Activity, Notifications, Folder structure, and more

[Kev_D]

Hi 

I have been getting to grips with BIM 360 the last week or so, and although it has some great benefits with 3D Viewing and Live Review, etc. it fails a lot on some simple aspects. I have been comparing it to FTP sites which have been used in the office, and these have much better permission settings, much better project information input, etc. I've seen some forum posts which date back more than a year which were asking for some of the same things I will be outlining. Why can't they be rectified? It would enhance the management side of this great collaboration tool.

The following is what I (and I would say many others) would like to see within BIM 360 Team, but please correct me if I am wrong. If there is a way to do some of these, I would love to know. 

• Activity Feed - does not show files that have been deleted (to add in by who also would be great). A360 Drive has this feature amongst others!!
• Project Information - Only a name and whether it is closed or open can be input. (Could do with actual project info here; address, project types, lead architect, etc.)
• To be able to set up a folder structure at Hub level, so that every project created would have the same folders automatically loaded in. Most offices use the same structure, so it would be a given to have this included.
• Viewers can download pdf's after clicking into the file, but how do they download other files such as revit & cad files. Viewers should be able to download anything, but not delete or upload.
• Permissions for specific folders would be great. (hide information from other stakeholders, eg. costs, personal information, tender information, etc.)

I would like to get real feedback from this and not some automated reply saying these changes are in the pipeline. I've seen posts like this and no changes have been made.

BIM 260 Team has some fantastic features, so some basic changes would make it even better. The idea is to transfer all projects to BIM 360 Team and not use FTP, but some colleagues want to still use FTP due to the better permission settings within them. 

I will edit if I find anything else.

Thank you

[mespaillat · Accepted solution]

Hello @Kev_D,

Thank you for posting to the BIM 360 Team Forum!

We value, and appreciate the feedback on how to improve the BIM 360 Team product experience.

Please see my responses below in-line with each of your comments. For future reference, a better way to introduce/request product enhancements and features is by posting to the BIM 360 Ideas Forum for the BIM 360 Team category. In BIM 360 Ideas, you are communicating these ideas directly to the product team who will provide the "real" feedback you seek in the form of "Idea Statuses" which indicate the stages of an idea as it progresses. Once the Idea(s) is posted, any/all members who visit the idea can vote it up to increase the likelihood of it being implemented.

Please see below for additional feedback.

• Activity Feed - does not show files that have been deleted (to add in by who also would be great). A360 Drive has this feature amongst others!!

mespaillat: You are correct, the Activity Feed does not indicate what/which files were deleted from the hub/project(s). It will specify if a project was deleted and who did it. Having the file deletion activity show in the feed would a helpful addition.

• Project Information - Only a name and whether it is closed or open can be input. (Could do with actual project info here; address, project types, lead architect, etc.)

mespaillat: I searched our idea station for any similar posts and found none. This would be a perfect example of an enhancement/feature to suggest on BIM 360 Ideas.

• To be able to set up a folder structure at Hub level, so that every project created would have the same folders automatically loaded in. Most offices use the same structure, so it would be a given to have this included.

mespaillat: I found a post on BIM 360 Ideas that is similar to yours. I think your comments would be a valuable addition to the Idea as it has only received a single Vote since being posted two months ago. You can expand on this post with your ideas, or create a new post altogether and ask your Team Members to Vote Up the idea(s).

BIM360 Team Home Page "Folders"

• Viewers can download pdf's after clicking into the file, but how do they download other files such as revit & cad files. Viewers should be able to download anything, but not delete or upload.

mespaillat: I could be mistaken, but the automatic download of a PDF file by clicking into it is controlled within the specific browser in use. Is this behavior reproducible on any websites or just BIM 360 Team? It is possible that Revit & CAD files don’t behave the same because most users might have installed a PDF viewer or editor on the PC, since it is one the most widely used document formats. It is reasonable to assume that not all users purchased Revit or AutoCAD, therefore making the download of these file types optional for users who do. That being said, I would still recommend you post this feature to BIM 360 Ideas.

If this question is unrelated to the viewer/browser behavior when accessing BIM 360 Team, is it related to user roles or permissions? If so, please see Project Roles for more details on BIM 360 Team access and action rights.

• Permissions for specific folders would be great. (hide information from other stakeholders, eg. costs, personal information, tender information, etc.)

mespaillat: I searched BIM 360 Ideas and didn’t find any posts that match this functionality. This would be another great addition to the BIM 360 Team product. Please post it to the BIM 360 Ideas and ask your colleagues to Vote Up the idea.

I hope I have helped in terms of pointing you in the right direction to get these thoughts in front of the right audience. I will keep an eye out for your posts and will gladly add my vote to these suggestions.

If you found this response was helpful, please click the ACCEPT AS SOLUTION button.

Thank you for choosing Autodesk.

Regards,

mespaillat.

Autodesk Support Team

[Kev_D]

Thank you Mispaillat for your very informative reply. I will follow your suggestion and post in the ideas forum. I will mark your reply as a solution and I will edit this reply with a link to the post in the ideas section. I am delighted to hear that you think these additions would be great advantage

Just recently I had a call from an Autodesk representative as I have just recently started a trial version of these platforms. I explained all my issues with BIM 360 Team to which she agreed. She pointed out to me that BIM 360 Docs would better suit what I wanted to achieve, but on the other hand, you lose the ability to use C4R as this does not work with 360 Docs. The whole point for us is using C4R and having the cloud based storage. What is the point in having two separate cloud based storage platforms within an office environment I asked! And don't even get me started on the cost per person for C4R!! OUTRAGEOUS!! Just to store a central file in the cloud and use a communicator. That is pretty much it. Sorry, I know that was a little off topic.  

Anyway, I was informed by this representative that Autodesk were looking to combine all platforms into one single platform which included all the best features of BIM 360 Team, Docs, Glue, etc, while also being able to use C4R, but failed to clarify when this would be. I think simple fixes to BIM 360 Team as I highlighted would be a great addition while this major transitioning of all platforms to one was been implemented. 

[Kev_D]

LINK TO POST ON IDEAS PAGE

https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/bim-360-ideas/activity-notifications-folder-structure-and-more/idi-p/...