The Timeline in the AutoCAD WS web app is a visual representation of the history of any drawing uploaded to AutoCAD WS. The Timeline lets you view previous versions, and track any changes made on a drawing by collaborators.

A unique version is added to the Timeline whenever you save a version, import a drawing after working on it in AutoCAD, and after every collaboration session.

You can use the timeline to refer back to previous versions of the drawing and to keep track of all the documentation needed during a project’s life cycle. People with whom you have shared a drawing will also be able to see the Timeline.

• The black dots represent versions you import to AutoCAD WS (for example, if you modified a drawing in AutoCAD).
• The green dots represent real-time collaboration sessions.
• The green arrow indicates the version you are currently seeing.

Examples for using the Timeline

You will find the Timeline extremely useful in the following situations:

• You want to see the progress in the design over time.
• You need to revert to the version from a few days ago.
• You want to see the changes you made in a real-time collaboration with your colleague.
• You want to see changes that two of your colleagues conducted without you.
• You need to settle a dispute regarding a conversation that was carried out in the past.
• You want to make sure you’ve done all the changes your client has requested over time.
• You want to show the history of a project to a new employee in your firm or an outside consultant.

Working with Earlier Versions of Your Drawing

When viewing a past version or collaboration of the drawing, you cannot make any changes to it. This protects the integrity of  past versions, collaborations, and transcripts.

In order to continue working on a previous version of the Timeline, you can select that version and then use the Save As function to create a new drawing.

Working Offline

With the mobile version of AutoCAD WS it is now possible to work on a drawing while offline. When the mobile device is online again all the changes that were made while the device was offline are uploaded to your AutoCAD WS account and saved with the drawing.

In the instance where there is a conflict between versions — changes were made to the online version of the drawing, while other changes were made to the drawing when it was offline — the changes that were made offline are uploaded to the Timeline as an earlier version of the drawing. When this happens the user will receive a notification message in the mobile app.

Using the Timeline

In this tutorial, we’ll walk you through the steps for using the Timeline to track your drawing’s design history. If you are just getting started, and don’t yet have past co-edits or reviews on your drawings, then simply upload a drawing to AutoCAD WS, then make a few changes to your drawing on your desktop and then upload the revised version for the purposes of this tutorial. You can upload drawings from the Drawings pane, or use the “Upload Version” button on the Timeline.

Open a drawing
Open your drawing from the Drawings pane. Your drawing will open in the AutoCAD WS Editor.

Click on the Timeline tab in the ribbon
In the Editor, click on the Timeline tab on the ribbon.

Identify the version or conversation you want to access

• The black dots represent versions you import to AutoCAD WS.
• The green dots represent real-time collaborations.
• The green arrow indicates the version you are currently seeing (the default is the latest version).

Hover your mouse pointer on the various points on the timeline, and a short summary pop-up will give you the following information:

• Date
• Collaboration participants
• The collaborated drawings (useful in a case where you collaborated on more than one drawing)
• Number of changes made during the collaboration.

Click to open
Click on the version or conversation you want to access, and it will load in the Editor.

Read the transcript
The Timeline shows you all the edits and comments that you or your collaborabors have made over the life of a drawing.