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Informed Design & ACC Bridge

Informed Design’s integration with ACC Bridge allows manufacturers to publish products to their own project folders and seamlessly share these folders with other accounts and projects across the Autodesk Construction Cloud.

When a folder is shared through Bridge, a "copy" of the folder is created in the recipient’s project, with any updates synced automatically from the sender. Recipients can organize and manage access to the contents of shared folders within their project, allowing design teams to easily browse products from multiple manufacturers in a single location. This integration reduces time and effort for manufacturers, as they only need to publish products once – to their own project. All recipients automatically receive updates via Bridge, simplifying content management tasks.

Note: When published, Informed Design products do not appear as files in Docs folders; they are stored in our database. The folders are used exclusively for managing access to these products through Docs folder permissions. When sharing Informed Design products via Bridge, you are granting access to the folder where these products are accessed and managed, rather than transferring actual folders and files.


Make Informed Design Products Available in Other Projects

  1. Prepare Folders for Other Projects
  • To share Informed Design products across projects, you'll use Bridge in Docs to provide access to the entire folder where the products are published, or will be published.
  • Since Bridge access in Informed Design is managed at the folder level, carefully choose the folder for publishing any products you intend to make available in other projects.
    • Members of other projects will have access to all items in the bridged folder, not just Informed Design products, so be sure to remove any files that shouldn’t be included. If you plan to include subfolders in the Bridge, confirm the contents of subfolders to-be-shared as well.
  1. Bridge Projects
  • When sharing access to Informed Design products via Bridge, start by creating a Bridge between your project (the Origin project) where the products were published originally, and another project (the Target project) owned by the audience who will use your products.
    • If are a project member with Edit permission or higher in the Target project, you can make folders available in this project without bridging the the Origin and Target projects first (the Bridge will be created upon share if "Automatically sync updates in the target project" is checked.)
    • Otherwise, before sharing folder access you’ll first need to send an invitation to bridge the two projects, and the Project Admin in the Target project needs to accept the invitation.
  • See Bridge a Project for detailed instructions.
  1. Share a Folder
  • In the Origin project, go to the Files tool (in Docs or Build) and select the folder where products to-be-shared are published.

    • To confirm which products are available in a particular folder, go to the Releases tab in the Informed Design Web Portal and refer to the Folder column.
  • Open the folder’s More menu and select Share.

  • In the Share dialog, choose “Another project” and ensure “Automatically sync updates to target project” is checked.

    • Access to products via Bridge share relies on the “Automatically sync updates...” option being enabled, so this checkbox must always be checked when sharing folders with Informed Design products! Refer to See Folder Automations in Informed Design. for more information.
    • The "Include subfolders" checkbox determines whether or not the Bridge access will extend to child folders and their contents.
      • By default, Bridge access will apply only the specified folder and its contents If "Include subfolders" remains unchecked, child folders and their contents will NOT be available in the Target project.
      • If you check the "Include subfolders" checkbox, Bridge access in the Target project will extend to all child folders within the specified folder. All contents of the specified folder, across all levels of nesting, will be available in the Target project. This provides a convenient way to share Informed Design products – organized into a variety of subfolders – in one easy step.
  • Select the Target project and optionally add a title or message for context.

  • Click Share. You'll receive an email notification once the folder is successfully added in the Target project.

    • When the shared folder is successfully added in the Target project, its Indicators column in Docs will display the icon for Outgoing Sync alt . If subfolders were included with the Share, they will display their parent folder's Indicator. See See Folder Automations in Informed Design..


Access Informed Design Products from Another Project

  1. Bridge Projects
  • When a project member of both the Origin and Target projects shares a folder, there is no need to request a bridge between the projects, and no folder review is required in your (Target) project. If this applies, disregard step 2 below; the shared folder will be visible, and its Informed Design products will be accessible, as long as "Automatically sync updates in the target project" was checked when the folder was shared.
  • If a folder is shared by someone who is not a member of your (Target) project, a Project Admin in the Target project must first approve the bridge request between the Origin and Target projects. The Project Admin must also review the shared folders. Informed Design products in these folders become accessible only after the Project Admin approves the folder share. See step 2 below for more details.
  1. Review and Accept Shared Folder
  • When a folder has been shared from the Origin project by a non-member of the Target project, the Project Admin who accepted the request to bridge the Origin and Target projects will be notified by email to accept or reject the shared folder.
  • Click View details in the email to open the Bridge tool in your browser.
    • The folder – and subfolders, if you chose to include them – will appear empty in the Bridge tool unless other kinds of files are uploaded there; this is expected for folders with Informed Design products.
  • To accept the folder share, click the “Add folder automation to project” button.
    • If the button is labeled “Add to project,” contact a Project Admin from the Origin project and remind them to turn on “Automatically sync updates…” for this folder, so that its contents are kept up-to-date and access to Informed Design products is maintained.
  • Choose the target folder in your project where the shared folder will be copied.
    • When a folder is shared via Bridge, a copy of this folder is created in the Target project, with updates synced automatically from the Origin project.
    • In the Target project, Project Members with access to the specified target folder will inherit permission to the shared folder copy when it is added as a child.
  • Click "Add to project" to confirm. You’ll be notified when the shared folder is added.


Bridge Integration in Informed Design Tools

Add-in for Inventor

  • Project Files can no longer be selected as the publish location for Informed Design products, since this root folder cannot be shared via Bridge.
  • In the Informed Design Add-ins, folders shared via Bridge display sync indicators when their contents are available in the Target project: Outgoing Sync alt for shared folders and Incoming Sync alt for received folders. For more about folder content availability, see Folder Automations in Informed Design
  • Products published to an Outgoing Sync folder are made available from your (Origin) project across all Target projects.
    • A subfolder may be created inside an Outgoing Sync folder and used as the publish location. If "Include subfolders" was checked when the parent folder was shared, this subfolder and any products published there will also be available in the Target projects.
  • Publishing to an Incoming Sync folder is not allowed.

Add-in for Revit

  • Manufacturers publish content in their own (Origin) projects and make these folders available to architects and designers in their (Target) projects, consolidating product access within a familiar project folder structure.
  • Sync indicators help identify folders received via Bridge. In Revit you can customize and insert products from Incoming Sync folders.
    • If changes are made to the product in its Origin project – like publishing a new release, making an out-of-date release Obsolete, or updating the release notes – these changes can be assessed and optionally applied to instances that were previously inserted in Revit projects.

Web Portal

  • On the Instances tab, your access permission determines which products are available in the list.
    • To select product instances and view their details: View permission or higher is required in the product’s folder, either in the Origin project or in the Target project
    • To create a request for outputs: Create – ‘View + Download + Publish Mark-ups + Upload permission or higher is required in the product’s folder in the Origin project
  • When creating a request for outputs, a folder with an Incoming Sync alt or an Outgoing Sync alt may be selected as the upload location.
    • If a folder with an Outgoing Sync is selected as the upload location for outputs, be aware that a separate Bridge share will be required for each variant subfolder if you intent to share access to the output files.
  • On the Releases tab, Project Admins can see if a product is currently shared with other projects, or is currently accessible from another project, via Bridge. 
    • Since all releases of a product must be published to the same folder, all usable releases are included in the Bridge share. Obsolete product releases cannot be inserted in Target projects.
    • The Folder column lists the product's publish location and shows an indicator if this folder is bridged. Products shared from your project folder to other projects will display the Outgoing Sync alt icon, while those received from another project have the Incoming Sync alt icon.
    • Updates to the release status or notes in the Origin project will be reflected in the Target projects. However, you cannot modify the release status or notes for products that are available via Bridge in your (Target) project; this can only be done by Project Admins in the Origin project.


Folder Automations in Informed Design

Careful management of folders and automation settings will maximize the benefits of Informed Design’s Bridge integration while preventing unintended sharing of products. For more information, see Manage Folder and Sheet Automations.

Automatically Sync Updates to Target Project

  • When sharing folders with Informed Design content, “Automatically sync updates to target project” must be turned on, and remain on in order to maintain access to Informed Design products!
  • When the Automatic Sync is turned off or paused for a folder, products published to these folders will not be available in the Target projects, and any updates made to products will not be accessible.
  • If products are already published in the Origin project folder, these will be available in the Target projects only if Automatic Sync is on when the folder is shared.

 

Sync Details

  • Sync details for both Incoming and Outgoing Syncs are accessible by clicking on the sync indicators. These details include the sync direction, and possibly (depending on your access permission) the name of the Bridged project.
  • For an Incoming Sync, Project Members of the Origin project can see the name of this project in link text which opens the project in ACC. For everyone else, only the sync direction is listed.
  • For an Outgoing Sync, Project Members of the Target projects can see project names in link text and open those projects in ACC. Otherwise, only the sync direction is listed.

Pausing Automations

  • Outgoing Syncs can be paused from the Origin project, which temporarily revokes the folder's Informed Design content availability in the Target projects. The folder will remain in the target project's folder tree, but products published to the folder before the pause, and any new products or updates published there during the pause, will not available in the Target projects. 
  • In folder trees in the Informed Design Add-ins and Web App, a shared folder will NOT display an icon when its Automation is paused. To see which folders have paused automations in Docs or Build, open the Bridge tool, select a bridged project, then open the “# paused” link in the project’s Bridge details panel.
  • Incoming Syncs can be paused from the Target project as well.
  • After a folder's sync is resumed, any Informed Design products published or updated during the pause will be backfilled in Target projects.

Deleting the Bridge or Folder Automation

  • If the Bridge between two projects is deleted, folders shared from the Origin project remain in the Target project, but their Informed Design products are no longer available.
  • If a folder automation is deleted, the shared folder remains in the Target project, but its Informed Design products are no longer available.
  • When the Bridge between projects is turned off or the folder automation is deleted, product information and parameters for products in those folders are no longer available in the Target projects. Revit instances of such products would be "orphaned" until their folder is shared in the target project again.

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