How to Collaborate on a Wiring Harness Design in Real Time

Short answer: put the harness in HarnessHive, invite your teammates to the workspace with a role, and send them the harness link from the Share button. Everyone who opens it edits the same live model, sees each other's cursors and changes as they happen, and can undo only their own work.

Most harness teams pass around a schematic in one tool, a wire list in Excel and a drawing somewhere else, and spend review time finding out which copy is current. This guide shows how several people work on one harness without that.

What you need

  • A HarnessHive workspace and a harness to work on.
  • Teammates with a Viewer, Editor or Admin role. Roles apply to every harness in the workspace.
  • A browser. There is nothing to install.

Work on one harness together in five steps

  1. Invite your team. An admin opens Settings, then Team, and invites members with a role. Viewers open harnesses read only, Editors edit them, and Admins edit and manage the team. You can change a role later, remove a member or revoke a pending invitation.
  2. Share the harness. In the editor header choose Share. It copies the harness URL, which your teammates open once they are in the workspace.
  3. Edit at the same time. You see collaborators' avatars in the header, plus their cursors and node drags in each view. Concurrent edits merge automatically, so nobody waits for a lock or merges files by hand.
  4. Undo your own work. Cmd+Z or Ctrl+Z, and redo with Cmd+Shift+Z or Ctrl+Y, apply to your own changes. A colleague's work is never reverted by your undo.
  5. Review and recover. Open Version history from the harness menu to inspect earlier changes. Snapshots are written when the last person leaves the harness or the session goes idle, and opening one is read only, so nobody changes the live document by looking.

A review workflow that works

Have the designer keep drawing in the schematic while a reviewer, set to Viewer or Editor, follows along in the same views. Because the schematic, wiring, BOM and formboard are views of one model, the reviewer sees the effect of a change in the manufacturing outputs as it happens. When the design is ready, anyone can print the 1:1 formboard from the same live file.

Before a large change, export the harness as JSON for a deliberate restore point. It is a complete copy of the editable document.

Common mistakes

  • Expecting a public link. Sharing works within your organization. There is no external or public access to a harness.
  • Editing while local only. The editor header shows connected, connecting or local only. While local only, your edits are not reaching collaborators.
  • Giving everyone Admin. Viewer is enough for people who only review. Keep Admin for the people who manage the team.
  • A lapsed trial or subscription. Billing is workspace wide. When it lapses the workspace pauses for every member until an admin resolves it.

FAQ

Can several people edit the same wiring harness at once?

Yes. In HarnessHive a harness is one shared live document. Everyone who opens it edits the same model at the same time, and concurrent edits merge automatically.

Does undo revert my colleague's work?

No. Undo applies only to your own changes, so undoing your work never reverts someone else's.

How do I invite someone to a harness?

An admin invites them from Settings, then Team, with a Viewer, Editor or Admin role. Then use Share in the editor header to copy the harness link.

Can I share a harness with someone outside my organization?

Not as a public link. Sharing works within your organization, and there is no external or public access to a harness.

Can I see what changed and go back?

Yes. Version history in the harness menu lists earlier changes. Opening a snapshot is read only, so you can inspect an earlier state without touching the live document.

Is real time collaboration free for Formula Student teams?

Active Formula Student and FSAE teams get a 4 week trial and then free access with no seat limit, in exchange for a sponsorship package.

Try it with your team

Start a 14 day free trial and invite one teammate to a real harness. Questions? Join our weekly office hours on Discord or book a 30 minute call.