WorksManager

Not sure if this would be a WorksManager or TBC enhancement, but would it be possible to assign designs to specific data collectors instead of pushing them to everyone? Some designs are intended only for advanced users or require a total station rather than a GPS rover. Being able to assign those designs only to surveyors who know how to use them would help ensure proper use and keep newer users from being overwhelmed with too many designs.

I honestly haven't used WM in years.

It is possible since pretty much the beginning, very cumbersome, but possible.

I just went to our companies WM, and the webpage still looks the same school kid after hours project, as it did years ago.

I also went through the old posts here on the forum. The topic, about pushing designs in groups, as you requested, i.e. groups "experienced", "unexperienced", "graders", "dozer", came up again last year 01/2025.

See my post #3 here from 01/2025, which is referring to my post #8 here which is from 01/2022!!! This is not a typo, it is from 4 years ago. You can see how good those WM guys are. They are fighting with the TBC guys over the "ignore the customers as much as possible" trophy.

It's still only possible the old, cumbersome way.

Either go to designs, click on a design, and in the right properties pane click edit "published devices"

or got to devices, click on a device, and in the right properties pane click "published designs"

You can mitigate this a bit buy using designated keywords in your device descriptions. You can then filter for the keyword and minimize the number of devices in your list.

You still have to tick every device manually. You can't just tick "all graders".

You can't just say

"subgrade" to all graders, surveyors

"trenches" to excavators, surveyors

"FSL" to graders, excavators, surveyors

"stockpiles" dozers, excavator, surveyors

Those WM guys still don't think BIG. They look at work sites with a handful of systems and think they did a great job. They can't imagine working on km long sites with dozens of machines and design files.

Yes.  Add your devices to the project first then add your designs to WM.  Before accepting, there is an publish to all switch, or you can assign to individual devices.  

Clarification to this.  It's best practices to manage the devices, including machines and controllers through TBC.

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Matt Eklund, PE
GPS Program Manager
Sukut Construction
California, USA
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Thank you, Matt and Ronny. Trimble Support emailed me and explained that the option is in WM under either Design or Devices → Edit Published Devices. I honestly can't believe I missed that in WM after using it for so many years. It's good to know, and thanks to Trimble for pointing it out.

That said, what I actually meant-and I apologize for not being clear in my original post-was the ability to select which device you want to attach to a design in TBC before publishing, the same way it was done in TCC.

I've been using WM since it first came out, and even before that during the TCC days. All of our machines and data collectors have SIM cards, and WM and TCC were real game changers for us. However, I've never exported lines and surfaces from TBC and then created the design in WM. Instead, I publish our designs directly from TBC without opening WM, which-to me-is how it's intended to work and the most efficient workflow.

The only times I open WM, other than for initial job setup and assigning team members and devices, are when an operator calls for support, then I can view their Earthworks screen without leaving my office. I can also update Earthworks firmware through WM, I can also delete data to free up space, and provide some training for our younger engineers.

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Eric Condemilicor PLS
Construction Technology Manager
Goodfellow Bros
Hawaii
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I did understand what you want. But after more than half a decade of transitioning from TCC to WM it's still not possible.

I'm curious about the Trimble supports excuse, what was it "it's somewhere on the list, but just no priority", "we started on it, but no timeframe, within the next decade or so", "hasn't been requested"?

I've said it before, and I can only repeat myself over and over again. The product change from TCC to WM is an absolute farce. Reinventing the wheel at a snail's pace. Ignoring costumer requests while still charging monthly fees per device. For an outsider it seems as if just one guy is working on it, one day a month.

Eric, yes Thanks for that clarification.  I modified my post as well.  

As far as I know this is only possible through the web browser. The TBC workflow still publishes to all devices which is unfortunate as I prefer this workflow rather than trying to export everything and upload it through the browser. It would be nice if Trimble added this functionality, so we all have the option to stay in TBC and reduce some design clutter on our devices. WM doesn't seem to get too much attention.

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Steven Lloyd
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