Gu & Maher University of Sydney, September 2004 DECO2005 Co-Authoring and Changes Management in ArchiCAD Teamwork

ArchiCAD Teamwork  ArchiCAD  CAD modelling tools specifically made for architectural design.  Latest version: 8.1  Support: individual project as well as collaborative teamwork.  ArchiCAD Teamwork  With ArchiCAD Teamwork, several members of a team of architects or related professionals can work simultaneously on various aspects or parts of the same project.

Team Organization  Five Possible Roles in ArchiCAD Teamwork: Administrator, Team Leader, Teammate, Mark-up and View Only.  The Administrator is the person who coordinates the team and first shares the project.  The Team Leader is the person responsible for the project.  A Teammate is any team member working on any part of the shared project.  Mark-up can be served by any of the previous three roles. The Mark-up features facilitates communication between designers during a project. It allows you to point out problematic elements with a color highlight or to add new elements intended.  Viewers can access but make no modification of the project.

Privilege of Different Roles  Administrator:  Allow the signing in of other Team Members.  Disconnect Team Members.  Alter other Team Members' passwords.  Handle the Administrator and Team Leader passwords.  Define or modify backup options.  Team Leader:  A physical person (maybe the administrator) or a fictitious person identified by a password only.  Modify design standard and convention: project scale, project management tools like layers and stories, drawing attributes, measurement units, object library and so on.

Privilege of Different Roles  Teammate:  Work in the workspace defined using the standard and convention set by the Team Leader.  Workspace: the part of the shared project reserved by a Teammate.  Mark-up:  Can not create any new elements.  Only add corrections or highlight elements that need to be checked or modified by other Teammates.  Viewer:  Can open a copy of the project, save as an individual project.  Modifications made to this copy by the Viewer do not appear in the team project.

Setting Up the Shared Project  Set up Design Standard and Convention:  Project scale and measurement units.  Project management tools: stories and layers;  Drawing attributes: pen colours, line and fill types, composites, materials and so on.  Workspace attributes: grids and display options.  Object libraries.

Sharing the Project  Set up Project Team.  Assign roles.  Set up username and password.  Set up Backup Options:  Frequency for backing up.  Frequency for deleting backups.  Decided by the nature of the team.

Set up Server and Clients  Server:  The computer where the shared project files and object libraries reside on.  Client:  The machine where ArchiCAD is running.  Connect to the Shared Project:  Native: from the client’s local computer, via Intranet (mounted network volume).  ArchiCAD does not support Teamwork over Internet natively. However, by using the right combination of the clients and server operating systems you can overcome the inability to open project files via FTP links.

Sign in to the Shared Project  Notify Team Members about Roles, Usernames and Passwords.  Sign in as the the Role You Have Been Assigned.  Administrator, team leader, teammate, mark-up or view only.  Unlimited number of teammates may sign in to the shared project at a time.  Only one administrator and one team leader may sign in to the shared project at any moment.

Collaborative CAD Modelling  Each Teammate Can Define Reserved Areas.  Teammate can freely add, delete and modify elements in the reserved areas he/she define.  You will be notified if others modify your reserved areas.  You can choose to accept or reject the modification.  Sending and Receiving Changes among the Team Members.  Choose receive changes when sign in.  Choose send changes when sign out.

Publishing in Teamwork  Views are Important in CAD Modelling  Choose relevant elements to show or to hide.  For modelling or analysis purposes.  Publishing View Sets.  Share your views with other team members.  View the shared projects via other’s views.

Local Copy  Local Copy: Saved from the Shared Project for Individual Uses.  Working remotely (away from the network).  Save changes in a state of the project that is not yet ready for sending and receiving changes and made visible to other Teammates.

Importance of Signing Out  Importance of Signing Out.  Send changes to your team members.  Release your reserved areas for others who may want to use.

Monitor Collaboration via Teamwork Notes  Teamwork Notes:  Sign in and sign out date and time.  Send changes date and time with name of the person having confirmed it.  Any information added to the send changes dialog box's comment field.  Comments added.  Changes made to the team by the administrator.

Compatibility  Compatibility among the Team:  Team members work with same versions of ArchiCAD on the same Team Project.  Be familiar with the standard and convention set for the shared project before the modelling process starts.

Lab Activity  Implement a Manual System That Allows Co-Authoring and Changes to Be Managed during Team Collaboration.  Based on the concepts of team organisation and collaboration, introduced in ArchiCAD teamwork.  Adapt these concepts to be used for your collaborative project.  Realise the adopted concepts as manual processes to be assigned to the team members.  Integrated these processes into a manual system that is able to manage co-authoring and changes for your collaborative project.  Implement this manual system as parts of the group web site you developed in week 7 (September 10).  You are not required to automate this management system.

Review: Team Organization  You Should Adapt the Following to Suit Your Needs.  Five Different Roles in ArchiCAD Teamwork:  Administrator: the person who coordinates the team and first shares the project.  Team Leader: the person responsible for the project.  Teammate: any team member working on any part of the shared project.  Mark-up: facilitate communication between designers during a project by pointing out problematic elements.  Viewers can access but make no modification of the project.

Review: Related Issues  You Should Adapt the Following to Suit Your Needs.  Set up Project Standard and Convention.  Set up Project Team:  Assign roles and set up access control.  Decide Privilege of Different Roles in a Team.  Project Files and Backup:  Version: what is the labeling convention, who is in charge, …  Changes: who can make changes, how to notify other team members, …  Backup: where to store the backup, how often to update, …

Review: Monitoring Collaboration  You Should Adapt the Following to Suit Your Needs.  ArchiCAD Teamwork Notes:  Sign in and sign out date and time.  Changes: date, time and the name of the person who confirmed the changes.  Additional information attached to the changes.  Comments added.  Changes made to the team by the administrator.