What is Tekla Model Sharing

Tekla Structures
2021
Tekla Structures

What is Tekla Model Sharing

Tekla Model Sharing enables efficient global collaborative modeling within one Tekla Structures model. Tekla Model Sharing gives users the freedom to work with the same model at the same time in different locations and time zones.

With Tekla Model Sharing you can work locally and share the model changes globally. For example, one Tekla Model Sharing team of users can work in New York, one in London and one in Bangkok. They all contribute to the same model, working around the globe during their office hours in different time zones while the model keeps building up all the time.

In Tekla Model Sharing each user has a local version of the model on their computer or on a network drive, and the model data is shared and synchronized over the Internet using a Microsoft Azure cloud sharing service. When a model is shared, it is connected to the cloud-based sharing service. You can check the status of the service at any time.

To easily share your model changes, write out them to the sharing service. When you want to update your model with the changes made by other users, read in the changes from the sharing service.

Even though the changes are shared over the Internet, you do not need to be connected to the sharing service all the time. You need to be online only when you want to write out or read in the changes. This enables offline work if your Internet connection is not always available.

Note:

Tekla Model Sharing requires a single-user model.

A model cannot be simultaneously shared and used in multi-user mode. If you want to start using multi-user mode as a means to share your model instead of Tekla Model Sharing, you need to first exclude your local version of the model from the sharing service and then convert it to a multi-user model.

The excluded model has no connection to the original shared model in the sharing service. This means that if you exclude your local version of the model from the sharing service and start to use the model in multi-user mode, you cannot later merge the original shared model and the multi-user model.

Prerequisites for Tekla Model Sharing

Before you can start using Tekla Model Sharing and share your models, the following prerequisites need to be met:

  • Internet connection

    You need to establish a connection to the Tekla Model Sharing service to perform any model sharing actions.

    • TCP port 443 (the default HTTPS) outbound must be open.

      If an HTTP proxy is used, it must support HTTP 1.1.

  • Trimble Identity

    All sharing actions require authentication, and the authentication is done with Trimble Identity username and password.

    If you do not have a Trimble Identity, go to Tekla Online services and click Log in.

  • License

    All sharing actions require a valid Tekla Model Sharing license. Tekla Model Sharing licenses are tied to users' Trimble Identities. The organization's administrator assigns and manages the licenses in the Tekla Online Admin Tool.

  • Tekla Structures

    The users of the same shared model need to have the same Tekla Structures version, and use the same latest service pack.

Tekla Model Sharing licenses

Tekla Model Sharing requires a valid Tekla Model Sharing license.

Tekla Model Sharing licenses are assigned and managed in the Tekla Online Admin Tool. To obtain a Tekla Model Sharing license, contact your organization's administrator. For details about model sharing licenses, see Manage user accounts for Tekla products.

Tekla Model Sharing uses enterprise-type licenses that are purchased as a yearly subscription. The license use is limited to a maximum number of concurrent users.

A license is reserved when a user starts read in or write out in a shared model. Note that users can work on a shared model offline without reserving a license. Licenses can be temporarily assigned outside of your organization to any users. Having several shared models open on the same computer only reserves one license.

If a user does not perform any operations that use the Tekla Model Sharing service (such as write out your changes or read in changes made by other users), their session closes in eight hours, and Tekla Structures releases the Tekla Model Sharing license within three hours. We recommend that each user shuts down Tekla Structures at the end of the day to close the session and release the Tekla Model Sharing license sooner.

The configuration, type, and maintenance status of your Tekla Structures license has no effect on your Tekla Model Sharing license. Keep track of the number of licenses and users as well as your license expiration dates to ensure continued service.

How Tekla Model Sharing uses the sharing service

When you start to share a model using Tekla Model Sharing, the model is connected to the cloud-based sharing service.

  • To send model changes to the sharing service, you need to write out.

  • To fetch other users' model changes from the sharing service, you need to read in.

When you read in other users' changes, the updates to your local version of the shared model are delivered to you as incremental packets. This means that when you read in, the data that is fetched from the sharing service is merged with the data on your computer. You need to read in all shared changes before you can write out your own changes to the sharing service.

Note that there is no central model in the sharing service as such, only a model instance that consists of a model baseline and incremental updates. You cannot open the model in the sharing service or access any files.

The image below shows how the model data is stored to the sharing service. Each user fetches the model data from the sharing service to their local versions of the model when they read in. User authentication is based on Trimble Identity.

Note:

You can install a separate Tekla Model Sharing Cache service that downloads and caches the model changes on behalf of the Tekla Structures client workstations. The cache service speeds up the workflow as users can fetch the changes to their local versions of the model from the LAN instead of the Tekla Model Sharing sharing service. The cache service is useful especially when there are at least two Tekla Model Sharing users in the same office, and in regions where the download speed may be limited.

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