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Managing multiple Revit files can be tricky—especially when a real project involves several related models. Kinship makes this easier by organizing your Revit models into projects that reflect how your teams actually collaborate. This structure gives you a clear, unified view of all your project files, their history, and their content—all in one place.

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What Are Models and Projects?

  • Models: In Kinship, a model is any Revit file (RVT) your team works on.
  • Projects: A project is a collection of related models that belong together—usually because they’re part of the same real-world job or client work.
Instead of treating every Revit file as a separate item, Kinship brings related models together into projects so you can see the big picture, track progress, and manage access across your team.

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How Does Kinship Organize Your Files?

Whenever you use Synchronize with Central (SwC) on a workshared Revit file, Kinship steps in:
  • It registers the model and gathers key info like its name, file path, and project details.
  • Kinship tries to match the model to an existing project by looking at things like file names, BIM 360 project info, or where the central file is stored.
  • If there’s no clear match, Kinship creates a new project for you or keeps the model “Unassigned” until you organize it.
This automatic grouping means you spend less time sorting files and more time designing.

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Working with Projects: Public and Restricted

Not every project should be visible to everyone. That’s why Kinship supports both public and restricted projects:
  • Public projects: Any team member can see and access these projects and their models.
  • Restricted projects: Only admins and users who have actually worked on (synced with) one of the project’s models can view them. These projects are clearly marked with a blue lock icon for easy spotting.
This approach keeps sensitive work private, while still letting the right people collaborate.

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Why Organize This Way?

  • Clarity: See all the related models for a project together, along with their changes and history.
  • Control: Easily manage who can access what, and keep private work confidential.
  • Convenience: Automatic project matching saves you setup time and helps avoid mistakes.

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Quick Recap

TermWhat it Means in Kinship
ModelA single Revit file your team works on
ProjectA group of related models for a single job or client
PublicVisible to your whole Kinship team
RestrictedOnly for admins (or security admins if enabled) and those who’ve worked on it

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Want to dive deeper?

Start with our overview of tracking models with Kinship, or explore more specific topics: