In short, the workflow in Tekla Model Sharing has the following phases:

1. Downloading the cache service

   If needed, the person who plans to share a model downloads the Tekla Model Sharing Cache service from Tekla Downloads.

   The Tekla Model Sharing cache service downloads and caches the model changes on behalf of the Tekla Structures client workstations. Downloading the cache service speeds up working, as users can fetch the changes to their local versions of the model from the LAN instead of the Tekla Model Sharing sharing service.

2. Sharing the model to other users

   The model owner shares a single-user model and invites users to join the model.

   To share a model, open the single-user model that you want to share, or create a new single-user model.

   Before you can start sharing your models in Tekla Model Sharing, you need to be signed in with your Trimble Identity in Tekla Structures. If you are not signed in, the Trimble Identity sign in dialog box opens.

   To start sharing the model, go to File > Sharing > Start sharing to open the Start sharing dialog box. You can invite other users to join the model and send an email invitation to them, or you can add users later. When you start sharing, you become the Owner of the model.

   When you start sharing the model, a model baseline is uploaded to the sharing service. The baseline is a snapshot of the current state of the model. A new baseline is typically created once a week. Joining the baseline is beneficial for users who join the model when many changes have already been made.

   When a model is shared, it is connected to a cloud-based sharing service. Each user of the model has a local version of the model on their computer or on a network drive.

3. Joining the model

   The invited users accept the invitations they have received.

   You can either join a model someone has shared with you, or you can start sharing your own model. The shared model has an Owner who can invite other users to the model. The Owner can send an email notification to the invited users.

   You can also join a model you have been invited to without the email notification. You will find all the shared models in which you are a user in File > Sharing > Browse shared models. Just select the model from the list, and click Join. The model is downloaded, and you can start working with it.

4. Working on the model

   The invited users can start working on the model offline.

   You do not need to sign in with your Trimble Identity every time you want to work on a shared model. When you have joined the model, you can work offline, provided that you are using the same Windows account as you did when you joined the model.

5. Sharing and downloading changes

   You need an internet connection to download other people's changes to the model and share your own changes.

   1. Downloading changes made by other users

      To keep your model up to date, you need to read in the changes other users have made to the model from the sharing service. Only the changed data is read in to the model.

      To read in, you can either go to File > Sharing > Read in, or click on the Quick Access Toolbar.

      The Read in icon shows the number of packets that are available to be read in. Each packet contains one or more changes made by another user. After reading in all the packets, the changes are listed in a table at the bottom of the screen.

      The changes are color-coded:

      • Red for deleted objects
      • Yellow for modified objects
      • Green for new objects
   2. Sharing your changes to other users

      When you have made changes to your local model, you can share your changes to other users of the model by writing out the changes to the sharing service.

      Before you write out, you always need to read in any changes made by other users first. This is done to solve any conflicting changes made by other users.

      After you have read in, you will see a green arrow on the Write out icon . You can now write out your changes.

      When you write out, only the changes that you have made are sent to the sharing service. These changes are then available for other users to read in.

   Typically, you want to read in other users' changes and write out your changes a couple of times a day to keep everyone updated. Model changes are collected to packets that are very fast to download and upload.

6. Track the progress of the project

   Users with the Owner role can create new starting points, or baselines, for the model. Baselines make the model faster and easier to join for new users, and allow tracking the progress in the model.

For a user to participate in a shared model, the model owner must invite the user to the model.

Any user who has a valid Tekla Model Sharing license can be invited to a shared model. The user's Tekla Online organization membership does not affect which models the user can work in or be invited to.

Tekla Model Sharing has four roles that define what a user can do in a shared model.

• When you share your model, you automatically get the Owner role. Typically, there are one or two owners who can control everything in the shared model.

  As the model owner, you can invite more users to your shared model and assign appropriate roles for them. The users of a model and their roles are listed in File > Sharing > Users.

• Editor can perform all modeling and drawing tasks.
• Viewer is for those who just want to follow up on the project.
• Project viewer is for those who use the model information and need to update the fabrication status, for example.

The permissions of each role:

In addition to the Owner, the company administrator can list all the shared models of the organization, and the users and their roles in the web-based Management Console for Tekla Model Sharing. The administrator can change the roles in Management Console without opening Tekla Structures.