Autodesk offers customers the opportunity to obtain a 30-day trial of BIM Collaborate and/or BIM Collaborate Pro. (Note: Collaborate Pro is needed for Revit cloud worksharing, Collaboration for Civil 3D, and Collaboration for Plant 3D).
While the steps to sign up are fairly simple, we have received questions about getting multiple team members included in the trial. As stated in the trial FAQ page, only one person in the firm needs to sign up for the trial, set up a project, and then invite others in the company to the project to grant them a trial license.
Following are the detailed steps involved in the process. In this example, one user, Lara Wilson will sign up for a BIM Collaborate Pro trial for her multi-discipline design firm. Later her teammates, Jim and Fred will be added to the trial.
- Lara completes the Collaborate Pro trial form
- She then follows the prompts to complete her profile (site) on the Autodesk Construction Cloud (ACC), and selects Get started.
- Lara is then prompted to set up shared folder locations in the Sample Project - Seaport Civic Center. For now, she dismisses the dialog by hitting the "X" in the upper right.
- Lara next sees the Design Collaboration module of the sample project. For now, she skips this step and proceeds to add her teammates to the trial.
- At this point, if Lara signs into her Autodesk Account (manage.autodesk.com), she will see that BIM Collaborate Pro is listed under her Active Trials.
- To include Jim and Fred in the trial, Lara returns to her ACC site (acc.autodesk.com). Important: BIM Collaborate Pro trials can only be activated for users from a project on the ACC platform. While BIM Collaborate Pro licenses give users access to both the BIM 360 and ACC platforms, users must first be invited to a project on ACC to obtain a trial license.
- Lara can either create a new project before adding her teammates, or she can use the sample project. For this example, she'll use the sample project. She switches to Project Admin in the upper left, selects Members, and clicks Add members.
- Lara can add members all at once or add them one at a time. For now, she enters Jim's email and determines that Jim will be a member not an administrator. Important: Lara must select Design Collaboration from the list of Unpurchased products before clicking the Add button.
- Once ACC finishes processing the invitation, Jim will receive an invitation email.
- Jim selects Go to your project. He is prompted to complete his ACC profile.
- Once the form is complete, and Jim selects Get started, he is redirected to the sample project.
- Jim takes the final step to activate his BIM Collaborate Pro trial, selecting the Design Collaboration module in the upper left. A message will appear that his trial is being activated, and BIM Collaborate Pro will appear in his Autodesk Account under Active Trials.
- Lara repeats the process to add Fred, and Fred follows the same series of steps that Jim took to activate his BIM Collaborate Pro trial.
- All members with a BIM Collaborate Pro trial license are now able to work on any project on the BIM 360 or ACC platform that they are invited to.
Key Takeaways:
- One user in an organization signs up for the BIM Collaborate Pro trial
- Trial licenses are granted only from a project hosted on the ACC platform
- Initial user needs to include Design Collaboration in the products for invited users
- Invited users must go to the Design Collaboration module to activate their trial
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