Autodesk Docs is now sold as Forma Data Management, and it is the document control layer of Autodesk’s construction and design cloud. Drawings, models and documents sit together with versions, issues, approvals, transmittals and audit controls, marked up across PDF, PNG, JPG, DWG and RVT, and wired into AutoCAD, Revit and Civil 3D with a Desktop Connector. If your project is already an Autodesk project, this is where its documents live.
Xenmark runs one job end to end: a drawing set goes out for review, comments come back against the revision they were raised on, and the review finishes as two documents — a plan showing where each comment sits, and a spreadsheet saying what each one means, numbered to match.
For anyone holding an eligible AutoCAD, Revit or Civil 3D subscription, the Essentials tier of Forma Data Management is already included, and that is a meaningful advantage. What a design subscription covers is the person who holds it — not the client, the contractor or the consultant you are sending the drawings out to. Choose Xenmark when the reviewers are outside your Autodesk estate and the review has to come back as a numbered plan and a matching register. A free Xenmark project takes a real drawing set from start to finish.
Forma Data Management Essentials comes with eligible AutoCAD, Revit and Civil 3D subscriptions, which covers your designers. In Xenmark the people you invite read, reply and download the exports without paying and without holding a licence to anything else.
Autodesk publishes a thirty-day trial, and Forma Data Management from $45 a month paid annually for anyone without a design subscription; Essentials is not sold on its own. The Xenmark Free plan runs one active review from start to finish, with no card and no expiry.
A Xenmark review ends in a drawing with each comment numbered where it applies, and an Excel register numbered to match, produced from the same comments in one step. Autodesk holds markups, issues and documents and can download and export them, and a team that configures it carefully may assemble something similar from those parts.
Every Autodesk Docs claim below is taken from Autodesk Docs's own published material and was last checked on 29 August 2026. Software changes; if something here is out of date, tell us and we will correct it.
If you already pay Autodesk, part of this is already paid for. Forma Data Management Essentials is included with eligible standalone AutoCAD, Revit and Civil 3D subscriptions and with the Product Design and Manufacturing Collection. For a practice whose designers hold those seats, the document management layer is there already, and no argument about price is going to change that.
It is also a far larger product than Xenmark. Document versions, issues, approvals, transmittals and audit controls; markup across PDF, PNG, JPG, DWG and RVT rather than PDF alone; a Desktop Connector and direct ties into AutoCAD, Revit and Civil 3D; and Autodesk’s own material states that markup types persist through file versions. None of that is inside Xenmark, and quantity takeoff lives in Forma Takeoff, which is a separate product again.
Two things run the other way. Essentials is not available as a standalone product — without a design subscription the entry point is Forma Data Management from $45 a month paid annually after a thirty-day trial, with no permanent free tier. And a design subscription covers the person who holds it, which is rarely the client, the contractor or the consultant a drawing set goes out to.
| Xenmark | Autodesk Docs | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting a review | ||
| Can the person running the review start free? | Yes — the Free plan runs one active review at a time, start to finish | Only through a bundle or a trial. A thirty-day free trial is stated. Essentials comes with eligible AutoCAD, Revit and Civil 3D subscriptions but “is not available as a standalone product”, so without one of those the entry point is a paid licence. |
| Do external reviewers need a paid subscription? | No — the people you invite read, reply and download the exports without paying | Yes, and the rule is published. Being invited to a project does not itself grant entitlement — an invited member needs an applicable subscription or an active trial. External people may instead bring their own subscription. Receiving documents is different: public links and transmittals reach people who are not members at all. |
| Available platforms | Any modern browser — nothing to install, and the people you invite join from a link | Browser and mobile, with a Desktop Connector that maps the cloud store into the desktop file system. |
| How the review is structured | ||
| What the review is built from | A numbered comment. Anything drawn on the page belongs to that comment rather than standing on its own. | A document in a controlled cloud folder — PDF, PNG, JPG, DWG or RVT — with markups on it and issues, approvals and transmittals around it. |
| Replies | Threaded under the comment, each attributed and dated, with image attachments, and carried into the register | Yes, on the Issue. An Issue carries a comment stream with @mentions of members, roles and companies, plus an activity log. |
| Status workflow | Open, In progress and Closed — three fixed states, and the status travels into the Excel register | Yes, at both levels. An Issue carries its own status, type and assignee and moves through them as work proceeds; around that sit document approvals, transmittals and audit controls. |
| Comment numbering | Numbers are stable — delete comment 5 and the gap stays, so item 12 still means item 12 in every email and every export | Yes. Autodesk Docs states that a new issue “will automatically be assigned the next sequential number”, and that number travels into the XLSX export as its ID column. |
| One issue, several drawing locations | One comment can own several markers while keeping one number and one reply thread | One placement per issue. Autodesk Docs states that an issue can be placed on only one file or sheet, with a single issue pin. |
| Activity history | Every action timestamped and attributed to the person who made it | Yes. Each Issue carries its own activity log, and project activity tracking, audit controls and document version history sit around it. |
| Revision handling | Comments stay tied to the revision they were raised against, in one workflow | Markups persist through file versions, according to Autodesk’s own markup material — so earlier marks stay visible as versions change. |
| Measuring and markup | ||
| Measuring on the drawing | Length, polylength, perimeter and area, calibrated to the page scale | Yes. The viewer measures straight line, polyline, freeform line, rectangular area, polygon area and freeform area, calibrated either from two known points or by setting the drawing scale, with units and precision. Forma Takeoff (formerly Autodesk Takeoff) is a separate product for quantities and estimating — a different job from measuring a sheet. |
| Setting the drawing scale | Pick a standard scale, type your own, name the sheet size, or calibrate from a distance you already know | Yes, in the viewer itself. Set a predefined scale or calibrate from two points, with calibrated line and area measurement. Autodesk Takeoff is not required for it. |
| Building your own reusable symbols | Check, cross, attention, arrow and cloud — five fixed review symbols, not a custom library | Markup tools and stamps are available in the viewer. |
| Measuring quantities for pricing a job | Not included — measurements are there to explain a comment, not to cost work | Yes, but as a separate purchase. Forma Takeoff is its own product. Xenmark does not do this at all. |
| What comes out of the review | ||
| What you send back | The two documents come out ready to send — there is nothing to set up first, because the review was structured that way from the start | Documents, markups, issues and transmittals, downloaded or exported from the platform. The drawing and the issue register come out of different places. |
| Comment plan PDF | The drawing with each comment numbered and shown where it applies | An annotated PDF. Markups can be downloaded with the document. |
| Spreadsheet output | An Excel file listing every comment, numbered to match the PDF | Yes, and it is a real register. The Issue Summary exports to XLSX carrying ID, Title, Status, Category, Type, Description, Assigned to, Created on, Due date, Start date, Location, Placement and Root cause. |
| Measurements in the export | Drawn on the comment plan PDF where they were placed, and listed on their own sheet in the Excel file, kept separate from the comments | Measuring is documented in the viewer. The XLSX issue export carries ID, title, status, category, type, description, assignee, dates, location, location details, placement and root cause. |
| What you keep when the project ends | A single zip file — every revision's exports, the attachments and the full activity log, downloaded and stored on your side | Stronger than ours, and it is what the product is for. Cloud document management with versions, transmittals and audit controls, held as the project record. Xenmark hands you a zip and expects you to keep it. |
| Branded reports | Your company logo and text on both deliverables, inherited from Company Settings — Plus and Pro | Yes — Reports carry a custom logo setting accepting JPEG, GIF, PNG or BMP. |
| What else each one does | ||
| Batch operations across many PDFs | Not included — a review works on one drawing set at a time | Substantial, though not a PDF processor. Up to 200 files can be exported at once across PDF, DWG and RVT, optionally including markups and Issues, delivered as a ZIP. General-purpose batch PDF editing of the Bluebeam kind is a different thing and is not part of it. |
| Comparing two drawings against each other | Not included — differences get raised as comments by the people reviewing | Yes. Two file versions can be selected and compared from version history, with 2D comparison across PDF, RVT and DWG and changes highlighted. |
| Working offline | Browser only, so you need a connection | Yes, with a tier caveat. The Desktop Connector has an explicit Work Offline mode that synchronises on reconnection, and the mobile app keeps project data available offline. Note that mobile access is not included with Essentials. Xenmark needs a connection throughout. |
| Storing documents long term | Not what it is for. You download the exports and keep them wherever your project records already live. | Yes — that is the product. Cloud document management, versions, transmittals and audit controls. |
| CAD integrations and creating PDFs from CAD | None — a review starts from a PDF that has already been produced | Yes, and it is the whole point. AutoCAD, Revit, Civil 3D, the Desktop Connector and the wider Autodesk estate. Xenmark connects to none of it and starts from a PDF someone has already produced. |
| Connecting to a document management system | No integrations yet — the closing archive is a single zip you file wherever your records already live | It is one. Xenmark has no integrations yet. |
Two things have changed since most write-ups of this product, and both matter to the price. Autodesk Docs is now sold as Forma Data Management, and it is a different product from Forma Build, which was the former Autodesk Build. On the US store Forma Data Management is $45 a month paid annually — $540 a year for one user — or $70 a month paid monthly, with a thirty-day trial.
The part that decides most comparisons is the bundle. Forma Data Management Essentials is included with eligible standalone AutoCAD, Revit and Civil 3D subscriptions and with the Product Design and Manufacturing Collection, and Autodesk states it is not available as a standalone product. If your designers hold those seats, you already have it. If they do not, the entry point is a paid licence. Xenmark is €14.99 – €59.99 / month, with a Free plan that runs a complete review and invited reviewers who pay nothing.
| Xenmark | Autodesk Docs | |
|---|---|---|
| Billing unit | Per project capacity, monthly | Per subscription on the US store, annually or monthly, with named-user access |
| Entry point | Free — one active review, start to finish, no card | A thirty-day trial, or Essentials bundled with an eligible AutoCAD, Revit or Civil 3D subscription |
| To run a review yourself | Free | From $45 a month paid annually, or $70 monthly, without a design subscription. Essentials is not sold on its own |
| Paid range | €14.99 – €59.99 / month | $45 a month paid annually ($540/year), or $70 paid monthly |
| Invited reviewers | Free — no per-user charge; 5–30 project members depending on plan, and the person running the review is one of them | Named-user and package-dependent. No free external-reviewer rule is published |
| Tax basis | Including VAT | USD · US store · tax basis not stated |
Xenmark — current as of 29 August 2026. Autodesk Docs — checked 27 August 2026 on the US store, in dollars, where the plan selector shows $45 a month paid annually ($540 a year for one user) and $70 paid monthly. Autodesk prices vary by region and by package, and nothing here is converted. The page states no tax basis; Xenmark prices include VAT. Note also that Forma Data Management and Forma Build are different products with different prices — Build was the former Autodesk Build, and its figures do not belong on this page.
Not on Autodesk’s own pages. It is now sold as Forma Data Management, and the old Autodesk Docs overview address renders the new product. This page uses the older name because it is what people search for.
One thing worth keeping straight: Forma Data Management is not Forma Build. Build is the former Autodesk Build, a separate product with separate pricing. Comparisons that treat “Autodesk Docs / Autodesk Build” as one thing are out of date.
It can be, in one specific way. Forma Data Management Essentials is included with eligible standalone AutoCAD, Revit and Civil 3D subscriptions and with the Product Design and Manufacturing Collection — and Autodesk states that Essentials “is not available as a standalone product”.
So if your designers hold those seats, you already have it and nothing further is due. If they do not, the entry point is a thirty-day trial and then Forma Data Management from $45 a month paid annually on the US store, or $70 monthly. There is no permanent free tier for someone outside the Autodesk estate.
To take part in the workflow, yes. Autodesk Docs states that being invited does not itself grant product entitlement: an invited member needs an applicable subscription or an active trial, or can bring their own subscription. Simply receiving files is different — public links and transmittals reach people who are not members.
In Xenmark the people you invite read, reply and download the exports without paying, and the Project Manager decides whether each one is a Participant or an Editor who creates comments and pins. That is available on every plan, including Free.
Autodesk’s own markup material says markup types persist through file versions, so earlier marks stay visible as versions change. That is a real advantage over products where markup vanishes with the sheet it was drawn on.
In Xenmark a comment stays tied to the revision it was raised against, and all of the revisions sit inside the same review.
The Issues tool exports to XLSX, carrying ID, title, status, category, type, description, assignee, dates, location, location details, placement and root cause. That is an issue register; markup downloads and markup history are separate outputs.
In Xenmark the Excel register lists every comment numbered to match the comment plan PDF, with the measurements on their own sheet in the same file, and both come out ready to send.
It measures. The viewer measures straight line, polyline, freeform line, rectangular area, polygon area and freeform area, calibrated either from two known points or by setting the drawing scale. Forma Takeoff, formerly Autodesk Takeoff, is a separate product for quantities and estimating — a different job from measuring a sheet.
Xenmark measures length, polylength, perimeter and area against the page scale to explain a comment, and puts those values on their own sheet in the Excel export. It is not a takeoff or estimating product, and does not compete with one.
No. Forma Data Management is a governed cloud document store for an AEC project — versions, issues, approvals, transmittals, audit controls, markup across several file types, and direct ties into AutoCAD, Revit and Civil 3D. Xenmark holds none of that.
Xenmark covers the part where a drawing set goes out to several people for comment and something structured has to come back. For a practice already inside Autodesk, the two sit next to each other rather than competing.
When your designers already hold AutoCAD, Revit or Civil 3D subscriptions, which include Essentials. When the project is already an Autodesk project and the documents should live beside the models. When the documents have to be governed with approvals, transmittals and audit controls for the life of the job. And when you need takeoff, which Autodesk sells as a separate product and Xenmark does not offer.
We sell Xenmark, so this is not an independent review. We have tried to describe Autodesk Docs accurately, and the Autodesk Docs claims on this page rest on Autodesk’s own product, trial and help pages. The documents are named below. Capabilities and pricing change, and this product has been renamed recently. Autodesk Docs feature information was last checked on 29 August 2026, and the pricing on 27 August 2026.
The feature rows on this page are taken from Autodesk’s own help centre and are quoted as they were found there. The commercial facts — the rename to Forma Data Management, the $45 starting price, the thirty-day trial, and Essentials being bundled with eligible design subscriptions rather than sold on its own — were read in a browser on the date stamped above.
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