Sharing files externally with Partner Spaces

• How Partner Spaces work
  
• How to create a Partner Space
  
• How to add files to a Partner Space
  
• How to invite partners
  
  • invite a new partner via email
    
  • use a secure partner link
    
• Setting download permissions in a Partner Space
• Partner uploads

Partner Spaces are how you share data outside of your organization, i.e. with customers, suppliers, manufacturers, etc.  Partner Spaces are like a virtual folder where you can share selected files with your partners without sharing anything else in the project.  Here's a quick video explaining more about Partner Spaces, or if you prefer to learn by reading, read on below.

How Partner Spaces work

With a Partner Space, you are sharing a particular  version of the file. You and your team can continue to update the project with new versions of files after they've been added to a Partner Space, and the Partner Space will remain at the same version as when you added it. Only when you "Update" the Partner Space are the new versions of the files added.

For example, if you are making a molded plastic case and want to send it for prototyping, you simply drag the file you want to prototype into a Partner Space and then add your plastic injector as a partner.  If you dragged a file at version 11, and a few days later you test out some experimental changes to your case, thus creating versions 12 and 13 in Workbench), your manufacturer doesn't see version 12 and 13, he continues to only see version 11.  When you've finalized your design and you're ready to send that to your manufacturer, you can then drag the same file, now at version 15, into the Partner Space to update the file in the Partner Space. Your manufacturer will receive an email notification that there are new files in the Partner Space ready to download.  You can read more about versions and revisions  here.

How to create a Partner Space

How to add files to Partner Spaces

There are two easy ways to add files to a Partner Space:

How to invite partners

There are two easy ways to invite partners into a Partner Space, via email invite (most secure) or via link (simplest).

Invite a new partner via email

This is the most secure way to invite a Partner.  When they receive an email with your invite, it will prompt them to create a password and then invalidate the link in the email they received, ensuring that access remains only with your intended recipient even if that email is forwarded along.  To invite a Partner this way, follow these steps:

From within the Partner Space, click the “Add Partners” button.

Add the email addresses of the partners you would like to invite.

Use a secure partner link

This method is often more convenient, but is slightly less secure because if you send it to a Partner and they forward that email to someone else. the link will work for that second person.  However, you can always turn off the link by unchecking the box.

From within the Partner Space, click on the “Link to share partner space”.

Setting download permissions in Partner Space

You can configure what download permissions all Partners have for all files in a Partner Space.  Simply use the "Partner download permissions" setting:

The "Prevent downloads of native CAD files" option will prevent Partners from downloading the following file formats:

Partner Uploads

Check this box to allow partners to upload files to the Partner Space.

Only invited partners can upload files. Anonymous users cannot add files. 

To bring these files back into the project, a Project Owner or collaborator must download them and then upload them to the project.