Revit Ideas - Revit Materials Hosted in BIM 360 - Added to Roadmap

Happy to see Autodesk has added the ability to host shared appearance asset resources in BIM 360 to their public roadmap.

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Autodesk BIM 360 Design and the Challenge with Tracking User Access

Did you know an Autodesk account belongs to an individual and not a company, even if the company initiated the account using a company email address?

Learn about this and how it can lead to challenges tracking who has access to your projects in today's post! I have seen this many times, and even experienced it myself when I joined Lake|Flato Architects recently.

The image shows multiple BIM 360 Design hubs accosted with projects I should no longer have access to. I am in the process of getting myself removed, but there should be a better process that would protect the firm and the project from staff who have left an organization... especially if disgruntled.

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New Autodesk BIM 360 Servers in Ireland

As I mentioned last week in my What's New in Revit 20201 bog post, one new feature is that European customers now have an option to use a data center based in Ireland.

Today's post points you to an article, by Esther Dsouza Product Marketer for BIM 360 Design at Autodesk, on this new option.

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Introduction to Setting up Revit Projects in Autodesk BIM 360 Design - YouTube Video

Hoping to help those new to Autodesk's BIM 360 Design and needing to work from home during the COVID-19 pandemic, I created an 18 minute step-by-step video and shared it on YouTube.

Please share this post to help get the word out and reduce the time it takes firms who have not used BIM 360 Design to get up to speed.

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Autodesk BIM 360 Design Set Up Tips & Tricks

In light of Autodesk's announcement yesterday to make BIM 360 Design free through May to help AEC firms through the COVID-19 pandemic, I wanted to gather up my posts on this topic to help others get up to speed.

At LHB, we made the move to BIM 360 Design, for all Revit projects, about a year ago. This includes Architecture, Interior Design, Mechanical, Electrical, Plumbing and some Landscape Architecture. The posts below are all things I wish I knew from day one!

I also included a guest post from my friend Mike Matheny, at BKV Group, who has been doing BIM 360 Design longer and with twice as many staff! Here is his personal cellphone number in case you have any questions 651-430-XXXX - just kidding, Mike! (but I have it;))

• Autodesk to Offer BIM 360 Design Free Until May 31, 2020

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BIM 360 Design - Specify Worksets in Revit 2020

A quick Revit 2020 tip... since the BIM 360 icon appears to be removed from the Open dialog in Revit 2020, you should know about this tip when needing to Specify worksets during model open...

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Autodesk Account Username for Revit and BIM 360

I recently learned that the username associated with a new Autodesk account does not/cannot match your email address anymore. I found this out when a new user was asking why her Revit username was rather critic, e.g. FirstName.LastName8CMG4.

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BIM 360 Design now supports AutoCAD Civil 3D

Some exciting new from Autodesk this week... BIM 360 Design now supports AutoCAD Civil 3D!

I have not tried this yet, but am excited as all our building projects are in BIM 360 Design and half of our firm (of 250 people) use Civil 3D. This should also be great for staff who need to work from home or remotely as VPN, RPD and other methods tend to be laggy... stay tuned for more on how it works once I get a chance to kick the tires.

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BIM 360 Design - Easy Upgrade Button

BIM 360 Design has another 'value add' element over traditional Revit workflows... that being the ability to automatically upgrade a project, including all its links. This is today's topic...

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BIM 360 Design - Revit Links are Smarter than the Average Bear

When working on Revit projects in BIM 360 Design, it turns out Revit links are pretty smart... maybe too smart in some cases:) Today's post will show a few examples of what happens when linked models are renamed or deleted in Autodesk's BIM 360 Design cloud-based collaboration environment.

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BIM 360 Design History and Restore Best Practices

When working on projects in Autodesk's BIM 360 Design, you may find a need to roll back a group of changes made by one or more users. Today's post shows how to do that and includes a related tip to help the process.

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Autodesk Desktop Connector Update Supports Custom Local File Locations!

Update: False alarm... as the dialog clearly states, this only allows you to change the installation path (which is still about 1 GB). But does not change the location of the local cache files. Sorry:(

2025 Update: This is now possible in the latest Desktop Connector update: https://www.autodesk.com/learn/ondemand/tutorial/desktop-connector-change-workspace\

Breaking news... we can now specify a custom location for BIM 360 Design local files!!! Thanks Autodesk.

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BIM 360 Design - Working with External Consultants not using BIM 360 Design

When working in Autodesk's BIM 360 Design, it is great to work with external consultants live in the cloud. But, what if a consultant does not have a BIM 360 Design entitlement from Autodesk (they are not free)? Many projects do not necessarily justify or require this workflow, so it cannot just be expensed to the project/client.

This post will show a quick way to link these files without even opening them (in Revit). You may also walk away with a better understanding of what Desktop Connector is doing under the hood.

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BIM 360 Design Local Files and More

Revit creates a lot of files in your Windows User folder on your local drive. It is helpful to be aware of this, especially if you are having troubles with free disk space or accessing a BIM 360 Design project. I tend to keep these folders clean due to the number of Revit versions/projects I support, and yet mine are still pretty large, in terms of total space used.

BIM 360 Design local files:

• C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Local\Autodesk\Revit\Autodesk Revit 2019\CollaborationCache
• This is where the "Local" file is saved for a BIM 360 Design project
• My folder currently has over 13 GB of data in it
• Related AKN post:
• How to find the local copies of Revit Cloud Workshared files
• Error: "This Local File has been saved by user....Please change your user name or stop working on this file" when opening a cloud model in Revit

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