First-Time Setup

Before you start

• BIMPulse is installed. If not, follow Installing BIMPulse.
• You have a BIMPulse account. If not, see Creating Your Account. New accounts include a free 30-day trial.
• You're connected to the internet.

Sign in to BIMPulse

BIMPulse doesn't ask you to sign in when Navisworks starts. Sign in once from the BIMPulse tab, and it remembers you after that.

1. 1

   Open Account Settings

   In Navisworks Manage, go to the BIMPulse tab and click Account Settings. The Account & Options window opens and shows Not signed in.

2. 2

   Click Sign in

   A sign-in window opens. Sign in with the same account you use on bimpulse.ai.

3. 3

   Check your status

   BIMPulse takes a license for you. While it works, the status reads Acquiring license…. When it's done, the status shows your email address, which means your license is active.

   If you see a different message, such as No seats available, see License & Activation Problems.

4. 4

   Close the window

   Click Close. Closing the window refreshes the BIMPulse tab, so the tool buttons become available.

If you belong to more than one team

Your license comes from an organization: your own workspace, or a team that invited you. If you belong to more than one, the Account & Options window shows an organization list under your name. With only one organization, the list doesn't appear.

BIMPulse picks the organization you used last. To use a different one, choose it from the list. BIMPulse releases your license in the old organization and takes one in the new organization.

Open a saved file

The BIMPulse tools work on a Navisworks file that has been saved at least once, such as an NWF or NWD. For a new model, save it first. Until then, every button except Account Settings stays greyed out.

If you use the Autodesk Issues add-in, you can also open a Forma (ACC) Model Coordination view. It saves as an .nwfacc file, and Pulse Check works with it.

Each tool opens one window at a time. If a tool's button is greyed out while a file is open, check whether its window is already open, perhaps behind Navisworks.

The BIMPulse tools

Everything is on the Tools panel of the BIMPulse tab.

BIMPulse settings

The Account & Options window also holds BIMPulse's settings. Pick a page on the left:

• General: Open BIMPulse AppData Folder opens %APPDATA%\BIMPulse\BIMPulse, where your personal BIMPulse settings are saved.
• Hotkeys: change the keyboard shortcuts for Pulse Check. See Custom Hotkeys.
• Pulse Check: grouping, naming, and highlight color settings. See Clash Grouping & Renaming.
• Search Set Generator: template import and export, and the model property index.

Click Save to keep changes on the Pulse Check page. Close discards changes you haven't saved there.

Staying signed in

The next time you start Navisworks, BIMPulse signs you in automatically. Your sign-in is saved on this computer, encrypted for your Windows account, in %LOCALAPPDATA%\BIMPulse.

BIMPulse checks your license about once a minute while Navisworks is open, so it needs an internet connection the whole time. There's no offline mode: if BIMPulse can't reach the license service, the tools are unavailable until it can.

Signing out

Open Account Settings and click Sign out. BIMPulse releases your license so a teammate can use it, and removes your saved sign-in from this computer. Do this before someone else uses BIMPulse on the same Windows account.

To manage who on your team holds which license, see Managing Your Team's Seats or open the Team tab in your dashboard.