1

A360 Collaboration for Revit

Contents A360 Collaboration for Revit......................................................................................................................... 1

Introduction to A360 Team and A360 Collaboration for Revit ................................................................. 2

Getting Entitled to use A360 Collaboration for Revit ............................................................................... 3

Accessing A360 Collaboration for Revit .................................................................................................... 4

Setting up an A360 Team Project ............................................................................................................. 5

Initiating A360 Collaboration for Revit ..................................................................................................... 6

Using the Communicator .......................................................................................................................... 7

Managing Sheets and Models for Collaboration for Revit. ....................................................................... 8

Opening Models using A360 Collaboration for Revit ................................................................................ 9

Linking Model using A360 Collaboration for Revit. ................................................................................ 10

Viewing the Revit Model on A360 Team ................................................................................................ 10

Viewing on the mobile A360 app ............................................................................................................ 13

Migrating files from platform to platform .............................................................................................. 13

2

Introduction to A360 Team and A360 Collaboration for Revit

Autodesk A360 Collaboration for Revit (C4R) is a Cloud Subscription service that hosts information

models in the cloud, enabling project participants from multiple companies or locations to concurrently

author models. Given that C4R is a Cloud Subscription service it is scalable to your project’s needs. With

A360 Team and A360 Collaboration for Revit, all project data is centralized and remotely accessible

regardless of geography. Activities and communications are also tracked within A360 Team as the

models are published for the team to view and share. Mobile apps can be installed on tablet and smart

phone devices giving additional access to the data when on the go.

3

Getting Entitled to use A360 Collaboration for Revit Licensing comes in the form of individual entitlements purchased

by your company’s contract manager. Purchases can be made by

your contract manager by contacting your reseller or direct

purchasing on the Autodesk Store. Once purchased, it is up to

your contract manager to assign each entitlement to the correct

end-user through the Autodesk Accounts Portal. It is very

important that Autodesk Account IDs be created for each end-

user in your company that is going to use Autodesk Products and

Cloud Services. As part of their C4R entitlement each end-user

will be given access to A360 Team. A360 Team is also a Cloud

Subscription Service that provides designers with a centralized

workspace to collaborate on project data. The contract manager

will set up a Team hub which he/she can administrate.

When the contract manager entitles their users to individual entitlements to the service, they receive an

email from A360 which houses a hyperlink to open their personal Autodesk Account Portal. The end-

user will be required to log into their Autodesk Account Portal and access the service. This links the user

to a web page to install the Collaboration for Revit add-in.

This is where it is a little tricky. A360 Collaboration for Revit is only available for users that are working in

Revit 2015 R2, Revit 2016, and Revit 2017. The process mentioned above to access the service is only

required for 2015 and 2016. Revit 2017 installs the Collaboration for Revit add-in when Revit is installed.

4

Within Revit, users will notice slight changes to the Collaborate ribbon of tools. The Worksets button will

no longer enable worksharing. Users will select “Collaborate.” Another interactive element will be

noticeable as well. It’s called the Communicator. Lastly, two specialized tools for managing and

publishing your C4R models to A360 Team are available. We’ll discuss these later.

Accessing A360 Collaboration for Revit Like Revit Server, Autodesk’s intent is to make the traditional workflow of Worksets similar in the C4R

workspace. However, there are a couple of prerequisites to know about when using the service.

1. All users working concurrently on a Revit model must be on the latest build and platform of

Revit. Make sure each collaborator is on the same release and update.

2. Revit and A360 Collaboration for Revit are version specific. Revit 2017 is only compatible with

Collaboration for Revit 2017, Revit 2016 is only compatible with Collaboration for Revit 2016,

and Revit 2015 R2 is only compatible with A360 Collaboration for Revit 2015.

3. An A360 Team project must be created to host the models.

4. All individuals working on the Revit model must have entitlements to use the service.

5

Setting up an A360 Team Project Each entitled user can sign-in to A360 via their C4R

entitlement. This will log them into their Team Hub. You

can also switch to A360 Team if you are already logged into

your A360 Drive site. This is an interesting partnership. You

can copy files from your A360 Drive to your A360 Team

Project when you deem it is ready for sharing. In any case,

you will need to setup a project.

Within A360 Team’s home page, you will notice a button to create a project.

After selecting the Create Project button, the user becomes the

Project Manager! Those he/she invites to the project become

Team Members or Contributors. A small window will launch

requiring three key pieces of information. The first entry is the

Project Name. The second entry is the Project Purpose. Finally,

the Project Manager will choose a Project Avatar. Once the

project information is entered, the Project Manager selects the

Create Project button. This will create the project and launch

the project’s home page. From here, the Project Manager can

upload files, create folders, invite Team Members, and much

more. The next setting a Project Member may want to set is the

type of A360 Project they want. There are three types of

projects in A360 Team that the Project Manager can set their

projects to. They are Closed, Open, and Secret.

To access the project’s settings, the Project Manager can click a little gear button in the Activity panel.

6

Within the Settings dialog, the Project Manager simply

selects the correct radio button for the correct Type of

project they wish to manage. Open projects restrict access

to only Hub Administrators, Project Managers, and Team

Members. Contributors are prohibited from access. Closed

projects are only accessible to invited Team Members and

Contributors. Secret projects only allow invited Team

Members and Contributors to see the project. The final

toggle is the option to Allow Project Contributors. As you

can see, a Project Manager can easily manage and change

the access level at any time. Hub Administrators can also

set levels of access to projects within the Hub..

At this point, the project is accessible to A360 Collaboration for Revit.

Initiating A360 Collaboration for Revit From this point, those directly working on the

Revit project model will no perform the

actions within Revit. Migrating a Revit project

model to C4R begins by selecting the

“Collaborate” button on the Collaborate

ribbon.

At this point, Revit will prompt the end-user with an option to

perform collaborate within their corporate network using their LAN

or WAN-based worksharing (Revit Server.) This option is similar to

selecting the Workset button. It should be noted, the Worksets

dialog will launch when this option is selected. The other option is

to collaborate using A360. Once selected, Revit may want to save

the source Revit project model one last time. After Revit has saved

the model, it will begin the initiation process. In this case, the

Worksets dialog window will not launch. The user will need to select

the Worksets button to launch the dialog manually. In any case,

Revit starts enabling Worksets on the file. From here, the user

selects the OK button.

The next window that will appear will prompt the user to give the

Revit file a new name or to maintain the current name. The other

setting is to establish which A360 Team project will host the Revit

model once it has been migrated. This is why it is important to

create a project in A360 Team or to be a Team Member of an A360

Team project. If no projects are listed in the drop down, the user

must sign-in to the A360 Team site and create a project using the

steps mentioned above. Once created, the user can return to Revit

and begin the process all over. From here, the user selects the

Initiate button.

7

The following screen will monitor the progress of the process step is

enabling Worksets on the Revit project model if they are not already

enabled. The second step is Revit will upload the model to the A360

Team project. Finally, a Local Cache file is created for the user to

work in. C4R uses a slightly different model of worksharing. C4R

uses an accelerator to turn the user’s workstation into a transmitter

and receiver of data packets from the model hosted on A360 Team.

C4R pre-fetches delta packets of data as collaborator sync their

work to the Central model. This enables syncs and reloads to be

much quicker than one would expect.

Using the Communicator Communicator has gone through

some changes since its inception. It

used to dock inside of the Revit

application window. Now, it is a

stand-alone application running in

tandem with your C4R Revit model. To

launch Communicator, select the “Communicator” button on the

Collaborate ribbon. Communicator can be positioned on a second

monitor or made to be

Communicator is the C4R user’s synchronous chat tool that

streams. Communicator will display all the projects the user is

associated to as well as, the active project they are currently

working in. This allows the user to stay in contact with projects

they are not currently working on. Communicator also allows

users to chat amongst the entire team or specific individuals.

Within the Chat area, the user can perform various tasks. They

can simply chat or send an image, file, or screen capture. The

recipient can download or view the images, files, and screen

captures they are sent. Communicator also sends notifications to

the user when new chat messages or system messages are

available. Finally, Communicator tracks the syncs to central that

the user and team members are performing on the model. This

allows the user to be appraised of updates or the need to reload

the model given their Local Cache is outdated. If Communicator

does not display project information, you may not be logged into

A360. Therefore, login to A360 in the Communicator or from the

Info Center in Revit. Communicator will retry to establish

communication.

8

Managing Sheets and Models for Collaboration for Revit. While working on the model is one thing, it may be necessary to

let the A360 project Team Members and Contributors view the

progress of the Revit models. The first time the model is

published to A360,

the default 3D view

and sheets are

uploaded along with the model. To add or remove views and

sheets a user selects the Views for A360 button on the

Collaborate ribbon. The settings are very similar to setting up

Sets for printing. After the views and sheets are selected, the

Set can be saved for future reference. If more views or sheets

are necessary, the users can access the list and add additional

views and sheets when necessary prior to publishing the

model. These settings are synchronized across the team.

Therefore, anyone can publish a new version of the model

and sheets to the A360 Team project.

To publish a new version of the model and sheets to A360

Tea, a user must access the project by selecting the Manage

Models button on the Collaborate ribbon.

Inside the Manage A360 Models dialog window, the user selects the Publish Icon for the Revit file to be

updated. This creates a new version of the data on the A360 Team project site.

9

Users can also Rename, Relinquish Worksets, View Versions (each Sync to Central) and, Delete the

model from A360 Collaboration for Revit. A previous version can be restored as the latest version. It

might be wise to download the current model from A360 before restoring. When relinquishing, C4R

forces all elements owned by you and other users to be relinquished. When you delete a model, team

members will no longer be able to synchronize their work.

Opening Models using A360 Collaboration for Revit Models migrated to C4R will now display with an A360 icon on

the thumbnail in Revit. This makes them easier to identify

when looking at the last accessed projects displayed on the

Recent Files window. If the thumbnail is not available. Don’t

despair, users can still access them through the Open dialog

window. An A360 place list is

automatically added to Revit when the

service is installed. The user simply selects

the icon. Then, they choose the correct

A360 Team project to enter. Finally, they

select the Revit file they wish to

collaborate on. This creates the Local

Cache file for the user to begin their work.

10

Linking Model using A360 Collaboration for Revit. C4R is meant to bridge the turn-

around time between remote

design professionals sharing Revit

data. Therefore, architects and

engineers can host their Revit

models on the same A360 Team

project site. Once all the models

are uploaded, they can be reloaded

from their new location on A360.

Using the Manage Links dialog, a

user can repath the link from a

local location to the A360 location.

Reloads can happen as readily as

they need to now given that the

models are now hosted in one location.

Unfortunately, CAD, DWF, IFC, and Point Clouds must still be referenced locally for these formats are not

yet hosted by C4R. However, they can be uploaded to the A360 Team project to maintain a version

history. Then, they can be downloaded local to refresh them at the network level.

Another alternative is Vault Professional.

Viewing the Revit Model on A360 Team Once published, any A360 Project Team Member or Contributor can select the Revit model in the Data

section of the Project to view the published version. In the viewer, the Team Member or Contributor can

select from the 3D view or 2D views published from Revit. The 3D view uses typical Autodesk navigation

tools such as the 3D View Cube. From the View Cube, Team Members and Contributors can switch

between view directions and Orthographic/Perspective modes. The Home button is also available to

reorient the model to its original view direction. Users can also use standard mouse buttons to zoom,

pan, and orbit the model. Along the base of the browser window are additional navigation toolbars. The

first has buttons to Orbit, Pan, Zoom, Walk, and adjust the Camera. The middle-left toolbar has tools for

adding comments and markups. The third toolbar has model access tools for creating sections and

exploding the model into its parts. The final toolbar has buttons for displaying the project element

properties, viewer settings, and full screen mode.

11

Clicking on the 3D icon in the upper-left provides the Team Member or Contributor access to the model

categories, families, types, and instances. By default, all elements but the selected goes transparent to

expose and select the chosen element. A menu also appears providing further viewing options.

12

Clicking on the 2D Sheets icon in the upper-left provides the Team Member or Contributor access to the

selected sheet for viewing.

Like the 3D view mode, toolbars appear along the button providing access to documentation review

tools. Here too, viewers can select elements in the sheet and review them.

13

Viewing on the mobile A360 app Autodesk does provide mobile apps to view, share,

and review the data hosted on A360 Team. Simply

download the app from the app store and sign in.

Whether it’s the IPad, IPhone, or Android you still

have access to all the tools and features A360

provides.

Migrating files from platform to platform Because Revit is platform specific, so is C4R. Here are some helpful links to upgrading models.

Use eTransmit for Revit to Update C4R Models

Manually Update C4R Models