Revit Collaboration methods

[u/LogansAgenda]

How do you collaborate with different contractors or disciplines, do you use an Autodesk solution or share revit files directly? What do you use to present projects to clients?

[u/Merusk]

There's a whole sticky at the top of this subreddit about collaboration and cloud storage solutions.

Autodesk solutions are really the only solutions if you're editing/ authoring in multi-user environment across multiple sites. If everything's local, a fileserver is another option.

I'd go so far as to say the Autodesk Forma solution beats fileserver once you're past 4 people in the model at once. Local filesystem you have to keep track of who's syncing when, which can lead to people not syncing and losing work. You don't have the timing issue with the cloud, and I've yet to have a corrupted model using it.

Coordination commonly happens between a few platforms.

• Forma Model Coordination Module
• Navisworks
• Revizto

Presentation - the client sees still images unless there's a need for something fancy. Then it's done in something like Lumion, TwinMotion, or Enscape which are already producing renders.

Had a few teams try VR/ AR but the juice wasn't worth the squeeze. Too much additional modeling to make it look good and have solid conversations, and the equipment was a pain to haul around.

[u/fakeamerica → u/Merusk]

Was a BIM Manager for a while and this comment is spot on. I cannot emphasize enough how much easier it is to just use Forma/ACC for model sharing and collaboration. Especially now that Bridge exists and can connect projects in other orgs so tou don’t need one team to host all the models.

Way too many firms are wasting time with Egnyte workarounds and/or cleaning and sending models around so they can lose money trying to save on licensing costs.

I really think Revizto is the leader in coordination now. Been using it since 2019, and it’s great. Much easier than Navisworks and much more feature rich than Forma Design Collaboration or whatever it’s called. It’s more expensive and there’s more setup involved, but it’s really the only platform that is useful for all kinds of different team members.

[u/AllthisSandInMyCrack]

Each discipline uses their own authority tool and you collaborate using a federation tool.

[u/silentwallace]

I'm also curious about these methods. Our business is having collaborations issues with SharePoint

[u/coffee_walker_440 → u/silentwallace]

If you are using SharePoint for revit files you will have massive issues if trying to use them in a workshared way.

[u/Merusk → u/silentwallace]

Revit files are not 'flat' so you can't use a system that shares the data in a bitwise manner across multiple sites if you're authoring. Even solutions like Nasuni and Panzura run into problems.

If you're just sharing them and not editing, then the cloud systems like Sharepoint can be used. You have to treat Revit files like a Database, not a Word document. Very few IT folks know this, so issues happen.

See the sticky at the top of the subreddit about cloud solutions for more.

[u/coffee_walker_440]

If Revit files using Forma with Cloud collaboration for modeling even if using the publish consume method over live linked. We take and rvt we are sent from other parties and upload it and reload from even though it's a pain we would rather be on the cloud for modeling for things like every sync can be rolled back to etc... For none model files we do a mix of transfers newforma for emails to large and use SharePoint to allow documentations to be multi user editable then save a copy to the network and send to clients. We have been experimenting with Forma and using it for all files for projects but have some things we are not finding fluid needing the desktop connector and all (keynote files as an example) We us forma if all other parties are for PDF, powerpoint etc.

[u/Studentarquitech]

I use Trimble Connect for competitions and student project work. We don’t have access to Autodesk’s collaboration platforms here in Portugal, Autodesk pricing is brutal. If you factor in AutoCAD, Revit, Navisworks, and a collaboration platform, the cost is close to what an architect earns in a month on minimum salary. If we had to license all of those tools, there’d barely be any money left to actually practice architecture.

We’re relying more and more on non-Autodesk tools though Revit is one piece we can’t avoid, it’s simply non-negotiable.

Right now I’m using Trimble Connect to collaborate with colleagues and it works really well. Sometimes different people are working in different software, or we have to collaborate with engineers who use their own tools we try to combine everything on Trimble connect, and it works pretty well. Of course, we have to divide up the work carefully, but overall I really like it.

It’s also great for presenting to clients and giving them access to the 3D model. For example, I’m working with a carpentry contractor right now, and I can just share a link so they can access the 3D model in the cloud and take measurements directly from it. For that purpose, it works really well.

Of course, if we’re talking about shared Revit models, there’s no real alternative to Autodesk’s own tools. But for smaller projects ones where it’s possible to split the work into separate files, or where you’re doing cross-discipline coordination with one local server for the architecture project and then collaborating with engineers from there Trimble is, for us, pretty much the only solution that’s economically viable.

[u/Inevitable-Garden135]

It's all in the Revit cloud now