Multidisciplinary Collaboration in Revit: Tracking Changes in Linked Cloud Coordination Models

LESLAW JANUS: Welcome, everybody, to a 2024 session, "Multidisciplinary Collaboration in Revit. Tracking Changes in Linked Cloud Coordination Models." Before we start, let's take a look at the safe harbor statement. There might be forward-looking statements which may be changed or updated in the future. So purchasing decisions should not be made based on the statements.

Let's start with the introduction. Hello. My name is Leslaw. I work at Autodesk as an experience designer. I've been with Autodesk since 2008. I'm based in Krakow, Poland. My background is structural engineering, and I spent many years designing different types of structures and buildings. Later, I switched into the user experience role and worked on many projects, including wind simulation, generative design in Fusion. And currently, I'm involved in the Model Coordination Project in Revit that will be actually presented today.

Today with me is also my colleague, Mihaela. Mihaela works as a senior team manager at Autodesk and also as a product owner. She's been with Autodesk since 2013, holding various roles in development and management. Mihaela has degrees in structural engineering as well, and also in computer science. She currently leads the Model Coordination Project in Revit and has been involved in many other initiatives, including steel detailing and steel modeling in Revit.

Let's talk about the class subject. So during this presentation, we will be focusing on model coordination between disciplines. We will demonstrate workflows and features in Revit related to this topic. This will include functionalities introduced in recent Revit versions, like linking coordination models from Autodesk Docs, and also using the coordination model changes feature to track changes in linked coordination models. So this class is beneficial for anyone who models in context of other disciplines in Revit-- for people who wants to know about changes in link cloud coordination models.

Now, let's take a look. Let's recall the learning objectives for this session that you probably know from the session description. So we have three main objectives. First is to learn how to boost productivity with Autodesk Docs and Revit for seamless cloud coordination model linking to Revit. The next one is to learn how to monitor Coordination Model version changes for updated accurate designs in Revit, and also to hone skills in spotting and filtering changes in Revit views in canvas in linked Coordination Models, focusing on key areas of the models.

And this session is divided into five main parts. We will start the overview of the model coordination and its importance in the design process. Then we will present features in Revit supporting coordination workflows between disciplines. We will talk about features introduced in the recent versions of Reddit. The main part of the presentation will be the live demo. But before it, we will explain a scenario that will be presented in the software to better understand the whole context. After the live demo, we will summarize what we learned, providing a list of useful tips, and tricks, and things worth remembering.

So why model coordination? A BIM model term often sounds like one model for the whole project. However, we all know that, in reality, it's a set of models coming from different domains, coming from different disciplines. So we may have an architectural model, a structural model, an MEP model, and other models which all belong to the same building, all the same structure.

What makes things even more complicated, each discipline can be modeled by designers from different companies and working in different software. So one of the most pressing issue is understanding the impact of other discipline models on your own model.

So model coordination is important to be aware of other disciplines' details and the impact, also to keep the holistic BIM model in sync. And definitely to model in context of other disciplines, but also to track changes happening in other disciplines during the project life cycle.

Now, let's take a look at Revit features introduced in recent versions to support model coordination. In Revit 2024, it was extended Coordination Model feature by adding the ability to link Coordination Models from Autodesk Docs. And in Revit 2025, you can find Coordination Model changes feature in the Collaborate tab. Let's take a look a little bit closer at each of these functionalities.

Before Revit 2024, Coordination Models could be linked as a local Navisworks file. A new functionality that was added in Revit 2024 allows to link coordination models from Autodesk Docs. It supports more than 45 formats for which a coordination model can be linked. So not only NWC or NWD.

And comparing to other methods of linking, this way of linking provides a lightweight representation of the model. It does not enlarge much a Revit project and offers better performance. It's also version independence, which means that the Coordination Models do not have to be upgraded before linking to Revit. Also, this way of linking supports a low-trust cooperation, especially for companies that want to protect their IP or the model content.

Coordination Model changes feature introduced in Revit 2025 offers a way to check changes between two versions of linked Coordination Model. A dialog in the application interacts with the Revit viewer, allowing to inspect a linked coordination model, find elements that were added, modified, or deleted. Currently, changes calculation can be made for coordination models coming from four file formats. We will be talking more details about this in the further part of the presentation.

We will present a live demo of above features. But before that, let's take a look at the scenario that will be presented. Imagine an architect working in Revit, creating a model of a building. In the meantime, other disciplines are prepared by other teams. So structural model is made by a designer, and an HVAC model is built by a specialist. And the architect needs the context of other disciplines in Revit and information about changes, if they occur.

So we have the architect who works in Revit. Two other disciplines are prepared in different software, and models are uploaded to Autodesk Docs. The architect can link other models as coordination models into his Revit project and see them for a context.

The whole presentation will contain three main steps. One is simply review the preconditions in Revit and Autodesk Docs. The next part will be in the live demo about the linking and exploring the linked models. And the last part will be about reviewing changes in linked coordination models, followed by some tips and tricks. I will now hand it over to my colleague, Mihaela, for the live demo part.

MIHAELA STAN: Thank you, Leslaw. This is a 3D view of the architectural model. This is the host model where we are going to link to Coordination Models. Additionally, in these Revit sessions, there are two views opened-- a 3D floor for the level 2 of this building and a 2D plan for the same level 2 of the building.

Scenario exemplified in this demonstration contains the following situation. Let's imagine we are working on the architectural team and we have this project that needs to be coordinated with the structural and HVAC models. Our goal is to understand if there are any structural and HVAC elements that have changes that would impact our architectural model.

The structural and ventilation teams shared with us their models which were uploaded in Autodesk Docs. I switch to the Autodesk Docs environment in this project, where two files were uploaded-- a structural RVT file, which has version one, was uploaded by the structural team, and an HVAC IFC file, which has two versions uploaded by the ventilation team.

We are going to link these two files in Revit application as Coordination Model. I will switch back to Revit. I'm going to close this 3D view and keep the 3D floor plan and 2D floor plan using tile views. On the left side, [INAUDIBLE] it is a 3D floor plan. And on the right side, we have the 2D floor plan. Now, in order to link a Coordination Model, we have to access this option from Insert ribbon, Coordination Model, and click on Autodesk Docs.

Once I press on this option, this dialog will browse to the location where these files were uploaded. Of course, you only have access to any other accounts where you have permissions, and you have to browse to the location of the files that you are going to link in your Revit session. In our case, we will start first by linking a structural model. Once we select it, we have this user interface where we present the views that are available, and we can link them directly in Revit.

The 3D view that is going to be linked is this one, 3D without flaws. And in the right side, we have this preview where we can zoom in, zoom out, pan, and explore the structural elements that belongs to this 3D view. Particularly for Revit, we have shared other two views. Because in Revit we can publish settings-- we can publish from publish settings, we can publish particular 3D views that we want to share with other disciplines. In this case, the structural team shared with us these three 3D views.

Now, for positioning, there are two options available-- origin to internal origin and by shared coordinates. We are going to use, to link this structural file, 3D without floors 3D view, using the Origin to Internal Origin option. Once we press on Link, the structural elements are visible, both in the 3D floor plan and in the 2D.

We notice that those structural elements are marked or are colored in pink, and they overlap with the struct-- with the architectural elements. In order to link the HVAC file as a Coordination Model, we will proceed with the same steps. From Coordination Model. Autodesk Docs will browse to the same location where those files were uploaded in our Autodesk Docs account. This time, we are going to use this HVAC IFC, which has version 2.

Once it's selected, the 3D view is available in the preview where we can explore the elements that are part of this IFC file. We are going to use Origin to Internal Origin as positioning this new Coordination Model in the architectural model. Once we press on link, we notice that the HVAC elements are visible both in the 3D floor plan and in 2D plan, as well.

I would like to emphasize a few important aspects of coordination models. One key point is that the performance of linking a coordination model is better compared to the other linking methods in Revit. The time spent linking and visualizing a coordination model in Revit is much faster. Linking a Coordination Model does not require any model download in the background, and this has benefits in the size of the host model. So if you save this model, the size of this model remains almost unchanged.

Another benefit is that you can link a Coordination Model from Autodesk Docs, even if you don't have download permissions. So View Only permission is the minimum requirements to link a Coordination Model. Another important aspect that is that the Coordination Model doesn't even require any upgrade to the Revit version you are currently using.

For example. If you link a Coordination Model in a Revit 2024 version, you can link a Coordination Model from older versions without requiring an upgrade. Or even you can link a future version, like Revit 2025.

Now we are going to use this 3D floor to better present advantages and some properties of the coordination models. So let's go under the View, switch to the top view. And in order to visualize the Coordination Model elements, we are going to switch off the architectural elements which overlap over the two coordination modal, the HVAC and the structural one.

To do this, under the View ribbon from Visibility graphic under the Model Categories, we select all of these categories and check them. Press Apply. OK. Now in the Revit Canvas, we notice the coordination modal elements from both two disciplines. One aspect that I'd like to highlight, that the Coordination Model has this bounding box or blue bounding box that can be selected.

And when we link our coordination model, by default it's pinned. So if you would like to move this coordination model, you will need to unpin it first. And some properties of this coordination model are presented on the Revit properties palette.

If we want to select an element and inspect the properties of it, we have to zoom it to that object to save the mouse, to hover the mouse over that element. Press on the Tab key until the element is pre-selected. Click on it, and the properties will be displayed in the Revit properties palette. Those properties are grayed out. They can be inspected, but they cannot be modified since they belongs to the structural team. The same behavior will-- of course, we can select the elements that are part of the IFC file link texture Coordination Model. For example, I select this element, and we notice the properties in the Revit Properties Palette.

In order to manage a Coordination Model, the Manage Links option is used. If we press on the Manage Links, we notice we have, under the Coordination Model category, the two files that are linked as Coordination Models together with the 3D views. For example, for the structural RVT, there is 3D without floors view.

Once it is selected, other properties of this are displayed on the right side. Let's take a look together. So first of all, a 3D view of a Coordination Model can be reload, unload, remove, or place an instance. Place an instance means basically to copy the entire 3D view of a coordination model. So if you place an instance, press-- if we press on this, the count number will be increased from 1 to 2. Or if we directly copy the entire bounding box in your Revit Canvas, again, the count number will be increased.

Another aspect that I would like to highlight in this dialogue related to the coordination model, it's about the status. The status right now is Loaded, but can have different phases. For example, if the 3D view is unloaded, then the status will display Unload. But there might be other situations when this status informs you that it's not found, or even it's written error opening.

For this type of situation, please check your internet connection, or please check if you are logged in your Autodesk account. Or maybe check if the file is still located in Autodesk Docs at the same path where it was linked-- from where it was linked. Or check if the permission haven't changed in the meantime. OK.

Another aspect that is important to know about the version of the file. So right now, we have, for this, 3D without floor from structural Coordination Model version 1. And for the HVAC model, we have version 2 linked. So the graphical representation, what we visualize in the Revit Canvas, it's actually the graphical of the version that is displayed in here, in Manage Links.

OK. This is about coordination model in general. Now, if we want to check if we have any changes, starting with Revit 2025, under Collaborate, the Coordination Model Changes option was introduced. So if we press on it, we notice that we have this new dialog that appears, which prompts us to select a Coordination Model. If we click on this, we notice that we have the two entries. That means the two Coordination Models that we have just linked.

If we check for the structural entity, we notice that the content is changed. If we take a look at the message that we are receiving, it refers to the fact that changes will be displayed when a new version of the link model will be published or updated. Currently the current version is version 1. Because we don't have another version, the application doesn't have any other version to compare with. So if we check again in Manage Links, we notice that we have four 3D floor structural version 1.

For this exemplification, I'm going to switch to the Autodesk Docs. Here it is. And for the structural entity, we have version 1. But for this exemplification, we are going to simulate the scenario that the structural team provided us a version 2 of this structural file. For this, I'm going here, browsing through this folder. And I have already prepared a structural version, which I'm going to copy over the version 1 of the structural file from the same location.

Now, the application in Autodesk Docs is going to upload a version 2 of the structural model. Once the file is uploaded, I can consume it and use it in Revit. So if we come back in Revit-- here it is-- and we'll open the Manage Links dialog. If we select the 3D floor, we have version 1. This version is not automatically uploaded to version 2. This, we can present the version 2 in Revit if the Reload option is used. Or another method is to save the file, to close, to-- and reopen it again in Revit.

At opening, the application will automatically check if there is a new version in Autodesk Docs and reloads to latest. In our case, we are going to use Reload option. So we select 3D without floor, press on Reload. And in a couple of moments, actually, the application check if, in Autodesk Docs, we have another version. And once this is detected, the version is increased from 1 to 2.

By now, the graphical representation in Revit Canvas represents the version 2 of the structural file. If we check again under the Coordination Model Changes and choose the same structural file, or the structural Coordination Model, we notice that there is this spinner that is displayed, which retrieving changes for a selected model.

While this spinner calculates the changes, this is not a blocking action. So we can select elements in Revit Canvas, or even we can zoom in, zoom out, or create elements while this calculation happens. Or even we can access different views. So this is not a blocking action while the changes are retrieved.

In a couple of moments, we are going to receive the information related to the changes for the structural Coordination Model. Once these changes are calculated, the elements, the structural elements that don't have changes, are displayed-- are grayed out. And the ones that have changes are colored. But let's take a look to the content of these Coordination Model changes.

First of all, we have the information related to the file that is linked as a Coordination Model. Then the path of the Coordination Model is presented in this tooltip-- is displayed. And a 3D view without floor-- this is the name of the view that was linked as a Coordination Model.

Then we have a section, which presents current version, which is version 2. And then we have a Compare To field that, in this case, is automatically filled to 1 because, by default, we calculate changes between the two latest consecutive versions. If we had version 3 for current version, we would be available to select version 2 and version 3. But in our case, we have only two versions so that we compare between them.

Then we have three buttons-- Added, Modified. Deleted. The Added button has a green color and identify the elements that were added between version 1 and version 2. The same with Modify. There are 147 elements that were modified between these two versions, and three elements-- coordination model elements that were deleted.

This overview of changes is calculated for the entire coordination model. So even if in-- even if in Revit Canvas, we see only the elements that belongs to the 3D floor plan level 2, the overview of changes is calculated for the entire model, for the entire building. So these changes are not adjusted based on the boundary or based on the scope box of the 3D floor of-- or to the active Revit view.

Now, if we want to better understand which elements were deleted, we can switch off by pressing the buttons Added and Modified. And we notice that, on the screen, we have highlighted only the deleted elements. If we want to revert back, we need to click on Added, Modified buttons again.

On the bottom side, we have this hierarchy of objects that display elements that have changes. For example, we have the [INAUDIBLE] category, structure framing, and structural rebar. If we explore the categories, we notice that we have more information and more categories.

If we select the entire category, walls, we will have on the screen, we notice, this pre-selection of the elements, of the walls from this 3D floor plan. This pre-selection can be controlled, or the color of the pre-selection can be controlled from the Revit Options, Colors. And here is the preselection color that can be adjusted. Right now, it's almost the same color as the selection. And sometimes, it may be confusing that when we press on the walls, the elements might be selected. Actually, they are pre-selected.

If we select only one item from the hierarchy of objects-- for example, this basic wall-- we notice that, in the screen, it's identified and pre-selected that object. Then we have a nice spot between this dot which is colored in orange, which gives us a clue that this object was modified. It's associated with the orange from modified pool. The same with the basic wall, which has the green one, and it is the objective wall that was added.

Then another information that is provided refers to these numbers that are displayed next to each category, 15313 represents the added objects. Five objects are modified, and three objects were deleted, which are part of this concrete [INAUDIBLE] category. Then in this dialogue, we have also a direct link to the help where we can find more useful information.

If we want to display changes for the HVAC model-- so for this IFC Coordination Model-- we have to select it in the Coordination Model Changes. And this is going to calculate and retrieve changes. Once this happens, we notice that the elements that have changes and belongs to the HVAC coordination model are highlighted in Revit Canvas.

Again, we have almost the same content-- the name of the file, then the path. Then we have this overview of changes with the current version and compare to, the Added, Modify, and Deleted buttons that works in the similar way that I have presented to you for the structural coordination model.

What I would like to highlight particularly is the hierarchy of objects that, this time, contains different categories. And for this, I'm going to extend the palette-- resize the Coordination Model Changes palette in order to see the entire hierarchy of objects.

For IFC particularly, we display the ID categories from the IFC. So what I would like to highlight, that it counts the type of the code in the file of the Coordination Model. So if it is an IFC, we display some categories. If there is an error, we will have another categories of the elements. And particular for IFC also, it's important from where this IFC file was exported.

If we select IFC Building Element Proxy, we notice that some elements are marked-- the ones that belongs to this category. It will come back in-- if we will open the 2D floor plan, we notice that those objects are also highlighted in 2D plans, as well. Actually, they are highlighted in any Revit views as elevation sections, DD, or structural plans, or floor plans. Even here, they can be explored and work in the same way that I have presented to you.

If we'll come back to the 3D floor plan and come back to the structural model, I'd like to highlight that, in the case that you are correct-- we are clicking on the Edit, Modify, Delete, then switch off all of these categories. The graphical representation of Coordination Model will come back to the initial state. The initial state is the state where those links were inserted in Revit application. The same behavior happens if you close the palette and the Coordination Model reverts to the default representation.

OK, that's the end of the live demo. And now we would like to provide a summary of what we have learned. Thank you.

LESLAW JANUS: Thank you, Mihaela, for the presentation. Let's now make a summary of what we have learned.

So we covered three main areas according to the initial objectives. Thus, it was presented how to leverage Autodesk Docs and Revit for seamless cloud coordination model linking to Revit. It was also showed how to monitor Coordination Model version changes for updated accurate designs in Revit and for modeling in the context. And finally, Mihaela showed how to filter changes in Revit, in Revit views, to focus on key areas of the Coordination Model and understand the changes-- changed elements in the models.

Let's take a look at some important things and at some important hints, and tips, and tricks. We divided them into some sections. So first relates to settings or prerequisites. So you have to have entitlements to Revit and Autodesk account to use the features. And to link a coordination model, it's enough to have a view only permission for a folder in Autodesk Docs. There is no need to upgrade a coordination model to a specific version to link it to Revit.

Talking about coordination models when they are linked into Revit, it's worth remembering that, first of all, this feature is available from Revit 2024. And you can also use some snap points to actually measure the distance between the references or position a Coordination Model in the view. And in the handout, you will find more comments about the snap points because there might have some limitations depending on the view where you are using the Coordination Models. And also, visual styles may have some limitations, especially if you work in the wireframe mode.

Now, focusing on Coordination Model Changes, please remember that this feature is available from Revit 2025. Quite useful is that Coordination Model Changes palette is a modeless dialog. It can be docked and undocked, placed on the other monitor and in the other place over the application. And you can work in Revit while some operations, like Changes calculation, is done in this palette.

And deleted elements-- deleted elements that are shown in the coordination models cannot be selected because they belong to the previous model. So we can see them. However, we can not click them, even to see the properties of this element. And please remember that if you apply the scope box, the view range, or other methods of filtering the view-- the Revit view-- the numbers in the Changes palette still shows the summary for the whole Coordination Model.

And as it was mentioned during the presentation, Changes calculation for Coordination Models are now calculated for models coming from four different file formats. So it's working for Coordination Models coming from RVT, DWG, IFC, and NWC. However, for two last file formats, it has to be provided by the authoring application-- stable IDs for the elements. So have the proper results for the Changes calculation.

And also, like on this screenshots, you may expect that the Coordination Changes palette will display the different content. And for example, in case of some issues, there will be displayed a dedicated message related to, for example, accessing, or to the network issues, or something else.

Before we end up this presentation, please take a look at these links to the learning resources. Additional materials can be found in the labs section for the same subject, including exemplary files, and also a handout. The documentation can be found both in Revit help and also in YouTube.

Please contribute to the development of this feature by leaving your feedback or leaving your ideas in Revit Forum and Autodesk Research Community. We want to gather as much as possible from you and include this in the further development of this feature. Thank you. We hope you find this presentation useful and informative. Please leave your comments, and share the presentation with others. Thank you very much.