Overview
Through the Project Dashboard on the web version of Fieldwire, you can create, archive, and delete projects as well as create project templates (if you are a Pro, Business, or Business Plus subscriber). This article demonstrates how to create a project and leverage project tab features.
If your company works across many small sites and/or jobs, you can either capture each job in one Fieldwire project or separate each job into multiple Fieldwire projects. Prior to creating a project, consider whether or not you’d like one large project or many small projects for your job.
Keep in mind, you can always archive, or hide projects from your users. You can also choose to create a project template when you create new ones. Keep these features in mind when you decide on having one large project, or multiple small projects.
Note: Every new Fieldwire account comes with a Sample Project by default. This project is provided as an example to help new users explore Fieldwire's features. If you see a project in your account that you did not create, it may be the Sample Project included with your account.
One large project - the benefits
The main advantage to keeping all of your small jobs within one, single Fieldwire project is that your task dashboard (including calendar view) will show tasks across all of the jobs. You can then generate reports on these tasks. If you have the same team working across all of your jobs, putting them all in one Fieldwire project could be a good option as all of the information will be contained and displayed in one place.
One thing to keep in mind is that Fieldwire uses OCR Scanning to automatically name and slip sheet new versions of drawings. Please note, if drawing numbers are repeated across these jobs, then you will need to manually name the drawings to avoid Fieldwire's automatic versioning. Manually naming your drawings can be a time-consuming process so if you have many drawing sheets, you may instead consider setting up multiple Fieldwire projects.
Many small projects - the benefits
If you choose to separate your various jobs into individual Fieldwire projects, you can speed up project set-up by using project templates. Project templates allow you to create a new project based on defined project settings, checklists, people, folder structure, and categories.
The main difference with this set-up will be the way that tasks are viewed. Project data is always kept separate from other project data, meaning if you want to view the tasks for one of your jobs, you'll need to open up that specific project to see them. However, you can copy standard tasks (not including the content within them) between projects by using the task importer.
In this set-up, you will be able to upload plans to the individual projects without any versioning errors, allowing you to make use of Fieldwire's automatic OCR scanning and versioning capabilities. If you have large quantities of drawing sheets, this will save you a bunch of time on your projects!
How to Create a Project
Creating a project is a simple, step-by-step process. From the web version of Fieldwire, add a new project (click the + New project button on the Project Dashboard). Here, you have the option to start with a blank project or utilize a project template that you have already created.
A prompt will help guide you through the process of uploading plans, adding categories, and inviting users. You can then begin to add tasks, plan markups, etc. as your project progresses. We recommend creating your new project and uploading plans from a web browser, as it will be faster to set up than on mobile.
Check out the tutorial video for a visual walkthrough of setting up your first project!
Note: Only the Account Owner, Account Managers, and Accounts Users can create projects. Project Users can create projects, but they may not have the additional Pro, Business, or Business Plus features.
Project Tab Features
You can click on the thumbnail of the project to open the project:
How do I create a project template?
If you have similar projects, you can save time during the project setup by creating a project template. Creating a Project Template will allow you to apply the same settings you can designate from a blank template or from a project you've already created.
As the largely preferred method of creating projects by Business and Business Plus customers, project templates can be an extremely useful tool to help speed up the project creation process. If you are a Pro, Business, or Business Plus customer and are interested in learning more about how to create a project template, take a look at this article: How to Create Project Templates.
What is a Project Code?
Project Codes help to organize and sort your projects. Instead of inputting your Project code as part of the Project title, there is a dedicated space to input this.
How to add a Project Code
Whenever you create a new project, you have the option to add a project code.
Project Admins can retroactively add or adjust a Project Code on the 'Settings' tab of the project.
Sort by Project Code
In addition to sorting projects alpha-numerically (this is the default setting) you can also opt to sort the projects by project code:
How to 'star' a Project
Starring a project means marking it as a favorite. Starred projects appear at the top of your project dashboard, giving you quick access to the projects you use most.
Note: This is a personal setting; it only affects your own view.
To star a project:
- Select the star icon on the project thumbnail.
- Make sure "Starred" is selected in your sorting options — otherwise, starred projects won't appear at the top of your list.
How do I filter projects?
You can now filter your projects on the projects dashboard! This will allow you to more easily locate and organize your projects.
To do so, you'll first need to click on the 'Filter projects' button.
After clicking on the 'Filter projects' button, you'll see several options that you can use to filter your projects. The options include "Labels", "Projects' Account Owner", and "Time filters". Labels is referring to Project Labels that we cover in more detail later in this article, and Time filters includes options such as 'Last modified' and 'Created'.
Lastly, there is the option to filter your projects by the Projects' Account Owner. This will be a dropdown where you can select potentially various emails to locate who owns which projects, making your Project Dashboard more organized and manageable.
How to Manage your Projects
Where are my Archived Projects?
For information about archived projects, check out this article: How to Find, View, and Unarchive Archived Projects
How do I Delete or Remove a Project?
We generally recommend archiving projects instead of outright deleting them, but we do offer a "delete" option (which can only be utilized by Account Managers):
Note: Some data will be deleted automatically when a project is deleted.
- Project Notifications
- Project Labels
- Account Report Templates
- Specifications
- RFIs
- Submittals
This is permanent and cannot be recovered.
Plan sheets may also be automatically deleted from the project database; however, this is dependent on how long the project has remained in the "deleted" state (after 30 days, the deletion will be definitive). Please exercise caution when deleting projects!
If you are already within your project, you can delete it by going to the Settings tab and clicking on the red "Delete project" button at the bottom of the page.
If you accidentally delete a project, please follow the steps in this article.
Additionally, when a project is deleted, some users may be deleted from your account. However, if the project users are on any other project covered by your account, the account will still be financially responsible for these users. If you wish to remove certain users entirely from your account, you can remove them from each individual project or delete them on the Account People Tab.
Accessing Your Projects
Once you have created your project, you will be taken directly into it where you will go through the project onboarding that includes uploading your plan sheets, various categories, as well as how to set up Fieldwire on your mobile device. If you are already familiar with project setup, you can get rid of the onboarding by simply clicking the "x" in the upper right-hand corner of the pop-up.
Additionally, if you want to quickly change projects, you can click on the project name in the upper left-hand corner of the page where you will be able to see all of the projects you have access as well as a ‘recent projects’ section, which displays the 5 most recently visited projects, making navigation throughout Fieldwire and your projects faster and easier.