Secure External Collaboration with Guest Sharing

Secure External Collaboration with Guest Sharing

Securing Sharing

Secure External Collaboration with Guest Sharing

Overview

CAD ROOMS enables secure collaboration with external partners, clients, and suppliers without granting them access to your workspace or projects.
Instead of adding outsiders as workspace members, CAD ROOMS uses file-based sharing. External users are automatically treated as Guests, ensuring controlled, read-only access while protecting internal data and project structure.
This approach allows teams to collaborate confidently without consuming seats, increasing administrative overhead, or exposing unrelated projects.

What Is Guest Sharing?

Guest Sharing allows you to share individual files with people outside your workspace.
Key characteristics:
  • Guests do not consume seats
  • Access is limited only to the files explicitly shared
  • Permissions are read-only by default
  • Guests are automatically listed in the Guest list
This ensures external collaboration remains secure, isolated, and auditable.

How to Share a File with an External User

Step 1 — Open the File Viewer

  1. Navigate to a Project.
  1. Open the file you want to share in the CAD Viewer.

Step 2 — Share the File

  1. Click the Share icon in the top-right corner of the Viewer.
  1. Enter the recipient’s email address.
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  1. Send the invitation.

How the Invitation Process Works

Once a file is shared, CAD ROOMS automatically grants access based on the recipient’s account status.
  • If the recipient already has a CAD ROOMS account
      • Access is granted immediately, and the recipient receives an in-platform notification.
  • If the recipient is new to CAD ROOMS
      • The recipient receives an email invitation to set a password.
      No email verification is required, reducing onboarding friction for external reviewers. After setting a password via the invitation email, the recipient can access the shared file.
In both cases:
  • The recipient is automatically added to the Guest list
  • No workspace seat is consumed
  • No additional email verification is required
💡
Guest access is ideal for external reviews, short-term collaboration, or stakeholders who only need visibility.

What the Receiver Sees

As the person receiving a shared file:
  • Shared files appear in your Shares section (accessible from the left sidebar)
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  • You can open any shared file directly from Shares to view it in the CAD Viewer
  • You do not need to navigate into any project or workspace — all shared files are collected in one place
  • If you have access to multiple shared files from different senders, they are all listed together in Shares
📂
Shares acts as the receiver's central hub for all files shared with them — no workspace membership or project access required.

What the Sender Can Control

As the person sharing a file, you retain full control over who has access. As the sender, you can:
  • Add or remove recipients
  • Manage access at the file level or from the Dashboard
  • Remove access to specific files for a Guest
  • Revoke access at any time
You can control access from two places:
  • At the file level — Open the file in the CAD Viewer, click Share, and add or remove recipients directly.
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  • From the Dashboard — Go to Members → Guests for a centralized overview of all Guests and the files shared with them.
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    • If a Guest has access to multiple files, you can expand the file list and selectively Remove access to individual files without affecting the others.
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You can revoke access at any time from either location. Once removed, the Guest immediately loses access to the shared file.

What Guests Can Do

Guests have strictly limited access:
✅ View the shared file
✅ Open the file in the 3D Viewer
✅ Add comments/annotations
🚫 Upload, replace, or modify files
🚫 Check files in or out
🚫 Contribute changes to the project
🚫 Release files or change file states
🚫 Create or manage ECOs
🚫 Access projects or workspace settings
🚫 See any content beyond the files explicitly shared with them

Why Guest Sharing Matters

  • 🔐 Security by Design
      • External users see only what you explicitly share.
  • 💺 No Seat Consumption
      • Share freely without increasing subscription costs.
  • 📂 Project Isolation
      • Guests never see unrelated projects or data.
  • 📜 Traceability
      • All sharing actions are logged and auditable.
  • 🤝 Low-friction collaboration
      • Clients and suppliers can review designs without onboarding overhead.

Best Practices

  • Share only released or review-ready files with external users
  • Revoke access once collaboration is complete
  • Use ECOs internally before sharing externally
  • Avoid exporting files outside CAD ROOMS when secure sharing is available

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