Project Templates

Project templates help you quickly and consistently set up your Design Collaboration workflows. Project templates include settings for teams, team members, and folder structure.

Template files can be exported from existing projects, or you can start with an example JSON-based template file and use any text editor to make changes.

Export a Project Template

Project templates can be exported from existing projects for use in setting up your next project.

1. Open the relevant project, and switch to the Project Admin module.

2. On the Services tab, click Design Collaboration from the left panel.

3. Click the Manage tab.

4. In the Project template section, click Export project template.

   The template file is downloaded to your computer, and can be opened and edited using any text editor if necessary. See Project Template Example for more information.

Import a Project Template

When you import and apply a project template for Design Collaboration, teams are created, team members are added to the teams, and the folder structure in Document Management is set up.

1. Create a project, and switch to the Project Admin module.

2. On the Services tab, activate Design Collaboration for the project.

   Note: Document Management is activated by default when you activate Design Collaboration.

3. Choose whether to use a separate template to specify other project settings:

   • To use a template, select the Apply a project template radio button, and select a project to use as a template.

     This option will apply settings from the selected project for the Document Management, Issues, Cost Management, and Field Management modules. See Project template settings for more information.

   • If you don't want to use a template, select the Don't apply a project template radio button, and then click Activate.

     Note: A warning message is displayed saying that you can't apply a template to a project after activating a service. Click Activate without a template to continue.
     Important:

     You can still apply a template for Design Collaboration after this point.

4. On the Services tab, click Design Collaboration in the left panel.

   Tip: You may need to wait for the services to activate and then refresh the page to see this option.

5. Click Set up with a template.

6. If you've already exported a template for use, browse to it or drag it in to the import dialog box. Alternatively, click Download a blank template to download an example that can be edited using any text editor. See Project Template Example for more information.

Depending on the size of the project defined in the template, the process to set up your new project can take 10 or more minutes. You can leave the import workflow and return later while the process completes in the background. If folders defined in the template already exist in Document Management, new permissions are added to those folders as required.

View a Log

When you've imported a template to set up Design Collaboration, you can view a log of the import process. This provides information about the import process, the details included in the template, and any errors that occurred.

1. Open the Project Admin module and click the Services tab.

2. Click Design Collaboration in the left panel.

3. Click the Manage tab.

4. In the Project Template section, click View log.

5. If necessary, click Copy to clipboard and paste the log details into a text editor.

   Important:

   We recommend that you copy the log details and save them for future reference. The log is deleted two weeks after template import and can't be retrieved.

6. Click Close to close the log.