Benefits of Collaboration for Revit (C4R) in Construction

Construction projects today involve teams working simultaneously from wide-ranging geographical areas, across towns, states or even countries. These teams coordinate on the same project at the same time, using a work-sharing method that is efficient, transparent and extremely accurate. Revit Architecture services used with Collaboration for Revit (C4R) for 3D BIM coordination plays an important role in fulfilling this requirement. 

A cloud-based worksharing tool, Collaboration for Revit (or C4R) is hosted on the cloud. BIM 360 Team (formally A360 Team) is required for users wishing to upload Revit files to C4R. In the event that a stakeholder does not have Revit and C4R, they can use a web browser to access BIM 360 Team for ‘view only’ access, which provides a range of marking up and viewing formats to use. They can preview models, upload and download other project documents too. All team members can access central models stored in a file at a network location. 

As cloud computing is increasingly used for storage, sharing and hosting of models, the need to use a tool that brings a team together with minimal training time and maintenance is required. Using BIM 360 Team, C4R provides access to, and collaboration on, central Revit models on the cloud to project teams across varied disciplines, locations and companies, so that stakeholders from any location can add, delete or modify elements of the project at any point. This way, changes can be reviewed by others and necessary action can be taken. In effect, C4R allows countrywide or international teams to work simultaneously across different time zones and collaborate in real-time, a form of Revit work sharing.

C4R Uses BIM 360 Team: C4R hosts a Revit model in a centralised location called the BIM 360 Team Hub. A BIM 360 Team Hub must be created before a model can be shared via C4R. Thus, the cloud can be used to share, store and communicate. 

For Revit users, C4R need not be separately installed. It is part of Revit and provides several options in the ‘Collaborate’ tab. Revit users will however need to be assigned to a BIM 360 Team project to use C4R features. 

Easy Communication: C4R Communicator is a chat feature in Revit, with extras. Communicator connects users in the same model, in a different model but same project, or in a completely different C4R project. Chats are in real time and communication includes sending messages, files, screen shots from Revit and even the chat log. Timeline tracks comments, who is synchronising in real time, who completed and when it was completed.

Integrated Project Delivery: C4R facilitates the sharing of server requirements and centralised systems by joint design ventures from separate locations. This allows architects and engineers to communicate and share data easily and practice informed decision-making.

Cloud-based Technology: 

Since most C4R tools are cloud-based, methods and client involvement enjoy almost total flexibility, greatly reducing downtime and rework. 

• Management – Permissions and restrictions set up in a BIM 360 Team project in Revit help manage the models.
• BIM 360 Integration – Stakeholders, non-Revit users also, can view, comment and mark up models through a browser.
• Communicator Tool – Communications can be on direct, real-time chat in C4R, within BIM project models.
• Publishing Tool – Models and 2D sheets in the cloud are published with the default 3D view, allowing communication between disciplines after updating changes. 

Financially, C4R projects save an average of 30 minutes per individual team member every week. Over an entire year, this could mean that C4R can pay for itself while providing significant advantages to project teams.

Technical Issues and Autodesk Support

The platform is actively supported by Autodesk to ensure uptime. Some examples of technical issues and how they are dealt with include:

When there are bottlenecks in the code, capacity scaling under varying loads, intermittent connectivity: -Product teams across the cloud ensure that services have the right approaches and architecture to carry out their operations consistently and with high levels of reliability.

When there are degradations or outages - Services are designed so that dependencies are ‘soft’ and don't bring down core products.

When there is deviation from operational behaviour - Services are constantly logging operation results for ‘health checks’. Notifications of deviation of behaviour occur within minutes and can be rectified quickly. In addition, data trends are studied for usage patterns to improve capacity. 

Ultimately, C4R may be a better fit for many firms that require easy-to-use and easy-to-operate cloud-based solutions for collaborating on their projects. Unlike so many forerunners in the online collaboration industry, C4R actually allows collaboration and working on the same model and files rather than act as a sophisticated file exchange system.