Codes, products and precedents in one link library for the whole practice

Where a practice’s links live today, and why it breaks

Reference links build up around individuals, not the practice. When a project changes hands or someone leaves, the links go with them.

• Manufacturer pages bookmarked by whoever specified the product, on their own machine
• Code and standards links on an intranet page that points to superseded editions
• Precedent images on a Pinterest board or a desktop folder that only one person curates
• Consultant portal links buried in the project email thread
• The same BIM object library found again from scratch on every project

Links and notes, not drawings or models

Linkbry holds links, titles, descriptions and notes, plus uploaded images and files if you want them. It isn’t a common data environment or a document control system: drawings, models, transmittals and revisions belong there. What Linkbry does well is point to them: a project folder that links to the right CDE workspace, consultant portal and planning application, so people stop asking for the address. Uploads are capped per file (10 MB on Free, 100 MB on Pro) and per workspace (100 MB on Free, 20 GB on Pro): plenty for images and spec sheets, not meant for model files.

• Save the link to a spec sheet; upload a copy only when you need one that won’t change
• Keep drawings and models in your CDE and link to them
• Links to portals behind a sign-in open only for people with access there

Roles for library curators, project teams and everyone else

Owners manage members, billing, deleting and restricted folders. Editors (the technical lead, the specification writer, each project’s architect or engineer) add, organise and delete links and publish folders, but only owners delete folders, so the product library doesn’t lose a whole section in a tidy-up. Viewers read and search for free on Pro, which covers anyone who only needs to find things. Links can be private to the person who saved them, and project folders can be restricted to the project team.

• Owner: members, billing, restricted folders, deleting folders and tags
• Editor: adds, organises, shares and deletes links
• Viewer: reads, searches and exports; free on Pro
• An activity feed of who added, moved or shared what

Sharing a curated folder with a client

Owners and editors can publish any folder, with its subfolders, as a read-only page that opens without an account: precedents for a design review, finish and product options, or public planning documents for a scheme. Add a title, your logo and colour, a password and an expiry date, and turn it off at any time. Notes, archived links and private links never show, so internal comments stay internal. Share stats count page views and clicks per link, without identifying visitors.

Keeping product and code links current

Manufacturers rename and retire products, and code pages move with each new edition. The background checker re-tests each link at most weekly and flags links that return an error or redirect to another domain. It checks that a link works, not that it’s current, so give key references an owner and a review interval: they show as due for review until someone confirms they still apply.

• A Broken filter for dead and moved links
• Owners and review intervals for codes, standards and key products
• “Check now” to re-test a link before a design issue
• Search matches the readable text of saved web pages; PDF spec sheets are found by title, URL, description and note

Pricing for an architecture or engineering practice

Free is one person with up to 100 links. Pro is $10 per owner or editor per month, or $100 a year, with no link limit, 20 GB of upload storage and free, unlimited viewers. A worked example: a 25-person practice where a partner owns the workspace and five people curate the library and project folders pays for six seats ($60 a month, or $600 a year), and the other 19 join as free viewers. If every project architect wants to save links to the shared library, count them as editors too.

When Linkbry isn’t the right fit

Linkbry isn’t a CDE, a document control system, a product-data platform or a specification tool, and it doesn’t open or preview CAD or BIM files. It keeps the readable text of web pages, not archived copies, so a product page that disappears is gone unless you saved an image or uploaded the spec sheet. There are no native mobile apps for use on site, and single sign-on is OpenID Connect only, on Pro, with no SAML.