Workplace Vs Project De | Help

UI: Workplace / Project selectors in the navigation and their respective Settings Audience: all users

What are Workplace and Project

BIMWorkplace organizes information into two hierarchical scopes:

Workplace
└── Project
    ├── CDE
    ├── Explorer
    ├── Design
    ├── Build
    ├── Management
    └── Insights

A Workplace is the top-level space where work organization, users, and shared resources are managed. A Workplace can contain multiple Projects.

A Project is the operational space for a construction project. It always belongs to a single Workplace and contains the members, configurations, and data specific to that project.

Simple rule: if something should be managed or reused across multiple projects, it tends to belong to the Workplace. If it belongs only to one project, it tends to belong to the Project.

Essential difference

	Workplace	Project
Main function	Governance, administration, and common resources	Work and information for a specific project
Hierarchy	Top-level	Exists within a Workplace
Users	Workplace members	Members assigned to the Project
Roles	Workplace roles	Project roles, assigned separately in each Project
Configuration examples	Subscription, Billing, Companies, Workplace Users, Attributes, Permissions, templates and credits	Project Info, Teams, Project Users, Naming Standards, Approval Flows, CDE Configuration and Meetings Policy
Data examples	Administrative data and shared resources	Models, Views, Topics, CDE documents and folders, reviews and other operational information

Workplace does not necessarily mean “company” or “contract”

A Workplace can be used to represent an organization, business unit, client, program, contract, or other collaboration context, depending on how the organization intends to structure BIMWorkplace.

Therefore, it should not be assumed that Workplace = company or Workplace = contract.

Project does not necessarily mean “phase”

A Project represents the operational context of a project. An organization may decide to create separate Projects for distinct phases, buildings, lots, or contracts, but this is an information organization decision and not a platform rule.

Relationship between Workplace and Project users

Access is managed in two layers:

the user belongs to the Workplace, where they have a Workplace role and the applicable modules/licenses;
to work on a specific Project, they must also be associated with that project, with their own Project role.

Consequently:

being in a Workplace does not mean having automatic access to all its Projects;
the same user can have different roles in different Projects;
a user may be able to see the Workplace but not a specific Project;
within the Project, final access may still depend on the module license, the Project role, and specific object permissions, such as CDE folders, Topics, or Views.

See Roles and permissions for the complete authorization model.

How context works in the interface

The navigation separately maintains the current Workplace and the current Project.

The Workplace is selected first.
The list of Projects then shows the Projects available in that Workplace.
The Project is selected.
Modules then operate within the context of that Project.

When changing Workplace, the previous Project context is removed before the Projects of the new Workplace are loaded. This prevents displaying data from a project belonging to another Workplace.

In the navigation, there are also separate accesses to:

Workplace Settings — Workplace configurations;
Project Settings — current Project configurations.

Where to configure each item

Workplace Settings

Examples of sections currently managed at the Workplace level:

Workplace Information;
Projects;
Companies;
Workplace Users;
Workplace Attributes;
Workplace Permissions;
Project Permissions;
Configurations Template;
Usage & Credits;
Enterprise API;
Billing Information;
Subscription.

Project Permissions appears in Workplace Settings because this is where the Project roles available in the Workplace are defined. The assignment of these roles to users is then done within the context of each Project.

Project Settings

Examples of sections currently managed at the Project level:

Project Info;
Teams;
Project Users;
Attributes Library;
Naming Standards;
Approval Flows;
Document Operational Statuses;
CDE Configuration;
Model Reference Remaps;
Configurations;
Meetings Policy.

Practical example

Imagine a Workplace called Hospital Central with three Projects:

Main Building;
Parking Lot;
External Infrastructure.

In the Workplace, for example, users, companies, subscription, roles, and common resources are managed.

Upon entering the Main Building Project, the Models, Topics, CDE documents, Teams, and configurations viewed are those of that Project. Switching to Parking Lot changes the operational context, although both remain within the same Workplace.

How to decide the correct scope

Ask yourself: “Should this apply to multiple Projects or only to the Project I am currently in?”

Multiple Projects / common administration → Workplace.
A specific Project → Project.
Exclusively personal preference → User Settings.

Common errors

“I see the Workplace but not the Project”

Having access to the Workplace is not enough. Confirm that the user is associated with the Project and that this association is active.

“I changed Workplaces and can no longer see the CDE/Design of the previous project”

This is the expected behavior. Modules operate within the context of the Project belonging to the currently selected Workplace.

“I have access to the Project but cannot use a module”

Access to the Project does not automatically grant all functionalities. The available license/module for the user, the Project role, the functionality's permissions, and, when applicable, specific object permissions, should be checked.

“Should I change Workplace Settings or Project Settings?”

Use Workplace Settings for administration and common definitions. Use Project Settings for the team, standards, workflows, and operational configuration of a specific Project.

Workplace vs Project