely. What would really help, given that this folder is in many respects a system folder the CDE uses to copy shared models, would be the ability to hide it completely from the design team.

[phil.mundell]

"As a start, a project setting to hide the entire Design Collaboration folder structure from the Docs UI. This would then force users to use the DC process, which would greatly reduce or even remove all confusion"

This is exactly what we would like to do.