Overview
Fieldwire users on a Business or Business Plus Subscription have the option to set up 2-way syncs between their Fieldwire projects and Box, Dropbox, and/or OneDrive accounts. This type of sync allows Fieldwire to automatically upload individual or entire sets of plans and files into your Fieldwire account whenever you add those files to your Box, Dropbox, or OneDrive. Additionally, any changes made to these folders in Fieldwire automatically update the files they correspond to in Box, Dropbox, or OneDrive. Setting up a 2-way sync essentially creates two sets of "mirrored" project files in Fieldwire and your cloud storage platform.
However, keep in mind:
- You should treat either Fieldwire or your Box/Dropbox/OneDrive account as your default location for future uploads (instead of uploading to both). This helps to avoid conflicts; if there is a conflict, the programming logic treats Fieldwire as the source of truth.
- Forms, Photos, and As-builts only sync in one direction (from Fieldwire to Box, Dropbox, or OneDrive). Files and Plans sync in both directions. Here's a better visualization:
- 2-way syncing connects your cloud storage platform(s) to individual Fieldwire projects, rather than your entire Fieldwire account. This means you can connect one Box account to one project and a different Box, Dropbox, or OneDrive account to another project in the same Fieldwire account. You can also connect the same Box, Dropbox, or OneDrive account to all of your projects if you choose, but you'll need to establish the connection (by following the steps below) in each project.
Table of Contents
- How does this look in Box, Dropbox, or OneDrive?
- Before You Begin
- How to Set Up the 2-Way Sync in a Project
- Check the Connection
- Plans & Files: 2-Way Sync
- Version Control
- Photos, Forms & As-builts: 1-Way Sync
- How to Disconnect
- Tutorial Video
How does this look in Box, Dropbox, or OneDrive?
The first time you set up the 2-Way sync in a project, a 'Fieldwire' folder is automatically created in Box, Dropbox, or OneDrive.
Subsequently, each project you connect to Box, Dropbox, or OneDrive will automatically create a separate project folder within the 'Fieldwire' folder. Within each project folder, you'll find individual folders for Plans, Photos, Files, and As-Builts:
Before You Begin
Before you set up the 2-way Sync connection between your project(s) and your cloud storage platform, please make note of the following recommended "Dos and Don'ts" to help avoid synchronization issues:
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Do:
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Don't:
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How to Set Up the 2-Way Sync in a Project
To set up a 2-way sync between one of your Fieldwire projects and a Box, Dropbox, or Onedrive account, please follow these steps:
| 1. Click on '+ New plan' |
| 2. Select Dropbox, Box, or OneDrive: | |
A new tab will open, where you'll be prompted to enter your login credentials for the cloud storage platform you selected. Enter the pertinent credentials for the Box, Dropbox, or OneDrive account you want to connect to Fieldwire. You'll know that's successful if you see a new Box, Dropbox, or OneDrive button at the top of your plans page:
Note: If using OneDrive for the 2-way sync, please ensure the account you are connecting to has a valid OneDrive license included in your Microsoft 365 subscription. You can refer to this Microsoft article to review your options.
You can also utilize the Microsoft help center to learn how to assign and remove licenses to your users on an enterprise, or company plan.
Note: Fieldwire doesn't hold the account credentials such as email or passwords when a connection is created between a 2-way sync source. The connection is made using a token. This is also for security reasons.
Check the Connection
The 'Dropbox' (or Box, or OneDrive) button indicates that you've set up your sync. Click on this button to see the connected Dropbox, Box, or OneDrive account, the Fieldwire account that set up the 2-way sync, and the last 'push & pull' to and from the synced program to your Fieldwire account:
- The Dropbox (or Box, or OneDrive) account is the email address of the connected account.
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The 'Fieldwire account' is the user's email that established the connection between Fieldwire and the 2-way sync source.
- The 'Token' shows whether or not the sync is 'Valid'. This indicates whether or not the content is pushing from Fieldwire to Box, Dropbox, or OneDrive (or vice versa).
- The last 'pull' is when information is updated in Fieldwire and then "pulled" to update the corresponding files in Box, Dropbox, or OneDrive.
- The last 'push' is when information is updated in Box, Dropbox, or OneDrive and then "pushed" to update the corresponding files in Fieldwire.
Please note that the most recent pushes & pulls refer to any project that has recently synced, rather than the specific project you are viewing. It's possible that the project you are viewing is still in the queue and has yet to be synced.
Tip: To force an immediate update (sync) on any particular project, add a quick markup to any plan. This will initiate Box, Dropbox, or OneDrive to force a "pull" from Fieldwire.
Plans & Files: 2-Way Sync
When you add new plan sheets to the Plans folder of the project in Box, Dropbox, or OneDrive, they'll automatically push to Fieldwire. If you upload plans to Fieldwire, they will pull to the Plans folder in the connected cloud storage platform. Similarly, if you add content to the 'Files' folder in Box, Dropbox, or OneDrive it will push to Fieldwire and vice-versa. Since this is 2-way sync, any name edits or plan deletions in one program will automatically occur in the other program. The same is true for Files.
If you'd like to upload plans through your cloud storage platform, upload single-page files (as opposed to multipage), make sure that the plan name of the new version plan matches the existing version, and choose to 'Replace' the file.
A few notes:
- The 'Plan' size limit for content uploaded to the 'Plans' folder in the cloud storage platform is 1GB. The 'File' size limit for content uploaded to the 'Files' folder in the cloud storage platform is 200 mb. We suggest waiting to upload plans until the sync has been successfully set up in order to keep your version control in check.
- If uploading multipage plans, upload through Fieldwire and allow Fieldwire to work its magic in terms of splitting out the plans and correctly naming them. Please refer to "How are Plans named in Fieldwire?" for more information.
- Typically, it is best practice to pick one upload method and to stick with it once the 2-way sync is set up. For example, if you upload plans through Fieldwire, continue to upload plans through Fieldwire.
- You can create an unlimited set of subfolders within the 'Files' folder in your connected Box, Dropbox, or OneDrive account. The Files folders will automatically create those subfolders within Fieldwire, but the sub-entities have to have unique names.
Example:
files/myfolder/mysubfolderfiles/myfolder/mysubfolder
- Plans and Files that are stored under the ‘All Plans’ or 'All Files' folders in Fieldwire will appear as ‘loose files’ in the cloud storage of your choice. To organize these, create a folder in Fieldwire or your cloud storage platform and move the 'loose files' into it.
| Files stored under 'All Files' in Fieldwire: | How the files appear in Cloud Storage (OneDrive) |
2-way Sync and the Trash tab
When deleting plans and files in Fieldwire, it is always a good idea to double-check that you want to delete that information. That said, if you accidentally delete plans or files, they will be temporarily restorable from the Trash tab in Fieldwire. This is true whether you delete the plans/files in Fieldwire, or delete them in your cloud storage platform. However, in terms of restoring this information to your project, you should only restore plans/files from the Fieldwire trash tab as issues can occur when trying to restore plans from the Box, Dropbox, or OneDrive side. In addition, after deleting the plans/files, you have 30 days to restore that information to your Fieldwire project. Thus, even if this information still resides in the trash of your cloud storage platform, it can only be recovered in Fieldwire within those 30 days. After the 30 days have passed, you'll need to re-upload the plan/file as if it were new.
Version control
Viewing old versions of plans within Fieldwire is intended to be simple. There is a list of all old versions of the plan in the bottom right menu on web, and the bottom left menu on mobile.
But when a syncing issue arises, you may need to look for older versions on the program you are syncing with. Here's how to find your old versions on Dropbox, Box, and OneDrive:
Dropbox:
Find the plan that you'd like to view the versions for. Click the ellipsis at the right hand side, and select "Version history".
From there, we can see: 1) when the plan was uploaded, 2) which is the current version, and 3) who uploaded or edited that recent version. For older versions, you have the option to 4) restore the plan. If you see text like 5), you'll know that any version below that text was deleted. This tells us that only two versions of the plan sheet AR-2F02 are currently stored on Fieldwire.
Box:
You'll see the most current version right within your folder. To view the previous versions, click into the plan, then select the ellipsis, and choose "Version History":
OneDrive:
Click into your plan and select "Version history" at the top of the page. A window will open that lists all of the versions previously added. By clicking the ellipsis next to older versions, you have the option to restore an older version:
You can check the version history of your plans by selecting the 'Version History' option in your cloud storage system:
Photos, Forms & As-Builts: 1-Way Sync
The Photos, Forms, & As-Builts folders sync in one direction. When you add new photos to your Fieldwire project, the photos will push to the 'Photos' folder in the connected cloud storage platform. When Forms are updated to a non-editable status (for example, "Submitted"), they will push to the folder that corresponds with the form template that was used. Copies of marked-up plans will push from Fieldwire to the As-Builts folder.
If content is added to the Photos, Forms, or As-Builts folder in Box, Dropbox, or OneDrive, it will not push to Fieldwire. Any subfolders created in the Photos, Forms, or As-Builts folders will also not push to Fieldwire.
Note: Photos synced to your cloud storage platform from Fieldwire are the optimized versions of the photos, as opposed to the original versions.
How to Disconnect
Before disconnecting, it's important to understand what happens to your project data. Please review the following information for Dropbox, OneDrive, and Box:
If you wish to proceed with disabling the 2-way sync between Fieldwire and Box, Dropbox, or OneDrive for any given project, click on the syncing button at the top of the Plans page and select the “Disconnect” option:
You can also disconnect from the 'Settings' tab of the project:
Note: If you reconnect to Box, Dropbox, or OneDrive again in the future, all of the existing data in Fieldwire will replace whatever data was previously stored in the “Fieldwire” folder of the Box, Dropbox, or OneDrive account you're connecting to. If you need to change the 'Fieldwire Account', or the 'Dropbox/Box/OneDrive Account', please refer to this article: How to upload Plans and Files from a different Dropbox, Box, or OneDrive account.
Tutorial Video