Introduction to Files and Drives in BackOps

Files is the Drive where an event's drawings, riders, certificates and decks live, organized around a file record instead of a pile of uploads. One record holds every version of a document, every format of each version, the people it is shared with, and the reviews that sign it off.

Why Files Matters

File management sits at the center of production work, and the usual tools fight it. A lighting plot exists as a Vectorworks file, a PDF for review and a DWG for the venue, so it ends up as three files in a subfolder. It changes every few days, so the folder fills with Stage_Rigging_v2.pdf, Stage_Rigging_FINAL.pdf and Stage_Rigging_FINAL_FINAL.pdf, and nobody is sure which is current. The approval happens in an email thread that never touches the file.

Files puts all of that on one record inside the event. A new upload becomes the next version of the same file, so the latest is always the one on top. The formats of a version sit together. Reviewers approve or request changes on a specific version, and the file's status shows where sign-off stands. Because the Drive lives in the event, access follows the event's own collaborators and areas instead of a separate share list.

How Files Works

The record. A file has versions (Version 1, Version 2 and on), and each version has one or more formats of the same content. Comments and reviews attach to a version, so feedback stays with the iteration it was about.

Three kinds of file. A Drive holds:

• Files: uploads, with versions and formats.
• Deliverables: placeholders for a file someone owes you, assigned with a due date, that fill in as versions are uploaded.
• Links: a pointer to a document that lives elsewhere, such as a Google Doc or a Figma file, shown with its provider's icon.

Where files live. Each event has one Drive, split into an Event section for the whole event, one section per collaborator and one per area. You see the sections you have access to. The organization has its own Drive with sections for the organization, its departments and its locations. Shared with me lists everything shared with you directly.

Who sees what. Access comes from your role on the event, collaborator or area, plus anything shared with you. A file or folder can be shared with crew members, collaborators and areas at View, Edit or Admin, and a sharing link gives people outside BackOps view access.

flowchart TD
    D["Event Drive"] --> E["Event"]
    D --> C["Collaborators (one each)"]
    D --> A["Areas (one each)"]
    E --> F["File"]
    F --> V1["Version 1"]
    F --> V2["Version 2"]
    V2 --> P["PDF"]
    V2 --> W["DWG"]
    V2 --> R["Reviews and comments"]

Uploads count against your organization's storage allowance; an upload that would go over it is refused with a message saying so.