BIM 360 Improves Team Productivity with New Release

Autodesk BIM 360 gets an update, improving workflows, collaboration and access from within China.

BIM 360 offers better insight into version changes being made to BIM documents. (Image courtesy of Autodesk.)

BIM 360 offers better insight into version changes being made to BIM documents. (Image courtesy of Autodesk.)

Autodesk has announced an update for its cloud-based building information modeling (BIM) collaboration tool, BIM 360 Team, and with it a new set of collaboration tools and workflow improvements.

By far the biggest change to the BIM 360 Team platform is the introduction of Version Compare, a tool that can make viewing and understanding design changes much easier in both 3D models and 2D sheets. For anyone who has ever had to deal with a large and complex 3D architectural model, it’s immediately apparent that minor changes between revisions can be nearly imperceptible. What makes matters worse is that many of the people who need to pay the keenest attention to these changes (project manager, quality control staff and others) might not have a working knowledge of Revit and therefore won’t have the skills to isolate changes during reviews.

For that reason, BIM 360 Team’s new Version Compare aims to make it simple to access design modification so that it can be done by anyone on a team.

Using the Version Compare tool, users can compare two versions of a file and quickly see what elements of a design were added, removed or modified between the former and latter files. But beyond a high-level overview, Version Compare gives users the ability to drill down into a design and isolate individual changes to see exactly how a component has been modified.

Aside from the addition of the Version Compare feature, BIM 360 Team’s engineers have also altered the software’s basic file operations making it easier to do more with your BIM 360 Team files. For example, basic file management operations such as moving or copying a folder now present the option to “Create a New Folder” where the migrating folders will be placed. Though it seems like a minor addition, this type of workflow enhancement can save time and reduce frustration.

Finally, Autodesk’s team has eliminated an issue that many users were experiencing when trying to access documents from within China. Now, users in the Asian sovereign state can utilize the full functionality of BIM 360 Team.

For more information, check out the BIM 360 Team webpage.