This week Autodesk announced three new updates regarding cloud solutions for their architecture, engineering construction (AEC) customers: announcing that Autodesk Docs is now included in the AEC Collection, BIM 360 Design is now Autodesk BIM Collaborate Pro with added functionality and a new solution for non-authors called Autodesk BIM Collaborate.
Previously Autodesk Docs document management was only available as part of the Autodesk Construction Cloud offerings. It’s now included in Autodesk AEC Collection for no additional cost.
Furthermore Autodesk’s popular collaboration platform, BIM 360 Design has been renamed to Autodesk BIM Collaborate Pro, which is part of its Autodesk Construction Cloud solutions.
Also new to the Autodesk Construction Cloud portfolio is Autodesk BIM Collaborate, a new cloud solution for non-authors that need to review a design, but don’t’ need access to a full set of design tools.
The product updates were initially announced at Autodesk University (AU) Virtual in the fall of 2020 and are available globally today.
We talked to Vikram Dutt, Associate Vice President, Building Design Strategy and Marketing, Autodesk, to learn more about these announcements. Dutt is based in San Francisco and has been with Autodesk 14 years.
“We’re super excited to announce the three changes to our cloud offerings to lead to enhanced AEC workflows,” said Dutt.
According to Autodesk, Autodesk Docs gives users access to unlimited cloud storage and provides a single source of truth across the project lifecycle for project teams. “Autodesk Docs is our common data environment, a cloud collaboration environment…and entry point into project data where everyone has visibility to a project…,” he said.
To bring users up to speed on Autodesk Docs we thought we’d take a deeper dive into the solution and how it works.
Autodesk Docs can be used across the project lifecycle by all members of a project team, including architects, designers, engineers, contractors, BIM managers, project managers, owners, fabricators and more.
The way it works is users can upload and view 2D drawings and 3D models where they are stored on the Autodesk Cloud Construction platform. Dutt said as far as the workflow, “It’s easy. It’s pretty much transparent for the end user once the BIM manager sets it up.”
Autodesk Docs comes with a full set of markup tools so users can communicate and collaborate with project teams.
Features include design-to-construction connection, document control, document approvals and integration with AutoCAD and Revit.
The design-to-construction connection feature connects teams using the Autodesk Construction Cloud platform so they can easily transfer information from design to construction.
Document control ensures the right information gets to the right user with structured folders and permission tools.
Document approvals helps to reduce manual efforts, automate review of drawings, models and documents before they are published and shared.
What is the difference between Autodesk Docs and Autodesk BIM Collaborate Pro you ask? Autodesk BIM Collaborate Pro and includes the functionality of Autodesk Docs, plus additional capabilities for design co-authoring, design collaboration and coordination.
BIM Collaborate Pro also includes Model Coordination and Insight modules to connect the collaboration services of Revit Cloud Worksharing, Collaboration for Civil 3D, and Collaboration for Plant 3D to downstream construction workflows like clash detection on both BIM 360 and the Autodesk Construction Cloud platform.
Dutt said Autodesk has certainly seen an upsurge for the need for cloud solutions. “It took years to move from CAD to BIM, but we’ve seen customers go all in with BIM 360 Design.”
For instance, customers like Buro Happold have been using the solution for more than 5 years and had moved all its U.S. projects to the cloud right before the pandemic and just this January finished migrating all global projects to the cloud. See our interview with McGilly to learn more about his migration to the cloud.
A statement provided by Autodesk on Buro Happold stated, “Over the last 12 months Buro Happold has fully migrated to BIM 360 Design. The journey began six years ago; however, global implementation was expedited due to COVID 19 and completed this year,” said Paul McGilly, associate principal, Digital Design, Buro Happold. “What have we learned so far? Moving our data to the cloud has allowed us as a practice to successfully collaborate across 25 offices. Our engineers have transitioned to new working environments – connectivity, performance, accessing data and work-life balance have not been affected. This allows our teams to continue to be creative, collaborate more closely and love engineering…. even through these challenging times.”
This need for utilizing the cloud was also accelerated during the pandemic.
In a statement from Autodesk on customer tvsdesign Architecture & Design said “We were already using BIM 360 Design for some projects and realizing the benefits of cloud-enabled, collaborative workflows,” said Michael Hodge, Principal, tvsdesign Architecture & Design. “But when COVID-19 hit and our employees suddenly needed to work from home, we quickly transitioned everything to the cloud to avoid the VPN bottleneck. We’ve been on the lookout for a platform that connects data, tools and project analytics in one place and helps reviewers who don’t use Revit get access to a full view of the Revit model, so we are thrilled about the launch of Autodesk BIM Collaborate and the added value in BIM Collaborate Pro. On top of that, having Autodesk Docs as part of the AEC Collection is also incredibly valuable to allow all team members to collaborate in the cloud by default.”
Dutt said he suspects this “behavior” of utilizing the cloud to continue post-pandemic. Autodesk also announced in January that the majority of ENR-ranked top contractors building critical infrastructure such as highways, piers, airports, railways and tunnels are now using Autodesk Construction Cloud.
As for the new offering for non-authors, BIM Collaborate, “it’s the solution for anyone who’s not using Revit, other people involved in a project like principals, project managers, etc. … who need to see clash reports or get the latest info.,” explained Dutt.
With more and more AEC professionals conducting design reviews in the cloud Autodesk saw the need to offer users a way to do so without needing full access to design creation tools. BIM Collaborate gives users the ability to do see in-progress changes in a web browser within the context of other disciplines- without paying for features they don’t need.
Furthermore, BIM Collaborate aims to connect AEC teams share design models on a single platform so they can stay up to date and assess constructability with automatic clash detection.
Features include robust access Controls, democratized access to design data and overarching project timeline.
With robust access controls users can administer teams and projects in one place and secure access to relevant data. For instance in Project Administration, project administrators can manage project members, permissions, project details, and notifications. Project administrators can also create projects from the project list.
With the democratized access to design data feature users can review designs in a web browser, identify and assign issues on designs without opening Revit, Civil 3D or AutoCAD.
With overarching project timeline users can easily see dates and contents of shared design packages, managing data exchange on multidiscipline projects.
BIM Collaborate Pro includes all the same features and capabilities available in BIM Collaborate, but adds co-authoring capabilities for teams that need to edit Revit, Civil 3D, and AutoCAD Plant 3D designs in real time.
Specific to BIM Collaborate Pro, features include Revit cloud work-sharing, collaboration for Civil 3D and Plant 3D.
With Revit cloud work-sharing users can move work-sharing to the cloud for faster Revit co-authoring.
To summarize, we’ll break the three down this description from the Autodesk FAQ:
What is the difference between Autodesk Docs, BIM Collaborate and BIM Collaborate Pro?
Autodesk Docs is Autodesk’s common data environment, a centralized document management solution that acts as a single source of truth across the project lifecycle for all teams. It is only available in the AEC Collection or available as part of Autodesk Construction Cloud. The price is included in the price of the AEC Collection, which is $2,965 for an annual subscription, $370 for a monthly subscription, or $8,005 for a 3-year subscription.
BIM Collaborate is cloud-based design collaboration and coordination software for reviewers and non-authoring contributors on project teams. It includes Autodesk Docs as well as Design Collaboration and Model Coordination modules. The price of an annual BIM Collaborate subscription is $705 and the price of a monthly BIM Collaborate subscription is $90. The price of a 3-year BIM Collaborate subscription is $1,905.
BIM Collaborate Pro, the next evolution of BIM 360 Design, is design co-authoring, design collaboration, and coordination software for AEC teams. It includes all the functionality of BIM Collaborate plus the collaboration services of Revit Cloud Work-sharing, Collaboration for Civil 3D, and Collaboration for Plant 3D, and is for design authors who require anytime, anywhere co-authoring access in Revit, Civil 3D, and Plant 3D. The price of Pro annual subscription is $945 is $120 monthly, or $2550 paid every 3 years.