Your Questions, Answered: Autodesk’s Three New AEC Cloud Offerings for BIM

During their announcement at Autodesk University 2020, Autodesk revealed that they would be releasing three new cloud offerings this year for AEC design workflows. These new offerings will be on Autodesk’s unified platform for the AEC industry. The updates include:

Autodesk Docs

Autodesk will include a centralized document management solution on Autodesk Construction Cloud in the AEC Collection this year.

Autodesk BIM Collaborate

Autodesk’s new offering for non-authoring team members will be released this year. It will help project stakeholders follow real-time design progress and annotate design clashes.

BIM 360 Design will be renamed Autodesk BIM Collaborate Pro

Along with a rename, the newly named BIM Collaborate Pro will include new capabilities such as access to unified products in the Autodesk Construction Cloud. It will also have coordination and project analytics capabilities.

Below are the most-asked questions, along with Autodesk’s answers for each:

Why is Autodesk making these changes?

We continue to evolve our offerings as your needs change. With these changes, we are giving you, our design customers, access to our unified platform that includes capabilities tailored to your needs and workflows. In the wake of the unprecedented demands you’ve had to face this year, we want to support your digital transformation goals by providing access to a common data environment that includes unlimited cloud storage.

I’m a current customer of BIM 360 Design, BIM 360 Docs, and/or AEC Collection. What should I do to prepare for these changes?

Suppose you are a current BIM 360 Docs, BIM 360 Design, or AEC Collection. In that case, you may continue using these products without interruption to your projects. When these new offerings become available next year, you can work with your Customer Success Manager, Partner, or the Autodesk Support team to start new projects on the unified platform. See details below:

1. If you are an AEC Collection customer, you will automatically get access to Autodesk Docs, including BIM 360 Docs. Autodesk will add Seats of Autodesk Docs to current AEC Collection subscriptions at a 1:1 rate.
2. Suppose you are a BIM 360 Design customer. In that case, you will be automatically upgraded to Autodesk BIM Collaborate Pro, which means you can start new projects on the unified platform and continue to access and work on BIM 360 projects.
3. If you are a BIM 360 Docs customer, you may continue using BIM 360 for your projects without interruption. You will not receive automatic access to Autodesk Docs, as these two offerings are not the same.

Why would I want to start a project on the unified platform?

Starting a new project in Autodesk Construction Cloud (ACC) enables you to prepare for the future of project delivery with the support of Autodesk’s most comprehensive design and construction cloud platform. You will be able to:

1. Connect your design data to construction partners’ data in Autodesk Build via Autodesk Docs.
2. Connect to an interoperable ecosystem of integration partners that build solutions for design and construction needs.
3. Participate in full project lifecycle workflows with a more robust data schema, from everyday data environment to digital handover

What is the difference in functionality between these three offerings?

Autodesk Docs 

Autodesk Docs is a centralized document management solution that acts as a single source of truth across the project lifecycle for all teams.

Autodesk BIM Collaborate 

BIM Collaborate enables project teams to align and execute on design intent by managing the entire design collaboration and coordination workflow from a single solution to reduce rework, improve productivity and accelerate project delivery.

Autodesk BIM Collaborate Pro

BIM Collaborate Pro is the next evolution of BIM 360 Design and adds the Model Coordination and Insight modules to connect 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 unified platform. BIM Collaborate Pro will enable authors of design documentation to work anytime from anywhere in their Revit, Civil 3D, and Plant 3D standalone or multi-disciplinary projects.

Why are we changing the name of BIM 360 Design?

Autodesk is committed to adapting our products and adding value to them as our customers’ needs change. This name change reflects the shift of document storage and management from BIM 360 Docs to Autodesk Docs and new capabilities, such as model coordination.

Are Autodesk Docs and BIM 360 Docs the same offering?

No. While each offering contains many of the same common data environment features today, Autodesk Docs supports document management for projects on our unified platform and BIM 360, while BIM 360 Docs only supports document management for BIM 360 projects.

What is happening to BIM 360?

We will continue to provide customers with the access and support they need to work on their existing projects and within their existing workflows. All unified products on Autodesk Construction Cloud will also enable access to BIM 360 projects.

Are Autodesk Docs, BIM Collaborate, & BIM Collaborate Pro available in the Europe data center? What about ISO compliance?

Accounts on the Europe data center will not be available in the launch time frame next year but are targeted for availability a few months later. BIM 360 Document Management is targeted to be ISO 19650 compliant in the launch time frame next year. ISO 19650 compliance for Autodesk Docs will follow a few months later as well.

What versions of Revit, Civil 3D, and Plant 3D are supported?

Projects on BIM 360 will support Revit 2018.3 or Civil 3D 2020.2 or later and Plant 3D 2021 or later. Projects on the unified platform will support Revit 2018.3 or Civil 3D 2020.5.1 or later and Plant 3D 2021 or later.

How will I be able to manage my licenses and entitlements? Will I be able to buy user packs for my team? How does BYOS work?

We’ll make more license and entitlement usage available closer to the launch date. User packs and the “Bring Your Own Subscription” or BYOS policy will also be available on these three offerings – stay tuned for more details.

Will I be able to trial these new offerings?

More information on trial experiences will be available closer to the launch date.

We’re so excited to get these offerings ready for you – stay tuned for more information.