archoverflow DOCS
Tools
Projects
PRIVATE BETA

Getting started

Projects and schemes

A project holds your work for one job across every tool; each saved piece of work inside it is a scheme.

Projects #

A project is one job: a building, a campus, a competition. It holds the work from every tool for that job in one place, along with the people who can see it and a few facts about the job, like its location and climate zone.

A project belongs to one owner: you, or a firm. See Projects and Firms.

Schemes #

Each saved piece of work inside a project is a scheme: a schedule, a wall section, a space program, a deck, a climate study. One project can hold several schemes from the same tool, like schedule A and schedule B, next to a Cartoon Set and a Pinup deck.

Every save of a scheme is kept as a version, and you can freeze any version as a labeled snapshot. See Saving and versions.

Where work can live #

Work in a tool lives in one of these places. The Projects pill in the bar at the top shows which one.

  • A project. In your account, saved as you work, and visible to the project's people.
  • No project. Every account with tool access has one called No project. Work you save to the cloud without picking a project lands there: backed up in your account, just not filed. Move a scheme into a real project from its project page with Move to a project….
  • Local. On this computer only, in this browser. ArchOverflow has no copy until you push it into a project. See Local only.
  • A project folder or file on your computer. Every tool's work for one project, kept in a folder you pick. See Project folders.

Start a scheme from a project #

  1. Open the project's page: click Projects in the bar, then the project.
  2. Under Tool schemes, click + New ▾.
  3. Pick a tool. Tools with templates list Blank and then each template.

The tool opens with the new scheme already saved in that project. Climate tools also get the project's approximate location, so the nearest weather stations come up first.

Only tools listed in the tool menu appear under + New ▾. You need to be an editor or above on the project.

Start a scheme in a tool #

Each tool opens on its home screen. It lists the work you can open (on this computer and in your projects) and, under Start fresh, a blank scheme and the tool's templates. Work you start here is Local until you push it into a project.

To get back to a tool's home screen from a scheme, click Tools in the bar.

Push work into a project #

  1. In the tool, open the Project ▾ menu.
  2. Click Push to a project….
  3. Pick a project and click Push into "…", or type a name under New project… and click Create "…" and push.

Some tools check the work against the project's facts first, like a wall's climate zone. If they don't match, the window says so and offers Push anyway or to use the project's value.

Pull work out of a project #

The Project ▾ menu in most tools has two ways out:

  • Pull out — keep the project's copy. You get your own copy to keep working on. The project keeps the scheme as it was.
  • Pull out — remove from the project. The scheme leaves the project entirely.

Open a project's schemes #

  • From the project page: click a scheme's name.
  • From a tool: its home screen lists the schemes in your projects, and Project ▾ lists them by project.