If you’re in the AEC space, you probably know that UNIFI is one of the leading content management platforms for sharing BIM objects. We are most known for our tight integration with Revit; you can even now store Revit materials in your libraries (more to come on this in next week’s blog post).
Although our platform is built specifically for managing BIM elements, people tend to forget that you can technically store virtually any filetype in your UNIFI libraries as well. Even our users who store content other than Revit families will typically store other CAD or BIM file formats such as 3DM, DWG, DGN, SKP, or even DYN.
But what about storing other files? Can our platform be used to store Word documents, PDFs, or Excel files? Short answer; yes.
Why Should I Store My Files in UNIFI?
UNIFI is known for making it easy to find and use BIM content, however we have several features that make storing your other files in your UNIFI libraries enticing. Here are the top three reasons why you should move some of your documents away from your archaic Windows file folder structure and into UNIFI.
1. Meta Data
One of our most popular features in UNIFI is our tagging functionality. Tags give you the ability to to apply metadata to any of your content in your libraries. This means that your Word Documents, PDFs, and Excel files can have any number of tags assigned to them, allowing your team to find them in an infinite number of ways. For example, a BIM Execution Plan stored as a Word Document might have tags such as “BIM Standards”, “Processes”, “Documentation”, “Project Kickoff”, etc. By using multiple tags in this fashion, you’re making it easier for your team to find.
In contrast, storing your files in a folder on your network drive means the file can only be found in one place.
2. Permissions Control
In UNIFI you have the ability to control permissions per library. Company administrators have the rights to grant (or restrict) access to content without the help of your IT department. Each library’s administrators have the rights to approve or reject content before it is published within the library.
Managing these types of permissions at a library level can make controlling read and write access much easier than dealing with folder permissions on your network drive.
On our platform, all content is automatically version-controlled. Anytime a document is revised and re-uploaded to your library, we’ll automatically create a new version and track who made the change and when. You can even add a note so that the rest of the team knows what was changed in the new version.
Many official documents such as standards manuals and guidelines have versioning (e.g., v4.0.1), so why not use Unifi to automatically track these versions for you, complete with the ability to roll back to a previous version?
These are only three features that I believe can help you manage your non-BIM content in UNIFI. Some other features worth mentioning that can be of use when storing documents in our platform are star-ratings, favorites, and saved searches. All features that are designed to make it easier to find your content. I encourage you to upload a few of your documents and see if it works for you and your team. Start with your BIM standards manual or perhaps some other versioned documentation.
Have you been using UNIFI to store your non-BIM content as well? Leave us a comment and let us know how your experience has been!