The new Designer role has been created in NBS Chorus to allow users to make associations between model objects and specification references in NBS plug-ins, without permission to edit the specification content. This article explains the role and permission levels in more detail.
Information workflows and BIM processes vary across companies and industries, but there are typical roles which require changing levels of permissions and limiting access to some platform features. NBS Chorus has a number of pre-defined roles that can be assigned to users to provide them with the required access levels.
For example, there will be at least one organisational admin who has full control of project information and other user permissions, compared with multiple contributors who can edit the specifications already set up in a project. In some practice workflows, only a small number of ‘specification writers’ are granted permission to develop the technical content, with the other users given Reader access to the project information.
When considering the needs of teams responsible for model development and specification, recent feedback from organisations using NBS Chorus plug-ins indicated that an additional role could be created to allow someone, working in an NBS plug-in within a model environment, to make associations between existing specification information (not currently possible with Reader permissions) without requiring full access to NBS Chorus to add and edit technical clause content.
This allows organisations with users who tend to focus on model development and only need to read and understand the context of the specification without editing its content, to grant permission to annotate references in drawing sheets and outputs with NBS Chorus associations, through licences available with these limited permissions for those working in model environments. The intention is that organisations could purchase bundles of these licences that do not allow specification editing at lower cost.
So, NBS has created the Designer role, allowing admins to grant access to particular project specifications and the permission to view clause content and use the contents to make relevant associations to model objects, but without the ability to edit clause content, apply updates to content, or add additional clauses into the specification.
When signing into NBS Chorus, the user will be able to select what activities they are carrying out on that day – between the roles of a specification Writer or a Designer. What access the user is given is still determined by administrators at a project level – so permissions to edit the specification content can be granted and revoked for individual projects and specifications. The user selection of Designer will focus the user activities to reference, association and drawing annotation in the model.
The main difference between the Writer and Designer permissions is the ability to edit content, but let’s look the specification activities that are permitted with each role. Additional features are also available to organisation Admin users, but this table focuses on specification permissions.
| Activity | Writer | Designer | Reader |
| View the specification in NBS Chorus and read the contents | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Publish and export the specification content | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| View and export Summary Schedule | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| View manufacturer content from NBS Source, NBS Guidance and organisation notes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Associate clauses via the NBS plug-ins, annotate, and manage associations to model objects | Yes | Yes | No |
| Modify the user-generated NBS clause prefix and suffix | Yes | Yes | No |
| Add specification notes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Edit the specification | Yes | No | No |
| Add new content to specification or Summary Schedule | Yes | No | No |
| View and apply Updates to the specification | Yes | No | No |
| Copy and paste contents from the specification | Yes | No | No |
NBS appreciate that this term carries various meanings depending on your organisation, sector, or projects (and is a term used in some contract types with legal conditions). In the context of NBS Chorus, the aim was to find a generic term for this new role that indicated a different part of the process of construction information evolution, when contrasted with ‘specifier’ or ‘specification writer’, and a typical focus on design development in 3D modelling environments.
