Initial Setup: Configuring Guardian

In this article

• Project Registration
• User Commands
• Profile
• Guardian Backstage^TM
• Administrators
• Testing

Now that Guardian is installed, there are a few steps necessary to start utilizing the benefits of Guardian right away. The following steps will help in configuring Guardian for the first time and explain some of the basic features.

Project Registration

Guardian protections, features, and analytics will only work if project files are registered. Even if none of the Guardian features have been enabled, having projects registered will allow some of the basic functionality to be utilized, such as:

• Purging of unused properties for incoming elements.
• Capturing data analytics on different command activities.
• Notifications to admins on the use of protected commands.

Project models must be registered before Guardian will be activated for a given project. There are two ways in which projects can be registered:

1. Automatic Registration under Company Settings. ‍
2. Manual Registration by selecting the Register Project icon or Settings > Projects.

This allows for Company Administrators to determine what type of projects that will be registered. For instance, a non-workshared project model may not want to be registered as it’s only for specific study or only register project models hosted on BIM360.

Project models can be registered in a couple of ways. They can be manually registered by selecting the Register Project button in the Guardian Add-Ins tab.

Project models can also be registered automatically based on some predetermined rules. The rules can be set up under the Project Registration tab within Company Settings.

(A) Registration: Select the different types of models to be automatically registered when created or opened.  

(B) Click the Edit button next to each model type to further specify the conditions in which the models get registered

For more information on how to create rules for automatic registration, see Rules.

Applying Mapping Configurations to Registered Models

(C) When creating a model from another existing registered model, the registration behavior can be specified to either use the existing Mapping Configuration, Project Configuration, Administrators, Workset Sets or to apply the defaults on the registration rules.

User Commands

User Commands allows Project/Company Administrators to create customized messages encouraging users to follow the proper procedure for each of these Revit commands and prevent unwanted actions. For each of these commands, Guardian allows three levels of protection to be set for each; Monitor, Guide, or Prevent.  

• Monitor: Registers the command with Guardian Backstage™ which provides BIM Managers a tremendous amount of data on how their users are using these commands at both a firm and project level.
• Guide: Provides users with a customized message promoting proper usage of these commands when the user goes to execute the command. The user simply acknowledges the message by providing a simple return message. The commands in Guide and Prevent mode also registers with Guardian Backstage™.
• Prevent: In addition to providing a customized message, Guardian will prevent users from executing that Revit command. A customized project specific and/or a firm specific password can be entered to continue to execute the command.

The customization of each Revit command can be customized for different Project Configurations and can be further customized for each project model in the Project Settings, allowing Guardian to be customized to meet the project team’s Revit skillset. Each command can be setup to send the assigned Project Administrator an email notification identifying, who, when and what project the protect command is executed.    

Pro Tip: For new accounts, set all User Command protection levels to a minimum of Monitor so Guardian Backstage™ collects the usage data of all the available User Commands.

(A) Click the New button to select commands to add to the protected list. For all new accounts, it is recommended to add all commands.  

Pro Tip: Keep an eye here as new commands are frequently added with new releases of Guardian. All new commands will only be added to Available Commands as Guardian will not automatically make these commands active.

(B) Mode: Once the commands are added to the protected list, the protection mode can be set as Monitor, Guide, or Prevent.  

(C) Send Email: Enabling will send email notifications to the project assigned Project Administrators when the selected command is used by an end user. If the user were to cancel out of the command, no email will be sent.

(D) Require Comment: For Guide and Prevent modes, a comment can be required to be submitted by the end user before proceeding with the selected command.

(E) Message: For each command, a customized Command Message can be created that will appear to the end user when the Guide or Prevent modes are used. In the message dialog, images or hyperlinks can be included to educate and adoption of company best practices and standards.

(F) Edit Password: A company password can be added for commands set to prevent. Project/Company Administrators can also share One-Time Passwords for users rather than giving out the company password. Passwords can also be set on a per project basis.

Profile

Under the Profile tab within Company Settings, the company profile settings can be applied.

(A) Company Logo: A company logo can be uploaded to display for all Command Messages and end-user notifications.

(B) Settings: Enabling this setting will show the New Update! icon to all end users when new versions of Guardian are live. Project/Company Administrators will always be notified of new updates irrespective of the setting.

Guardian Backstage™  

Analytic data captured by Guardian can be accessed through Power BI or some other data access application. Under the Backstage tab in Company Settings, the Enable Data Access must first be selected.

Once enabled, login information will be made available. This can be used to access the company analytics data through Power BI or some other data accessing service. Check out the "Guardian Backstage" article for more details.

Administrators

Under the Administrators tab in Company Settings, Company and Project Administrators can be created. Check out the Adding Administrators article for more information on creating Administrators and the distinction between Company and Project Administrators.

Testing

It is recommended to test out Guardian’s various features and protections to better understand how they work and will impact the end-user experience. This can be done by following these steps:

1. Create a project model for testing.
   • A copy of an actual project model, or an older completed model, is recommended.
2. Create a new testing mapping configuration and assign it to the test model.
   • This will allow the Project Administrators assigned to the project to create mapping rules without affecting other registered models.
3. Establish the Project Settings for the test model.
   • By modifying and activating features through the Project Settings, Administrators can test out different features and protections without affecting other registered models.
4. Log out as an Administrator to test as an end user.
   • When new features/protections are enabled, Administrators can log out of their account and test Guardian’s features and protections from the end user perspective.
   • Administrators can easily log in and out during the same Revit session to continually change and test settings.