Collaborating on designs with other users
Table of Contents
Overview
You - and people that you allow - can access your Neara designs in the cloud on any device without needing to worry about downloading, moving, and sharing files.
In addition, Neara's Version history feature allows your team to collaborate and communicate design changes easily by adding notes to each version change. This allows users to track what progress has been made on the design and revert back to the older version if required.
You can also browse designs made by other members of your organization
This video provides a brief overview of Neara's cloud collaboration features:
Sharing a project
To share a project, choose Project menu > Share:
The Share design popup offers options for sharing with users inside and outside of your organization:
Sharing with users in your organization
You can share designs with users who have Neara accounts linked to your organization by clicking Add user(s) on the popup. In the box, type one or more email addresses, each on a new line.
For those users, choose their Access Level and click the Share with user(s) button:
- Read: the user can view your design, but not make any changes
- Write: the user can view your design, and make and save changes
- None: the user cannot view the design
If you check the Design is discoverable option, it will be visible in map and table views for the users that you have shared it with.
If a user in your organization should be part of your Neara account but is not, contact us for assistance.
Removing a shared user
To prevent a user from accessing the design, set their access level to None on the popup.
Sharing with people outside your organization
You can share the current version of a design with people who are not a part of your Neara organization account using the Share a public shapshot option. This creates a unique link that you can send to other people.
Users who open a public snapshot link will be able to create a new design of their own using a copy of everything in your design in its current state. They will not have access to any other version of your design and any modifications they make will only affect their own copy.
To create a public snapshot, click the Generate link option on the Share design popup:
Accessing & working with a shared design
To access a design shared with you, open the link supplied to you by the sharer, and login if prompted.
On shared designs, a yellow bar similar to this at the top of the screen is displayed. The options shown will vary depending on how the design was shared with you:
- Take ownership: Clicking this option will allow you to make changes to the design. Any changes will then be reflected in the design seen by the original sharer of the link, as well as anyone else it is shared with.
- Reload: will update the design with any new changes that may have been made by others
- Make a copy: will create a local copy of the design in your account. It can be edited without affecting other versions, and other users will not see your changes unless you share it with them.
Using the version history
Neara's Version history feature allows your team to collaborate and communicate design changes easily by adding notes and tags such as the user name, reason, and the date a change was made.
Once a design has been opened, view the version history by clicking Project menu > Version history.
The Version history popup shows all versions of the design, the date and user who generated each version, and any notes about that version.
Creating a new version
Versions are created automatically during auto-saves, if changes are made to the design. You can also create new versions manually.
Make any changes to your design, and then choose Project menu > Add note to this version, enter a note about this version and submit:
The version history shows all versions:
Restoring an earlier version
You can restore an earlier version of a design shared with you (but not if it is a public snapshot). To restore an earlier version of the design, choose the Load version option for the version on the Version history popup. Once loaded, this yellow bar will appear at the top of the screen:
- Return to latest version: will load the last saved version of this design.
- Make a copy: will make a copy of the currently being viewed version of the design.
- Restore this version: will revert the whole design back to the version currently being viewed.
Browsing all designs in your organization
When you first log on to the app the Home screen shows your most recently accessed designs on the home page.
You can browse all of your designs, as well as all designs shared with you, on the Projects screen:
This will bring up a full list of your designs, and show where they are on the map.
To view designs from other members of your organization that have been shared but not marked as discoverable, tick the Include undiscoverable designs from other users checkbox.
To load a design, click its ID or Name. Alternatively, a design can be loaded by clicking its Show link in the Location column, and then clicking the highlighted area on the map:
Archiving & deleting designs
To the left of the name column, place a checkbox next to each design that you want to Archive or Delete, and click the relevant option below the list:
Using Options to compare design versions
An Option is a version of a design (for example, a line or route) and Neara provides intuitive and powerful features to simplify the comparison of different Options for when you need to compare alternative solutions to a design problem.
Neara's comparison features highlight the differences between the new and existing Options, to track changes and aid decision-making in large projects.
For more information about this advanced feature, see: About Options and multi-project designs