Team members and clients ask me all the time what the difference is between synchronize and publish. A lot of the time, it comes about when they go and look at a project model on BIM 360 and ask a couple of things. “Is this the most current model” or “The modeler says they synced, but why can I not see the changes they said they made?” Then you ask, well, when was the last time it was published, and they answer, “we sync all the time, so it should be there.” Now we get into explaining that you need to sync when collaborating and publish when sharing on BIM 360.
What now? Sync is not publishing. What is collaborating and sharing? This doesn't sound easy.
It is not difficult at all. Think of them as this.
Synchronize is what your modeling team does with another team member. You sync to get your Revit model information to and from each other. It is like ten years ago when we would do the trusty and oh-so-easy Friday afternoon model exchange by email or drop box. But now, instead of sending the file and its information by email and loading it in, we link their model to ours and sync to bring in or send out the most current information. But this only works if you are actively working in or have access to Revit.
What happens if you want the project team to see the most current, up-to-date model and sheets on BIM360? You publish it. This is like when you would plot a set of drawings and send out copies to everyone, create a PDF set and email it to the team, or even further back, fax a reduced set. What you are doing is publishing (plotting) the most current model and drawing set to BIM360 so everyone can see it.
There is a bit of setup to make all this happen, but we can cover that in future posts. For now, the trick to remember is Synchronize; share information with team members in Revit. Publish; share information with the whole team on BIM360. So, sync daily, and publish weekly, but make both parts of your project and model administration schedule.
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