Role guides¶
BimZone has two role layers. The workspace role says what you may do to the company account; the project role says what you may do inside one project. The seven personas below are ways of working; each is mapped onto the real roles the product ships, and nothing here invents a role.
| Layer | Roles (as shipped) | Where set |
|---|---|---|
| Workspace | owner · admin · member | Workspace settings › Members |
| Project | Admin · Upload Engineer · Inspector · Viewer | Project settings › Members & roles |
The product's own summary (Project settings › Members & roles › Role capabilities):
- Admin — everything: clash runs, search sets, sessions, plans, integrations, share links.
- Upload Engineer — uploads models & point data, creates issues and RFIs.
- Inspector — uploads 360° photos, runs inspections, raises photo-linked issues.
- Viewer — full 3D navigation and read access, no writes.
Coordination meetings (Clash Detection › Meetings) add per-session hats — facilitator, reviewer, attendee — that are assigned inside the meeting, not in settings.
Project Admin¶
Real roles: workspace admin (or owner) + project Admin.
Owns: project creation and configuration, members and roles, georeferencing and GIS layers, custom fields and issue templates, automation rules, CDE configuration and folder access, scheduled reports, share links, integrations (connect / disconnect / sync / resolve conflicts), clash tests and ownership settings, versions sessions, sheet upload and calibration, asset registry, spaces, progress recompute and snapshots, model deletion, sensor decommissioning, Copilot model status.
First week: 1. Create the project and add members with the right roles. 2. Upload the first model; set georeferencing (Prefill from IfcSite). 3. Decide CDE naming enforcement and suitability codes; set folder access if the project has confidential folders. 4. Define custom fields / issue templates the team needs; add discipline owner rules for clashes. 5. Connect integrations if the client uses ACC or Procore; set up a scheduled progress report.
Approval duties: admins may reopen a Verified issue, Archive documents and models, and close safety incidents. Admins are still bound by maker-checker — an admin who uploaded a document cannot publish it, an admin who raised an issue cannot verify it.
Read: every module page; Automation; Integrations.
BIM / Coordination¶
Real roles: project Admin (to create and run clash tests, edit ownership settings, triage clashes, run coordination meetings) or Upload Engineer (to upload models, raise issues/RFIs).
Owns: models and versions, the viewer, search sets and saved views, clash tests, triage and coordination meetings, issues and BCF exchange, RFIs, IDS conformance runs, the digital twin.
Daily loop: upload/reconvert → run the clash test → triage (assign owners, suppress noise, escalate to issues) → verify in 3D → export BCF for the design team → re-run after the next model issue → Re-score if the matrix changed.
Approval duties: closing decisions on a clash cannot be made by its owner or reviewer; issue verification needs a second person.
Read: Models & viewer; Issues, RFIs & clashes; CDE › Versions.
Site / Field¶
Real roles: Inspector (inspections, photos and pins, photo-linked issues, WIRs, change orders, site diary, sheet markup, walkthrough videos) or Upload Engineer (also MARs, issues from anywhere, sheet pins, walkthrough videos; not inspections).
Owns: inspections and punch lists, WIRs against the ITP, MAR submittals, incident reporting, the site diary, reality capture (photos, pins, walkthrough videos — floor plans are Admin), progress observations, markup on sheets (sheet pins need Upload Engineer or Admin).
On a tablet: the app works offline for photos, comments, markup and diary entries — they queue and upload when the signal returns; the Offline copy on the project overview bundles the sheets, plans, recent photos and registers for a day with no signal.
Approval duties: you cannot decide your own WIR, approve your own MAR or approve your own change order; an Inspector decides WIRs raised by others.
Read: Field; CDE › Sheets.
Document Controller¶
Real roles: Upload Engineer (upload, share, issue transmittals) with an Admin partner for archiving and CDE/folder configuration.
Owns: the document register and its states, review rounds, suitability and revision, the drawing register and issue sheet, transmittals and acknowledgements, sheet uploads (with an Admin), naming enforcement.
Weekly loop: upload → open review rounds → chase reviewers → share/publish (a second person) → set suitability & revision → issue transmittals → watch acknowledgements → archive superseded revisions.
Approval duties: the uploader can never share, publish, approve or reject their own document — plan the roster so every document has a second controller or reviewer.
Read: CDE, documents & sheets.
Commercial / Cost¶
Real roles: Upload Engineer (schedule import, links, rate libraries, change orders) with Admin for dependencies, actual-cost import, pushing quantities to the programme and progress snapshots.
Owns: the programme and its logic, activity-to-model links, earned value and risk, the bill of quantities, rate libraries and publishing, actual-cost booking, pushing quantities to the programme, change orders, accounting connector context.
Monthly loop: set the status date → import actual costs → read SPI/CPI/EAC → capture a progress snapshot → publish a new rate-library version if prices moved → raise change orders for scope variance.
Approval duties: a change order is approved by a project Admin other than its submitter; a published rate version cannot be edited (create a new version).
Read: 4D & 5D; Field › Change orders.
Management / Reporting¶
Real roles: project Viewer (read everything) or Admin (to configure scheduled reports and snapshots); workspace admin for access reviews and billing.
Owns: the dashboard portfolio view, Analytics and its exports, scheduled progress reports, anomaly insights, the audit log, access reviews.
Weekly: open the Dashboard (portfolio KPIs) → each project's Analytics (issue velocity, RFI response, clash trend, S-curve) → Progress report PDF or wait for the scheduled email → acknowledge anomalies.
Approval duties: none by default; a manager given Admin inherits admin duties.
Read: Reports & analytics; Workspace settings.
Viewer / Read-only¶
Real roles: project Viewer (workspace member).
Can: navigate every model in 3D, use tree/groups/measure/section, read every register, open documents you have folder access to, read the sync ledger, read Analytics and export it, ask the Copilot questions (no write tools are offered), download the offline copy.
Cannot: create or edit anything, save viewer snapshots, comment on issues ("Viewers cannot comment"), upload, mark up sheets, author the diary.
Read: Models & viewer; Glossary.
Approval and segregation of duties¶
The server enforces these — the UI only reflects what the server allows. "Second person" means a different user account, whatever its role.
| Record | Decision that needs a second person | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Issue | Verified (not the creator) | open → in_progress → in_review → closed → verified; verified is terminal except an admin reopen |
| RFI | Answered (not the submitter; the routed Approver/Reviewer when one is set), Closed (not the submitter) | open → under_review → answered → closed; an open RFI may go straight to closed — still not by its submitter |
| WIR | Passed / Failed / Conditional, witness, hold-point release, sign-off (not the submitter) | submitted → scheduled → decision; conditional → passed/failed |
| MAR | Approved / Approved with comments / Rejected (not the submitter) | Approved and Rejected require under_review first |
| Change order | Approve / Reject — a project Admin, not the submitter | proposed → under_review → approved/rejected |
| Clash | Closing decisions (Approved, Resolved, …) not by the clash's owner or reviewer | Same in coordination meetings; bulk changes capped per group |
| Document | Share for coordination, Publish (not the uploader); review Approve / Reject (not the uploader) | Publish also needs an approved round and no open/rejected round |
| Model (CDE) | Publish (not the uploader) | Same state machine as documents |
| Safety incident | Close incident — project Admin | Not maker-checker; an admin gate |
Everything else (models, sheets, inspections, diary, capture, spaces, assets, schedules, rates, automation, settings) has role gates but no second-person rule.