About BIM 360 Permissions and Data Shortcuts

If project collaborators do not have the proper permissions to the folders where data shortcuts are stored, data shortcuts will not work as expected.

• If project collaborators do not have the proper permissions to a folder, the folder will not get created on their local drives by Autodesk Desktop Connector.
• If a folder does not get created locally, it results in local paths that are incorrect, which prevents project collaborators from being able to access data shortcuts or referenced files.
• If project collaborators can access a folder in BIM 360, and they want to use data shortcuts that reference that folder, they also need at least View+Download permissions to every parent folder.

This topic provides an example of the folders for which permissions need to be provided. In this example, user A is a project administrator who has full access to any file, folder, or subfolder, and can create and consume data shortcuts. User B is a project collaborator who needs to access but not create data shortcuts. User B has access only to dedicated parts of the project. This example explains how folder permissions must be granted so that user B does not receive error messages when attempting to work with the project.

For more information about permissions, see Folder Permissions.

Example: Missing access to the root folder

This example explains why project collaborators need to be granted View+Download permissions to the root folders that contain the subfolders where data shortcuts and referenced files are stored in BIM 360.

User A (project administrator) with full access	User B (project collaborator) with limited access
User A has full access to all of the folders, including ProjectFolder_NoAccess and MainFolder_NoAccess. The data shortcuts working folder is set to ProjectFiles\ProjectFolder_NoAccess\MainFolder_Access. The data shortcuts project folder is set to DS_Test. The reference source drawing is located in ProjectFiles\ProjectFolder_NoAccess\MainFolder_NoAccess\SubFolder_FullAccess.	User B has View+Download permission only to the folders MainFolder_Access and SubFolder_FullAccess. User B has no access to the folders ProjectFolder_NoAccess and MainFolder_NoAccess. Desktop Connector creates the following folder structure on user B's computer. The folders ProjectFolder_NoAccess and MainFolder_NoAccess are missing. The data shortcuts working folder is set to MainFolder_Access. The data shortcuts project is set to DS_Test.

When user B attempts to work in the data shortcut project, the following type of error message will be displayed.

The referenced drawing cannot be found because the relative path contains the folder MainFolder_NoAccess which does not exist on user B's computer.

Note: If user B is given edit permission to the folders MainFolder_Access and SubFolder_FullAccess and can therefore create new or modify existing data shortcuts, user A will also experience issues. When user B repairs the broken shortcuts and the changes are saved back to BIM 360, user A will be affected.

Solution: To prevent access issues from occurring in this project, user B should be given View+Download permissions to the folders ProjectFolder_NoAccess and MainFolder_NoAccess.