The first post regarding the subject was posted on 2017.
I think this should be on the top of the list.
Revit custom rendering materials should be able to share though BIM 360 directly without going through Autodesk Desktop Connector. According to Autodesk, user can save the materials to C:\ path. However, if you are BIM manager with more than 500 staffs and multiple offices, this isn't really helpful solution. There is no easy way to duplicate each custom materials that user created and deploy them in to all user's computers in different offices instantly.
There are 2 challenges using Revit custom materials with BIM 360.
1. Autodesk Desktop Connector is path to user profile
2. Autodesk Desktop Connector uses passive sync.
Below workflow is going around these 2 challenges described above.
Currently, I am instructing our users to save the custom materials to BIM 360 project folder. Then, add additional rendering path to specific materials library folder. After setting up the additional rendering path, each user needs to go to project material folder with Autodesk Desktop Connector and then pre-load materials by downloading them. Then, user needs to restart Revit in order to initiate the newly added new rendering path.
Once you go through all these steps, all custom materials will be in place when user opens up the project file.
Problem with this workflow, each user needs to go through pre-loading of materials through Autodesk Desktop Connector every single time when there is new material added to the material folder.
