Many CDE rollouts start well — with the WIP / Shared / Published / Archived folders correctly placed — and collapse after a month because they did not think about the second level: the internal organisation. Split by discipline? By project phase? By zone? The answer depends on the project, and the best CDEs let you decide.
Level 1 — the 4 mandatory states
Regardless of project, the top level stays fixed per ISO 19650:
- WIP (Work in Progress) — documents under development, isolated per discipline
- Shared — documents shared for inter-disciplinary coordination
- Published — approved and officially published documents
- Archived — historical versions kept for audit and retention
For details on each state's permissions and concrete organisation rules, read:
Level 2 — internal divisions
Under each state, the standard organisation is by discipline (AR — Architecture, ST — Structure, MEP, EL, HV etc.). But complex projects usually need an additional level: by zones (Building A vs Building B), by phases, or by derived specialities. There is no universal answer — the best one reflects how your team actually coordinates.
CDE Mode — when the standard structure does not fit
In CDE 19650 Cloud, when the standard ISO 19650 structure does not cover your project's specifics, CDE Mode is available — a set of configurations that lets you define a custom structure without losing standard compliance.
- Define project-specific file types (digitally signed PDF, lab report, material certificate) with mandatory custom metadata
- Configure a custom folder structure under the 4 states, at whichever depth makes sense for you
- Grant or revoke access (Allow / Deny) per directory and per individual user or role group
- Override the default ISO 19650 role rules in exceptional cases, without breaking inheritance on the global tree
Real example: a consortium of 3 partner firms and 12 subcontractors used CDE Mode to fully isolate each partner inside its own WIP, with read-only cross-partner access on Shared — a flow impossible with standard permissions.
Permissions: read, write and deny per directory
The biggest pain point in poorly configured CDEs is when a subcontractor can modify a document published by the lead designer. With CDE Mode, the permission model is granular:
- Default permissions on the directory tree based on the user's ISO 19650 role
- Overrides on specific directories — read-only, full control, or full deny
- Automatic inheritance to subfolders with explicit revoke option
- Clear effective-access view for every user and every directory
In practice: you can decide that on "Shared/MEP/Subcontractor-X" only firm X has write, the rest of the team has read, and competitor firm Y has full deny — even though all of them have the "Lead Appointed Party" role at the project level.
Where to start
If you start from zero and do not want to reinvent the wheel, use the standard ISO 19650 structure as a starting point and customise only where needed. Our checklist gives you the minimum viable configuration for a classic project.
Set up your CDE the way you need it
See where you stand today with the self-assessment, download the templates or go straight to implementation with personalised CDE Mode.