A while back, I conducted extensive research into Revit content management tools. I was commissioned by Unifi to do this, and I told the story of the process over here. You can also watch the related webinar here. Over the last couple of years, some of you have approached me to gain access to the master Excel comparison matrix document that I produced. Recently, Jay Merlan updated this document on behalf of Unifi and it has now been approved for public release!

Here is a link to download a ZIP archive containing the Excel document.

Data Entry and Scoring Matrix

The document is very detailed and consists of a number of key sections:

  • Matrix – where data is entered and initial scores are calculated. This includes a ‘feature weight’ where you can allocate how important a given feature is to you personally.
  • Screencasts – links to actually tests undertaken
  • Test Results – summary sheet
  • Cost data – a series of sheets for attempting to compare and calculate overall cost of the content management system
  • Summary Pivot Tables and Charts
  • Overall Summary Chart
Summary PivotChart

 

As it is an Excel document using Formulas and Pivot Tables, it could be a very powerful starting point for you to dig in and investigate the various features of Revit and BIM Content Management systems and Content Providers. I hope you find it useful!

Feel free to comment here with any of your thoughts, and if you have any questions about the document and how it works.

Main benchmark categories:

  • Added Value Data 1 – AD1.
  • Batch Tests 1  – BT1.
  • Capability Tests 1 – CT1.
  • Company Info and Support Data – CD1.
  • Feature Comparison Data 1 – FD1.
  • Management Capability Scores 1 – MS1.
  • Management Feature Data 1 – MD1.
  • Metadata Tests 1 – MT1.
  • Speed Tests 1 – SP1.
  • Stability Tests 1 – ST1.
  • User Experience Data 1 – UX1.
  • User Experience Data 2 – Bad – UX2.

Information categories:

  • Company
  • Content
  • Cost
  • Deployment
  • Development
  • Management
  • Platform
  • Revit integration
  • Software
  • Support
  • User

Here’s how:

The following command should successfully silent deploy Unifi 3.1.1 to your network.

msiexec /I Unifi-admin.msi /qn

Download the Unifi .msi at:

http://installer.discoverunifi.com/Unifi-admin.msi

 

Below is a GPO:

Install:
wusa.exe Windows6.1-KB2819745-x64-MultiPkg.msu /quiet /norestart

Detection Clause:
File Exists C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\Powershell.exe
Version = 6.3.9600.16406

(via email)

Whenever you are looking to implement a new technology in your firm, you typically go through a few steps:

  1. Figure out what is out there in the marketplace – What products are available?
  2. Collect data about all of the technologies that may suit your use case
  3. Rigorously compare and analyse all the data
  4. Make a decision and go for it

There are some excellent content management tools out there for Revit now, so how can you choose? I went through a very comprehensive research analysis of a number of Revit CMS platforms, and I posted about the process here.

Then I caught up with Steve Germano over at Unifi to talk about the results. You can view (or just listen) to it here:

Feel free to comment here with your thoughts and we can keep the conversation going!

Recently I undertook a very detailed and intensive research project focused on BIM and Revit Content Management Systems. The results of that research will eventually become fully available… In fact it will be discussed in detail at an upcoming webinar (register here).

The research covered a range of product categories including Revit Integration and Management features. However, it also considered the cost and ROI of various content management systems. On a related note, I was very happy to hear that Unifi have now released  UNIFI Standard, a content management solution for firms with less than 30 design staff, offered at the very attractive $14/month. Basically, as a smaller firm you can still afford to access a lot of the awesome Unifi Content Management features, but there are service level differences that mean it makes more sense for larger firms to stick with UNIFI Enterprise.

For more information about the UNIFI solutions, check out the media release here, and to learn more about the webinar have a look at this page.

Key details on the new offering:

  • name: UNIFI Standard
  • for firms with less than 30 design staff.
  • licensing model is named user – each person is assigned a license
  • price is $14/user/month
  • there are service level differences between Standard and Enterprise (level of support, customer/account management, onboarding services, SSO integration) although both products have access to the same content management features.

UNIFI Enterprise remains for firms who need more than 30 licenses and it will have two licensing models – active users or open/concurrent licenses.  The pricing will be dependent on what type of license and how many are needed.

Here’s how you can get the new ‘Channels’ to show up in Unifi so you can immediately start using all of this free, new content:

  1. Ensure you are running Unifi Desktop app version 2.2 or newer.
  2. Log in at Log In : UNIFI Portal (you will have to be an admin)
  3. Click on Subscriptions
  4. Click on ‘Subscribe’ next to the Channel you want to use

  5.  Flick the switch to allow user groups to have access

  6. Back in the Unifi Desktop App… we can now search across the newly added channel

This shows how the ability of Unifi to search across channels and libraries is quite powerful indeed…

Just right-click on any content to Copy it to one of your own libraries (if you want to edit or add extra shared parameters):

You can also see some of this process in this video:

    We all know Revit is the best, right?

    But … there are a handful of people using other platforms 🙂 And I guess even the most dedicated Revit user has to use other content creation tools from time to time. That is why UNIFI has decided to develop and release multiformat support, initially for these platforms:

    multiformat_support-1-9274348

    Also, UNIFI are offering a free copy of their “How To Create and Maintain BIM Standards” guide to everyone who registers for their upcoming webinar. Here are the details:

    • full title is:  “Accelerating ROI from Your Firm’s BIM Investment By Leveraging Analytics To Effectively Implement and Maintain Your BIM Standards
    • date and time:  May 3rd at 11amPT

    Find out more and register here

    BIM breeds information. In many cases, we probably generate too much Bimformation. It can become difficult to manage and analyse all of it. When it comes to content specifically, Unifi have already provided a brilliant solution for storing, distributing and accessing your Revit and BIM content, and it comes with lots of nice features.

    But what about Reporting and Analysis? What is the point of a cloud content repository, without a cloud web app? Why can’t we manage our content outside of Revit, and make it useful and accessible to everyone in our company?

    Happily, Unifi have developed a new portal web app that aims to do all of those things. And, it looks really really nice so far 🙂

    But what is it, how does it work, and how can it help you manage your content more efficiently? Steve Germano, Chief Development Officer at INVIEW labs, has given me a sneak Alpha peek, prior to its imminent release next week at AU2015. The word is that it will be going live to Beta next Monday… shhhh 🙂

    When it launches officially, you should be able to find it here:
    https://app.discoverunifi.com

    So, what can the Unifi app do? After logging in, the left sidebar provides links to a number of main screens:

    sidebar-3886723

    Dashboard
    This is a one-page summary of all of the other portal pages. It gives you a quick overview of Unifi and general content use in your firm. Keep in mind that this portal is gathering live data from all of the users of Unifi across your entire firm. You may have hundreds of users in many offices worldwide, and all of the interesting information comes together here, in one place. Also, there are lots more data visualizations coming in 2016…

    dashboard1-7263288

    Analytics
    Here you can see recent popular searches across your company content, along with a Top 10 of recent downloads. These metrics are invaluable for being able to determine what content is most utilised by those working at your firm. What’s your Most Popular Family? This type of information has previously been a matter of rumour, but now we have real data to back it up.

    analytics1-8278711

     

    analytics2-5263894

    Analytics – Reports: This piece isn’t quite ready for the wild yet, but specific reports will be able to be generated and accessed from the web app in coming updates.

    Notifications
    On this page, you can see what content has been requested and the recent uploads that have occurred:

    notifications1-9572246

    Also, it allows you to manage content requests and submissions, such as:

    • Batch and Single file upload review and
    • Approve / Reject
    • Content Request review process workflow


    Libraries

    This area of the site is still under construction, but a recent ‘leak’ from Unifi has already revealed that they are going to allow inter-company sharing of Libraries. This is a huge deal! Rather than hoarding content in our individual silos, we could establish a more open approach. And maybe this provides a new way for professional content creators to deliver good content to a large audience of consumers. I noticed that Aaron Maller already expressed interest… this could provide a way for guys like him to share and maintain a quality set of content for small-medium offices, possibly with a reasonable price tag attached?

    This Library sharing has been born out of real-world demand, and here is what Steve has to say about it:
    This is completely new to our industry, the ability to share a library of BIM content with a partner/consultant for a project use can raise the consistency of data in BIM models across the world. One of our biggest beneficiaries of this feature is building owners directly, who will take their inhouse libraries and share them with consultants across the globe who are working on delivering designs for their properties. This enhances the total usable data across their portfolio, seamlessly, efficiently, and at global scale.

    libraries1-2050845

    You will also be able to move content from library to library.

    Tags
    I have to admit, this seemingly simple feature is to me one of the most powerful things we have seen in Revit content management in recent years. It essentially allows you to manage and add intelligence to your content without having to be in the Revit environment. It also allows you to browse your content using all of the nice, intelligent tags that Unifi has automatically added for you. Imagine spending some of your time directly adding tags to content, which is in effect making your entire content database more intelligent, with benefits to all downstream users.

    Available functions:

    • Search across tags
    • Batch apply tags
    • Edit tags
    • Remove tags
    • Merge tags
    • Rename tags etc.

    tags1-8140223

    Consider this scenario:
    you could be sitting on a bus or train wondering if your firm has a specific piece of content. You start browsing using the Unifi Portal, and you click through a few tags trying to find the content that you want. Then, you decide to check out the Notifications to see if anyone else has requested this piece of content recently – perhaps it is already under construction by one of the professional family creators at your firm? You can see that a similar piece of content has almost reached completion, so you go home happy, knowing that the exact family you need should be built and ready in the morning for you

    So, here is my current Favourite Features in the Unifi web app:

    • Ability to view a one page snapshot of the content utilization in your entire firm
    • Ability to share content libraries between companies (more details at AU2015…)
    • Batch edit tags for your Revit library from anywhere in a web browser!

    Also, some more cool stuff coming in 2016:

    • User Management (batch utility) – adding in the ability to add/remove users from user groups with the same intuitive interface
    • Licensing – New payment portal and processing
    • Project Data!

    Personally, I have enjoyed working along with Unifi for a while now, so sometimes I take for granted that people know who Unifi is and what they are about. If you are new to Unifi, and if you want to know more about recent developments, this little Q and A provided by Unifi may help…
    ____

    Unifi mission statement: The essential platform to organize, analyze, and distribute the worlds Revit data.

    Why did we build the Unifi web app?
    To provide a web app that would be globally accessible from any device. Our customers have consistently requested to have instant access to workflow task alerts and other realtime analytics that may need their attention. The Unifi web app provides a home for an abundance of analytics, reports, and batch utilities.

    What type of analytics and reports are available in the Unifi web app?
    At the time of launching the beta we are providing usage analytics on every piece of content, by every user, in every library, across your entire firm. You will be able to visualize not only usage, but user ratings on your content which is one of the key indicators to quality across your library. On almost every page there is a “Reports” section with a list of various reports you can view. The intent is to provide slices of commonly requested data analytics that will be useful to firms. Want to know which content is rated the lowest across a particular library, or see which employees are actively rating and providing feedback on content, or which library of content is being used most, there is a report for it.

    Each report can be easily customized in the web app so you can drill down to see just the exact data you would like to. Interoperability is also important to our customers and is why we have provided formatted exporting and printing capabilities for reports.

    We currently have around 40 premade reports planned to roll out early 2016 to all customers, and will be taking requests during the beta period.

    Who can access the Unifi web app?
    Currently the app is limited to only the Company Administrators in a firm. As the Beta period progresses access for Library Admins and normal Users will be added. We have plans to add value for normal level users around the areas of content discovery and other project related data and analytics.

    How does the Library Sharing feature work?
    “Collaborative” Library sharing is the ability for two Unifi companies to share a library amongst their teams. This feature has been a high request from various customers who would like to collaborate for specific projects with their partner design firms. We also have building owners who want to own their own core library of content to maintain consistency in the data they will receive from their various building designs. Library sharing allows them to share their library of core Revit content with various design teams for easy access and use amongst their design projects. Unifi provides them the ability to maintain consistent data from their portfolio of properties which can be mined and used for the operational phases of the building. There are many use cases for this sharing type and we are currently exploring the value of this feature with several various stakeholders within the BIM lifecycle.

    There are two other Library sharing types coming to the portal soon. In addition to “Collaborative”, firms will be able to share a library as “Patron/Client which has a limited permission set, and also a “Public” library where any firm can discover and subscribe to a published Public library. Lots more about this coming in 2016!

    What else is planned for the Unifi web app?
    A library analysis tool – We need to provide better tools for our customers during the initial setup phase of a firm implementing Unifi. The first thing every customer wants to do is “purge” their existing library by manually going through and evaluating thousands of families. This is a lengthy time consuming process. We believe we can assist this process by providing an automated QA tool directly in our cloud.

    More batch tools – Batch file renaming utility, Batch moving content from library to library, and a batch user management utility. We understand that in order to properly manage dozens of offices, personnel, and their access to tens of thousands of pieces of content you need the right tools to do so and we plan to make those tools intuitive and a joy to use.

    The “stage 2” of our platform maturation includes several other large scale value adds for our existing customer, and new markets which will all in some form or fashion be integrated into the Unifi web app. There’s a lot of exciting projects planned!

    To summarize, the Unifi team is very excited to start providing the necessary tools, analytics, and access for design firms to organize, analyze and distribute their Revit content globally in an effort to make Unifi an essential tool for every Revit user.
    ____

    Learn more soon at AU2015

    au2015-2296013

    Unifi 1.6 is out today, with support for Revit 2016. If you want to automatically update Unifi before you open Revit, simply add a Unifi shortcut to Windows Startup, like this:

    Note: depending on your currently installed version, it may be more appropriate to launch from:
    “C:UsersUSERNAMEAppDataLocalINVIEWlabsUnifiLauncherUnifi.exe”

    The next time you open Revit, Unifi will already be nice and updated and ready to go.

    If you are wondering “What is Unifi anyway?”, check out my review at this link.

    I’ve been waiting for this one for a while…
    Admin Automation Features, Batch Delete, & More

    This release added several Administrator related functions for managing hundreds of users with ease. A new warnings section has been added to assist Admins with identifying users without access to libraries. New batch delete feature added to enhance library management duties.

    You can read the full release notes here: https://www.discoverunifi.com/release-notes.html#version-153

    via email…

    My top three new features:

    • Revit 2015 Integration – export from Revit 2015, and easily load families straight into 2015 projects
    • keep your legacy content available for older projects while still being able to take advantage of new Revit features
    • Library Reports – export to CSV

    Tip: if you want to create a Saved Search for a given tag, use [tag name] in the Search term box. The square brackets tell Unifi to search tags.

    Release notes

    To learn more about Unifi, click the banner at top right or check out my previous post:
    New way to Share, Store and Search Your Revit Content

    Exact version number as of today v1.5.0.35051