As we expand support for publishing to non-US Autodesk Construction Cloud (ACC) accounts, our users based outside the US have asked important questions about where data is stored, when it’s processed, and what regional implications that might have. This article outlines how Informed Design stores and processes product-related data, what role ACC plays in access control, and why no building project data ever leaves your region — even when publishing or using products linked to non-US based ACC accounts.   All Product Data Is Stored and Processed in the US   All product-related data in Informed Design is stored in our US-based Informed Design service and processed using our US-based APS Automation services. This includes: CAD files or model references Parameters and rules Product variations (configurations and model state representations) Output file definitions (such as Revit Families and bills of materials)   At the time of publishing a new product or a product update, users of the Informed Design Add-in for Inventor are shown a clear notice:  By using Informed Design, your project data may be processed and stored in the US.   The notice also mentions the following limitation:  Currently, Bridge functionality is supported for Informed Design products published in US-based accounts only. This means that as of now, ACC Bridge folder automations between non-US based ACC projects will omit Informed Design products. All other files will sync as expected.   What About Non-US ACC Accounts?   Informed Design integrates with ACC — the Files tool in Autodesk Docs — to manage access permissions, not for file storage or data regionalization. This lets your team use the familiar ACC environment to control who can work with your published products in the Informed Design Add-in for Revit and the Informed Design Web Portal.   You can now publish to any Docs project folder, regardless of the ACC account's regional data storage.    ⚠️ Important: Publishing to an ACC account based in the EU, Australia, UK, Germany, Canada, India, or Japan does NOT mean product data is stored or processed in that region.    When Does Data Enter the US?   New user-defined data is submitted to our US-based service only at a few specific points.   When the user publishes a Product or Release: Creating a Product (POST /products) Updating a Product (PATCH /products/{productId}) Creating a Release (POST /releases) Updating a Release (PATCH /releases/{releaseId}) These publish-related actions send and persist your product definition, CAD files or model references, input parameters, and output types to our Informed Design service, hosted in the US. When the user submits a Variant: Create Variant (POST /variants) This action sends and persists your specified parameter values as constrained by the published product release, and in some cases, your chosen variant name. Our US-based APS Automation services use this information to build your requested variant on-demand using the CAD dataset. Variant creation submits no new user-defined data to US-based services other than your request parameters, and variants contain no reference to specific building models or Revit files.   When a user requests Output creation based on a Variant : Create Outputs (POST /outputs) This action sends and persists the alphanumeric identifier of the variant you've specified, and your choice of output types (such as a Revit Family or shop drawings) to be created from that variant.  Our US-based APS Automation services use this information to create your requested output file on-demand using the previously-generated variant. As you'll see in the payload schema, output requests submit no user defined-data to US-based services other than your choice of variant and output file types.   When a user requests file upload based on an Output : Create Upload Request (POST /uploads) This action sends and persists the alphanumeric identifiers of the outputs you've specified, and your choice of upload location for the resulting files. Our US-based Informed Design service uses this information to create files using your previously-generated outputs and place them into your selected ACC or Fusion Team folder. Upload requests submit no user-defined data to US-based services other than your choice of outputs and folder for the uploads.   What Happens in Downstream Workflows?   Once a product and its releases are published, the additional workflows described above use our US-based services, but do NOT introduce any building design or project-specific data to our system.   Instead: Variants are created by modifying parameters and model states of the already-published release; no building-specific context is involved. Outputs (Revit Families, shop drawings, etc.) are generated from those variants using our APS Automation engine, based on already-published product and release data. Uploads refer to our service placing generated output files into your selected ACC or Fusion Team folder; no incoming files are transferred from your building project. No Revit models, building geometry, or project-specific design context are ever uploaded to or processed by the Informed Design or APS Automation services.   What This Means for Data Privacy and Sovereignty   Even when publishing to a non-US ACC account: Your building project files stay in your region by design, thanks to ACC Regional Data Storage.  Your published product data is stored and processed in the US. After publish time, all downstream activity is driven by users acting upon the already-published product and release data. With this architecture, your building project-specific information remains within your chosen ACC data region.   For Developers and Partners If you want to dive deeper into exactly what data is transmitted, when it’s sent, and how each request is structured, our full API documentation provides a complete technical reference — including endpoints, payload schemas, and response formats.   Explore the Informed Design API Reference.   We hope this helps you and your team make legally and operationally compliant decisions when working with Informed Design across international projects. Still have questions? Leave a comment below or visit the Informed Design Forum. 

We’re excited to share a major milestone in the Informed Design workflow — our first publicly discoverable content experience is launching in Revit!    With this feature: Building product manufacturers will be able to share their published Informed Design products with the general public instantly, with literally the flip of a switch. Revit users, like architects and engineers, can discover these public Informed Design products, customize them according to the manufacturer's pre-defined rules, and use them in Revit projects — without needing ACC access at all.   Why Public Content?   Benefits for Publishers   Up until now, as a manufacturer publishing Informed Design products, it was only possible to share them with architects, designers, and other consuming audiences in two ways:    Direct Project Folder Access: Invite each individual to the product's ACC project folder by email. This option requires every recipient's email address. ACC Bridge Outgoing Automation: Set up an Outgoing sync between your product's ACC project folder and each recipient's ACC project, so their project members can access your published products.  This option requires knowing each outside firm's ACC project, to create the Bridge syncing data from yours to theirs. But what if you want to share your products with anyone who might be interested in using them – without having to know exactly who they are in advance?    With the new Public setting, manufacturers can share Informed Design products with minimal administrative effort – no manual invites, and no more ACC access requirements or folder permission checks standing in the way of their products' potential audience.   Benefits for Consumers   Previously, as an architect or designer using Informed Design in Revit, you needed both an ACC subscription and specific project folder permissions to access published products – either as a direct member of the ACC project folder or via ACC Bridge Incoming Automation.    The new Public setting for published products removes those hurdles and opens product discovery to everyone:  No ACC Access Requirement: Access public Informed Design products without being invited to an ACC project folder, and without being an ACC user at all.  Streamlined Product Browsing: Browse all publicly discoverable Informed Design products in a single list in the Revit Add-in, with options to filter by Publisher or Revit Category.    How to Access Public Content   As a Publisher   👉 Ready to make your products public? Join our tech preview: Get started here.    Publishers participating in the tech preview follow the process below to share their products publicly.   Create a Publisher: For each manufacturer, our team is creating a new Publisher profile under their chosen brand or business name, and links that Publisher to the manufacturer's designated ACC account. From then on, every product published to project folders in that account will be eligible for public sharing. Publish Products with Appropriate Output Availability: In the Informed Design Add-in for Inventor, set the output availability carefully. Output files can be requested by the Permission-Unenforced audience from any representations and drawing templates you set to Available (toggle On) on the Outputs tab. The Permission-Unenforced audience includes recipients of ACC Bridge Outgoing Automation, and the general public when the product's Public setting is switched On. Share Products Publicly: Each product published in the Publisher-linked ACC account will have a Public toggle in the Informed Design Web App, located in the product administration UI on the Releases tab. When the Public toggle is switched On, the product becomes available in the Informed Design Add-in for Revit. In the Revit Add-in, the product is listed under the manufacturer's designated Publisher name, and both the Permission-Enforced and Permission-Unenforced audiences can design with any of its usable (non-Obsolete) releases.   As a Consumer   👉 Architects and designers using the Informed Design Add-in for Revit can start browsing public content today!   New products will become available in the upcoming weeks as publishers join our tech preview and start sharing. Here's how to discover and use them.   Design with Public Products: In the Insert dialog of the Informed Design Add-in for Revit, turn on the Public Content toggle to display all products shared publicly by manufacturers. Public products can be refined by Revit Family Category or by Publisher using the dropdown menus. After selecting a public product release, any designer can customize it to create variants, and insert those variants into their Revit projects as RFA – with no ACC access needed.  Request Outputs from Public Products: Anyone accessing a public product can request files from output representations and templates the publisher marked as Available at publish time, without any ACC permission checks. Select an instance of a public product, then activate the Generate Outputs command on the Informed Design ribbon. If the command is enabled, a dialog will let you choose from the non-RFA outputs available for the release. Results of these output requests are uploaded to a designated folder in ACC Docs or Fusion Team – you will need access to either ACC or Fusion Team to view and download these files.   Changes to Access Permissions   👉 To simplify the administration of published Informed Design products – both privately and publicly shared! – we've altered our access permissions model to better align with authorization in the Informed Design API.    A product may be accessible to a Permission-Enforced audience only, or to the Permission-Unenforced audience as well, depending on how its access is currently scoped.   Permission-Unenforced Access In the Permission-Unenforced access mode, we do not check the ACC project folder's member list in the origin project before granting access to the product.    ACC Bridge Access (Public = Off): the Permission-Unenforced audience includes individuals with indirect access to the product's ACC project folder, as recipients of an ACC Bridge Outgoing Automation. Public Access (Public = On): the Permission-Unenforced audience is the general public. Anyone can access the product without logging into ACC. The Permission-Unenforced audience can request outputs from any representations and templates that were set to Available (toggle On) for the release on the product definition's Outputs tab.   Permission-Enforced Access In the Permission-Enforced access mode, we confirm that the user is on the ACC project folder's member list before granting access to the product.    The Permission-Enforced audience for a product includes only individuals with direct access to the product's ACC project folder, as project members with sufficient folder-level permission. The Permission-Enforced audience can request outputs from all representations and templates that were listed for the release on the product definition's Outputs tab, including those set to Unavailable (toggle Off.)     Impact of output type availability in the product definition.     Feature Availability for Permission-Enforced Access Users   This chart lists the features available to the Permission-Enforced audience at each access level.   Each access type in the Informed Design API is listed with the minimum ACC project folder permission needed to meet its authentication criteria.   Feature Availability for Permission-Enforced Access Users   Still have questions? Leave a comment below or visit the Informed Design Forum.   

Advance your Informed Design Codeblock skills! Learn how to dynamically update Minimum and Maximum input values

Understand the fundamental Revit skills required to make the best use of the Autodesk Informed Design add-in for Revit.

Learn how to use Informed Design Codeblock functions to simplify and speed up logic creation with reusable code modules.

Use this checklist to help prepare your existing configurable Inventor models for publishing to Autodesk Informed Design.

Uncover the details behind what the product development team is tackling now, next and later for Informed Design.

Read on for detailed information about the requirements, advantages and disadvantages of the Configurable and Static product publishing methods in Informed Design. 

Eight quick tips to help you build and publish Inventor models to Autodesk Informed Design with ease!

Learn what's new in Autodesk Informed Design for August 2024, including support for ACC Bridge, streamlined RFO experience, New BIM definition workflow, and publish prerequisite checks.

Codeblocks Best Practices: Codeblocks empower users to create code through an intuitive drag-and-drop interface, eliminating the need for traditional text-based programming. 

Learn what's new in Autodesk Informed Design for May 2024, including support for outputs to Fusion team, revised Revit Replace and Update commands, and a new Form Design workflow in Inventor.

A guide to the Autodesk Informed Design Codeblock visual language used to define rules for parametric prefab customization.

Learn what's new in Autodesk Informed Design for April 2024, including importing and exporting of Codeblocks, and uploading automatically generated manufacturing output files to other Autodesk Docs projects.

Watch the Connect Design and Make with Informed Design Webinar in partnership with Engineering News-Record

Autodesk Informed Design launched in February 2024. Discover the new features and workflows added for launch, inspired by the Informed Design beta community!

Autodesk Informed Design, connecting manufacturing and construction to support industrialized construction, is launched today.

You don't need to think about which version of Inventor you are exporting a Revit Family from, or which version of Revit you are exporting to. Informed Design will always generate an RFA for the version of Revit you are using. Learn more.

Learn how Autodesk Informed Design uses Inventor Model states to deliver simplified RFA's of manufacturers' content to the Revit user.

From faster Revit workflows to a new API for developers, the latest updates to Autodesk Informed Design are here. See what’s new this quarter and what’s coming next.