Teams don’t always notice when their file management starts breaking down. It can happen gradually. A drawing gets copied just in case. Someone works locally to avoid conflicts. References stop updating properly. And at some point, no one is completely sure which version is the correct one. That’s often the moment when people start looking at something like ProjectWise®.
But of course, installing it is one thing. Working with it inside BricsCAD, without slowing yourself down or confusing your team, is another. That’s why we built our ProjectWise® for BricsCAD course.
What this course is about
ProjectWise® (from Bentley Systems) introduces structure into how drawings and documents are managed. Instead of files living on disks or shared folders, they live inside a controlled environment where access, versions, and changes are all tracked. Inside BricsCAD, that system is integrated directly into your workflow. You don’t switch tools; you just work differently.
The course focuses on that shift and what changes in your day-to-day work once ProjectWise® is in place.
1. Getting set up
The first step is straightforward: installing the integration and making sure everything connects properly to your ProjectWise® environment. But even here, small details matter, including version alignment and system requirements, as well as knowing where things show up inside BricsCAD. The course walks through this so you don’t lose time troubleshooting something that should work with ease.
2. Understanding how ProjectWise® behaves
Before you start opening and editing files, you need a clear picture of how ProjectWise® handles them. The course introduces the ProjectWise Explorer® and how it connects to BricsCAD, including authentication and data sources. More importantly, it explains what file states mean in practice. Whether a file is checked out, locked by someone else, or available for editing directly affects what you can and should do next.
This is where confusion can start and where it’s easiest to avoid problems if you get it right early on.
3. Working with documents inside the system
Opening a drawing from ProjectWise® isn’t the same as opening it from a local folder. You’ll learn how to access files directly from the database, how to search for them efficiently, and how to manage their properties so that others understand what they’re working with.
Versioning is handled differently as well, and the course shows how to make updates without losing track of previous iterations.
4. Bringing files in and sending them out
Importing and exporting files sounds simple, but in a managed environment it needs to be handled carefully. The course shows how to bring documents into ProjectWise® in a way that keeps them structured and traceable, and how to export them when needed without breaking links or losing context. It’s less about the commands themselves, and more about maintaining consistency across the project.
5. Keeping references and shared content under control
As soon as multiple drawings depend on each other, things can quickly fall apart. You’ll see how to attach external references stored in ProjectWise® and how to keep them updated so everyone is working with the same information. The same applies to shared elements like blocks, where consistency across files matters more than it might seem at first. The goal here is to make things work and keep them working as the project evolves.
6. Aligning drawing data with project data
Manual updates are easy to overlook, especially in title blocks and metadata. The course introduces attribute exchange, which allows drawing information and ProjectWise® properties to stay aligned. Instead of updating the same fields in multiple places, you work with a system that keeps them synchronized. It’s a small improvement that removes a significant amount of repetitive work.
7. Managing sheet sets in a structured way
For larger projects, organization becomes just as important as the drawings themselves. Using BricsCAD’s Sheet Set Manager, you’ll learn how to create and manage sheet sets within the ProjectWise® database, how to structure them properly, and how to place views in a consistent way. Rather than treating sheet sets as isolated files, they become part of the broader project environment.
What you get out of it
By the end of the course, you’ll know where to find the relevant tools and understand how to work within a shared environment without creating friction for you or your team. This will result in fewer version conflicts, clearer ownership of changes, and less time spent figuring out where things are or whether they’re up to date.
The course is fully self-paced, so you can move through it in a way that fits your schedule and focus on the parts that are most relevant to your work. There’s also a certificate of completion waiting at the end.
Final thought
The ProjectWise® integration doesn’t make your drawings better. What it does is remove the uncertainty around them, like who’s working on what and which version is the most current. This course helps you get there without overcomplicating the process.
Take the ProjectWise for BricsCAD course and get more comfortable working in a managed project environment today. And don't forget to explore the rest of the learning catalog at bricscad.octave.com/learning.
The Octave BricsCAD Team is committed to delivering you practical tips, tricks, how-to's, and industry insights - so you can make the most out of BricsCAD.
