Real-time collaboration with Live Collaboration for Tekla Structures (Preview)

With Live Collaboration for Tekla Structures you can collaborate in real-time between 3D models without exporting or sharing any files. Live Collaboration brings a project team together to review work being carried out in Tekla Structures, Trimble Connect, and Autodesk Revit.

Tekla Structures 2025 introduces the Live Collaboration functionality as a Preview feature. In Trimble Connect, Live Collaboration is labeled as Beta. To find out more, see Preview features in Tekla Structures 2025.

As a part of the review process, Tekla Structures users can share their model modifications live to other Tekla Structures and Trimble Connect users in a Live Collaboration session, and see the modifications and the navigation of other collaborators in their Tekla Structures model. Model changes are visible to all collaborators, but each user can edit only their own model.

This means that you can see other users' model objects as an overlay among your model objects in Tekla Structures, but you cannot edit them or convert them to native Tekla Structures objects. This applies to Autodesk Revit as well. Trimble Connect users can also share models which are stored in the Trimble Connect project. Collaborators can then join the same session multiple times, from different applications, devices, or using different instances of the same application.

If you are using Tekla Model Sharing, you can use Live Collaboration, for example, for reviewing the Tekla Model Sharing model changes before writing them out.

Prerequisites for a live collaboration session

Before you can start using Live Collaboration, the following prerequisites must be met:

Your Tekla Structures model needs to be linked to a Trimble Connect project. See instructions here: Link a Tekla Structures model to a Trimble Connect project.
Invite your collaborators to the Trimble Connect project. All collaborators using either Tekla Structures or Trimble Connect need to be members of the same Trimble Connect project to be able to join the same Live Collaboration session. See instructions here: Inviting users.
In Trimble Connect for Browser 3D viewer, go to Settings and enable the Live Collaboration extension. The Live Collaboration functionalities then become available.

Start a live collaboration session in Tekla Structures

In the Tekla Structures side pane, click to open the Live Collaboration side pane window.
To start a live collaboration session, click the Start a session or join a session with a link button.

If needed, you can enter a name for the session. Otherwise the session name will consist of your username and the date of the session.

Sessions can be started both in Tekla Structures and in Trimble Connect for Browser 3D viewer. The same sessions appear in the list of sessions in the Live Collaboration side pane, regardless of the application where the session was started. Collaborators using Tekla Structures or Trimble Connect for Browser can then join the same session.

You can join any of the sessions that are visible in the side pane. The model names, collaborator names, and application names used are visible for each collaborator. To join an existing session, click next to the session name.

Collaborators can join the same session multiple times, from different applications, devices, or using different instances of the same application. If needed, you can also share the session link, for example, in a calendar invite or in an email.

Note that the sessions always take place within a single Trimble Connect project. To change the Trimble Connect project where the session happens, first unlink the Tekla Structures model from the current Trimble Connect project in File > Trimble Connect > Exclude from collaboration. Then, link the Tekla Structures model to a different Trimble Connect project.
When the session has started, click Share to add your model to the session and make it visible to other collaborators.

The shared model can also be empty.

Start working in the model or follow other collaborators.


To	Do this
Follow other collaborators' camera movements in the model	When the collaborator's model projection is set to perspective, the camera movements of the collaborator are shown for other collaborators as a head with a hard hat symbol , with the collaborator's name next to it If you are using the orthogonal projection in your model, the head with a hard hat symbol is not shown to your collaborators in the 3D view.
Use the side pane window to control some actions in the model	In the Live Collaboration side pane window, do the following: To follow another collaborator's camera movements in the model, click the Follow button next to the collaborator's name. The profile picture gets a blue highlight. To stop following your collaborator, click the profile picture again. To force other collaborators to follow your camera movements in the model, click the Enforce other participants to follow button. To stop the enforced following, click . When the enforced following is on and you select an object, a marker icon appears on top of the selected object. The icon is visible for all collaborators, and it indicates the selected object in the model. To hide other collaborators's hard hat symbols in the model, click the Hide avatars button. To make the symbols visible again, click . To hide temporary changes in the model, such as clip planes, markups, dimensions, measurements, and modifications in part colors and part transparency, click the Enter private space button. To exit the private space and make the changes visible again, click . To hide your own model objects and components or reference models in a session, click the Hide button next to the model's name. To make the model objects and components or reference models visible again, click . For full models, Hide makes all objects transparent (similar to Ctrl+5), and Show makes them fully visible (similar to Ctrl+4). For reference models, Hide makes the reference model invisible, and Show makes it visible. For Tekla Model Sharing models, using Hide for local changes makes the objects invisible, and Show makes them visible. To fit the model to the 3D view, click the three dots next to the model's name and select Fit to view. To give feedback of Live Collaboration and to help improve the tool, click the Submit feedback button in the upper right corner.
Share Tekla Model Sharing models	When you share a Tekla Model Sharing model in Live Collaboration, you can select which changes to publish to your collaborators. This can make it easier to review the model changes before writing them out. You can share the full model. You can share a partial model that contains all local changes since your last write out. These changes are labeled as "Changed by 'Your Name' Model name 'ModelName'". New and modified objects are highlighted with orange, deleted objects with red. For the highlighting to work reliably, ensure that you have set the frequency for the model upload to Write out in File > Trimble Connect > Upload model settings > Upload. You can share both the full model and your local changes.
Share reference models	Tekla Structures cannot share locally stored reference models in a session. Ensure that all reference models used by Tekla Structures are available in the Trimble Connect project. However, a collaborator joining from Trimble Connect can share a new 3D model in the project during a session.
Highlight the parts in a model that are zoomed in and selected	Zoom in and select parts in a model. The selected parts are highlighted in light blue, visible to all participants in the session, whether they are using Tekla Structures or Trimble Connect.
Join the same session in Trimble Connect for Browser 3D viewer	In Tekla Structures, go to the Trimble Connect ribbon tab and select For Browser > 3D view to open Trimble Connect for Browser 3D viewer. Join the session in the 3D viewer.
Invite other collaborators to the session In Trimble Connect for Browser 3D viewer	In Trimble Connect for Browser 3D viewer, click the Copy session link button and share the link with other collaborators. The collaborators need to be members of the Trimble Connect project to be able to join the session.
Add markups to the model in a session and share the markups in Trimble Connect for Browser 3D viewer	Join the same session in Trimble Connect for Browser 3D viewer and use the 3D viewer markup and measurement tools.

To leave the session, click .

If you want to return to a session, click next to the session name.
To delete a session, click next to the session name.

Compatibility in Tekla Structures and Trimble Connect

The following table lists some functionalities and their Live Collaboration compatibility in Tekla Structures and Trimble Connect.

Note that Live Collaboration is not compatible with multi-user mode in Tekla Structures. Only one user in a multi-user model can join a Live Collaboration session but the subsequent members cannot.


	Shared in Tekla Structures	Shared in Trimble Connect
Clip planes	Yes	Yes
Clip boxes	No	No
Working with Tekla Model Sharing	Yes Tekla Model Sharing models can be used between several Tekla Structures instances in Live Collaboration sessions.	n/a Tekla Model Sharing models are shared to Trimble Connect but Trimble Connect does not have any Tekla Model Sharing features available.
Modifications in part colors	Yes	Yes
Hidden parts	Yes	Yes
Shared markups	Incomplete Some functionalities not working as expected.	Yes
Shared measurements	Incomplete Some functionalities not working as expected.	Yes