Although UNIFI is built specifically for managing BIM elements, you can store virtually any file type in your UNIFI libraries. This includes but is not limited to CAD or BIM file formats such as 3DM, DWG, DGN, SKP, or even DYN.

But what about storing other files? Our platform can be used to store Word documents, PDFs, and Excel files.

UNIFI is known for making it easy to find and use BIM content; however, we have several features that make storing your other files in your UNIFI libraries appealing. Here are the top three reasons why you should move some of your documents away from your Windows file folder structure and into UNIFI.

One of our most popular features in UNIFI is our tagging functionality. Tags give you the ability to apply metadata to any of your content in your libraries. This means that your Word Documents, PDFs, and Excel files can have any number of tags assigned to them, allowing your team to find them in an infinite number of ways. For example, a BIM Execution Plan stored as a Word Document might have tags such as “BIM Standards,” “Processes,” “Documentation,” “Project Kickoff,” etc. By using multiple tags in this fashion, you’re making it easier for your team to find the content.

In contrast, storing your files in a folder on your network drive means the file can only be found in one way.

In UNIFI you have the ability to control permissions per library. Company administrators have the rights to grant or restrict access to content without the help of your IT department. Each library’s administrators have the rights to approve or reject content before it is published within the library.

Managing these types of permissions at a library level can make controlling read and write access much easier than dealing with folder permissions on your network drive.

On our platform, all content is automatically version-controlled. Any time a document is revised and re-uploaded to your library, UNIFI will automatically create a new version and track who made the change and when. You can also add a note so that the rest of the team knows what was changed in the new version.

Many official documents such as standards manuals and guidelines have versioning (e.g., v4.0.1), so using UNIFI to automatically track these versions for you, complete with the ability to roll back to a previous version, is a natural workflow.

These three features we discussed are only a few benefits of storing your Non-BIM/CAD content in UNIFI. Some other features worth mentioning that can be of use when storing documents in our platform are star-ratings, favorites, and saved searches. All of these features are designed to make it easier to find your content.