Bentley ProjectWise vs. Constructware (discontinued)

ProjectWise is good for really large projects with many team members. I would not recommend it for small projects or those with a small team of people working on them. It is best for technical people and those who plan to use it daily. There are better FTP options out there if you just want to use them for file sharing.

Constructware is well suited for many different types of projects in both real estate and infrastructure. However, it is now becoming outdated with the introduction of the BIM 360 platform. I think even Autodesk may plan to slowly stop rolling out subscriptions to Cnstructware since most of its functions are now getting added on to BIM 360.

Incentivized

• It works for collaboration
• The backend is customisable to do work that other document management systems just cannot do.

• Provenance. Keeps track of changes and the people/companies who made those changes.
• Collaboration.
• Work [is stored] in the cloud.

Incentivized

• many users cannot be in the same file at the same time
• files are not automatically freed upon closure
• copying files to another ProjectWise folder is complicated. There is an option to copy, another to copy to, etc.

• UI can be improved, as shown by improvements made in BIM 360.
• Only works well with Internet Explorer.
• Steep Learning Curve due to confusing UI.

Incentivized

Bentley ProjectWise from a user perspective just does not stack up to even something as simple as Dropbox. ProjectWise is powerful, it is capable, it has a ton of features. The best implementation I have seen from Projectwise is where the admins unlocked everything and let the users do as they please defeating everything it stood for and using it as a big Dropbox account, though even then the user interface couldn't be improved still causing significant workflow delays. I would reluctantly leave a good company if they implement ProjectWise, I respect that it's powerful for system admins but it sucks for users. This means 2-10% of what it is used for is well designed while the other 98-90% of its functions are just bogged down by a lack of development in its user interface and I say this as someone who has periodically used it over the last 10 years and seen no effective improvement in usability. Bentley ProjectWise was one of the first I believe to do this type of system, but as is common with being the first is you don't keep up with the times and bring a lot of baggage with you.

Better than Unifier: 1. Better UI 2. Everything else is about the same Bim360 is now the go-to platform for all functions previously provided by Constructware.

Incentivized

• It has saved us time in archiving and versioning documents
• It has saved us effort in backing up files and restoring them when mistakes are made
• It has had an overall positive impact on our bottom line by helping with file sharing and collaboration

• Saves time.
• Eases collaboration.
• Increases accountability.

Incentivized