What
The BIM 360 approval workflow allows project managers to facilitate, control, and automate the distribution of documents to project members. Members designated as reviewers can then review and comment on the documents. Members designated as approvers can give final approval to a document.
Who
Project managers, Document manager, BIM managers, Technology leaders, Structural engineers, MEP building engineers, Architects, Autodesk customers.
How
1. The project administrator sets up the approval workflow and designates reviewers and approvers.
In BIM 360, create an approval workflow using a workflow template.
Use different templates for one to six step approvals, or two to four step group approvals. The project administrator:
- Adds general information about the workflow.
- Specifies the document approval statuses used in the workflow.
- Designates a person, role, or company as the initiator. Reviewers and approvers can receive an email notification.
The reviewers need to have the appropriate permissions for the folder containing the documents to be reviewed.
2. Project members review and approve documents.
The first reviewer sees details in the BIM 360 Reviews tab. Start the review process by viewing the dedicated documents.
The reviewer can add markups, attachments, and comments to the document. The document can be download, exported, or printed.
Review all documents and submit the review. If the review is part of a group review, the number of pending reviews is displayed above the documents.
Optionally, an email is sent to the next reviewer (by name or role) to let them know that the initial review is complete.
All members of the review can view the comments added to each document. All project members with access to the documents can view markups.
After the final review, the last approver reviews all documents; adds markups, attachments, and comments; compares different document versions as required; and chooses an approval status for each document.
By submitting the review, the last reviewer confirms that the final review is closed. Optionally, an email notification is sent to the reviewers and other project members letting them know the final review is complete.
The review is displayed in the Document Management Reviews tab and is marked as closed.
The following diagrams outline these steps. Creating and using approval workflows to initiate document reviews with different roles and responsibilities:
Creating an approval workflow (Project Admin module)
Initiating a Document Review
Why
As a project manager, you need to distribute project drawings, models, and documents for review and approval, before construction can begin. The BIM 360 review and approval workflow perfectly supports you facilitating, controlling, and automating this process.
What next?
Have a look at a step by step description of the reviewing and approval process and watch this 58min AU Las Vegas recording from Joan Allen about the whole Review and Approval Workflows with BIM 360.
