Understanding Sharing Drawings in a Collaborative Environment

In a collaborative environment, multiple users can work and access drawings from any device, at any time.

The users can view or edit drawings, using any of the three products, according to the given permissions.

Store your projects on a Cloud Storage and use the Cloud application to share them with other users. Once drawings are shared, the users can open them in the Desktop application or Cloud application and use them according to the assigned permissions.

• The Desktop application allows creating and editing drawings from the local drive as well as from the Cloud Storage.
• The Cloud application allows opening shared drawings for viewing and editing.

Working in a Collaborative Way

Use the Desktop application to create and edit drawings and the Cloud application to share drawings and open them on different devices.

To use the Desktop application in a collaborative way, do the following:

• Get your projects to the cloud

  Use Cloud Storage services to store your drawings and to allow multiple users to access them.

• Connect your Cloud Storages to the Cloud application

  Connect your Cloud Storages in one central place. Once the connection is established, you can open your drawings in the Desktop application, as well as in the Cloud application.

• Share the drawings

  Use the Cloud application to share the stored drawings with your colleagues, specifying also the necessary permissions. Additionally, you can make a drawing publicly available by generating a unique URL and send it to other users. The URL allows view-only access to any user who has the link, without signing in to the application.

• Work with the drawings

  Once the drawings are shared, the users can access the drawings according to the given permissions.

  • Users with editing rights can edit the drawings with the Desktop application or Cloud application.
  • Users with viewing rights can open the drawings in view-only mode in the Desktop application, as well as in the Cloud application.
  • Users who received the public link can open the drawing to view it with the Cloud application, in a web browser. A Graebert Account is not necessary in this case.

Operations for Working with Cloud Storage Services

The following table lists the operations for working with Cloud Storage services:

In the Desktop application, you can:	In the Cloud application, you can:
Display the list of folders and files stored on a specified Cloud Storage Filter the current list of files	Display the list of folders and files stored on a specified Cloud Storage Filter the current list of files Search drawings in all connected Cloud Storage services
Create drawings	Create drawings
Save drawings to your Cloud Storage as well as on your local drive Download drawings with your colleagues	Upload drawings to your Cloud Storage Download drawings for offline use Note: The Cloud application saves the drawing automatically.
Share the drawings publicly	Share the drawings with your colleagues
Open your own drawings as well as the drawings that other users have shared with you	Open your own drawings as well as the drawings that other users have shared with you
Edit your own drawings as well as the drawings that other users have shared with you with editing rights	Edit your own drawings as well as the drawings that other users have shared with you with editing rights

Editing Shared Drawings in the Desktop Application

In the Desktop application, users with editing permissions can make changes in any drawing that has been shared with them.

When two or more users have editing permissions for the same drawing, they might want to edit the drawing at the same time.

The following is applied to avoid conflicts:

• To prevent editing conflicts, only one user can edit one drawing at a time. As long as a user works on a drawing in edit mode, all other users can access the drawing in view-only mode, regardless of their permissions.

  Important: The Cloud application does not block open drawings from editing with other CAD applications or from sharing them using Cloud Storage features. Be aware that such changes are not synchronized.

• To prevent blocking user access by keeping a drawing open in editing mode without making any changes, the application switches the drawing to view-only mode, after 25 minutes of inactivity. The drawing is automatically saved on the Cloud Storage and another user can edit it. The application displays a warning.
• After 25 minutes of inactivity, users are automatically disconnected. The drawing is automatically saved on your local drive. The latest changes that were not saved are not synchronized with the shared drawing.

They are using ARES Commander to create and edit drawings and ARES Kudo to share the drawings and view them on different devices.