The Global ARCHICAD Community

[Bruce]

Now that TW2 has been around for a few months, does anyone have suggestions for User Roles? What works, what doesn't?

I'm thinking of:
- Viewer (view only & markup rights)
- Modeller (all modelling etc rights, but base functions restricted)
- Lead Modeller (as above, but rights to layout books, attributes etc)
- Project Leader (all rights)

I'm interested to hear what other people have found works.

Cheers

[rwallis]

Well Bruce you only need one of your users in a category you have defined to start being constrained by the rights you have assigned them and it becomes a real management headache.

I'd much rather spend my time dealing with real issues than ones I've created!! For a stand alone project the user gets full control-If we can trust a user in a standalone setup then we should be able to trust them elsewhere....(albeit the ramifications of stuff-ups can be more serious)

Having said all of that there are a few areas I have locked down so in essence we have two user categories.
Example would be the ability to amend BIM Server libraries. (Given the need for BIM Server clients to download libraries from the BIM Server, we don't want excessive need to sync large libraries for remote users).
I'm sure more critical areas will come to light as we continue...

[Erika Epstein]

Bruce,
How large is your firm?
How many people typically work on each file?
Do the roles you have created reflect how your team works i.e. who is working on what?

[Bruce]

We have 40 people in our firm, can have up to 15 people on one project. The project I'm currently working on has 5 stages (separate files and lead modellers for each stage) and one person per stage looking after the layout book. This way we can maintain control over sheet creation, numbering and naming.

I'm slowly educating the staff, but I can't look over their shoulders all day either...and sometimes I 'uncover' things that were done incorrectly but is now too late to fix.

ArchiCAD skill ranges from beginner (ex AutoCAD) to advanced - but there are very few who understand attributes properly - let alone think to follow the established naming convention.

If everyone was all on the same 'page' then I'd just have one role - but it doesn't quite work that way.

[Erika Epstein]

Bruce,
It sounds like you are on the right track. Large projects are often broken into smaller groups so your 15 people might be broken up into 3 or 4 groups of 2-5 people along the lines of how you would normally break up a project. For example if this were a high-rise one team might be working on typical floor layout, another the skin, and another the core and yet a fourth group the entry level then there is the subterranean garages; you get the picture. Each group might have their own file which is cumulatively hotlinked into a main file.

The above might be a fairly complex building, but you will be able to make similar kinds of judgments on smaller projects. Layout out books can be be broken out as their own role so whomever is free can update layout books etc.
You are right to keep tasks such as attributes in the hands of the more experienced.

However you set it up, keep in mind how the staff will, or can. grow in their abilities. The more they are willing to learn about how to properly learn Archicad, the soon they can be trusted with modeling and other more critical areas.

Hopefully Link Ellis will chime in here; He's just setting up a large firm in Australia. He is experiencef doing this round the globe.

HTH