Pro Tier Features

Discover powerful new features for teams that want faster, more efficient spec writing, and greater control over their projects. Especially if your firm handles a high volume of projects, or more complex projects, discover how you can streamline your workflows with DesignSpec PRO.

SPEC LIBRARY

Setting up your Library

Creating Specs in the Library

Specs can be created within the library by clicking on the red + NEW button. You can capture the same information as if you were creating it within a project, with images, documents, vendor contact and custom attributes.

You will need to add the item quantity after you copy a spec into a project.

Copying Spec into a Project

Click on the spec and go to the projects tab, here you will see a button, ‘+ ADD TO PROJECT’.

On this same tab you will see all of the projects that contain this spec.

Before the spec is added to the project you will see what the default code is (this will coincide with what you have setup for the coding scheme on the overview tab).

The stage selected will be the first stage setup on the ‘Spec Stages pink tab’, however you can update the stage before the spec goes into the project.

Multi Office Support & Setup

Addresses can be added to your account on the Company Settings tab, to get there just click on the settings icon in the top right corner.

Address Setup

Company Settings Tab – Set up addresses, phone and fax numbers.

Assigning Offices to Users

Users Tab – Send a team member an invite to join the account, once they are active on the account, you can assign an office to that user.

Once the office address is assigned to a user, they can set up a default office location on the projects tab. Every they login they will only see the projects for that office, this makes for quick easy access. *Each time you set up a project, make sure the correct office is assigned for the default project setting to be activate.

Assigning Offices to Projects

Project office names can be assigned to a project within the ‘Project Details’ from the grey Overview tab.

With the ‘Project Permissions’ feature (see below), project access can be automatically restricted to only team members from the assigned office.

Vendor Representatives can be assigned to one or multiple office locations. When assigning a vendor to a spec within your project, the vendor rep will also populate the contact box, based on the assigned office location.

1. Set up the vendor representative contact.

2. Assign a vendor to the rep, along with one or more offices to Vendor Representative.

3. Assign the vendor to the specification and the rep will automatically populate the contact information. If there is more than one rep for each office, all reps will be listed at the top of the dropdown menu.

Office Address Set up on Reports

Setup reports to automatically show the appropriate office information based on the project’s assigned office. General attribute information can be setup on a cover page or header footer, this information will update per project.

To learn more about setting up custom reports, cover pages and header/footers you can watch our Report Designer Tutorial.

Roles & Permissions

Setting up User Roles

Setting up and assigning roles can be done before or after your account is setup and users are on the account. If you are enabling the user permissions after users have been added to the account, make sure each user has a role assigned first.

To set up the roles with permissions, click on the settings icon in the top right corner to see a link from the dropdown menu, that will take you to the Roles tab. Permissions are never activated unless you activate them by clicking on the toggle.

The toggle will enable the user permissions but not the project permissions. If roles are assigned to users on the users’ tab prior to enabling, anyone working in the account will still have access to the current default role settings.

After clicking ‘yes’, you will see a list of default roles, you can rename these or use them as is. Keep in mind as you are setting up the roles, users can have multiple roles assigned so that a hierarchy can be set up providing roles with more access than others.

The Designer Role is viewed as the entry level role, this role generally only has access to the project tabs and not the pink Setup tabs.

In some cases, Senior Designers will have multiple roles assigned, such as a ‘Design Administrator’ along with the ‘Designer’ role, so that they can have access to more areas of the account.

The roles all have default settings when enabled, you can always go in and rename or adjust the settings for areas/tabs to:

*If Roles are assigned that give all users access to the setup tabs across multiple offices, may offer the opportunity for changes to the account setup, reports and company standards to occur. *

Assigning Roles to Users

1. Go to the users’ tab and check the box beside the user you would like to assign a role(s) to.

2. Click on ‘Assign Roles’ and select the role(s) from the pop up window.

Setting up Project Permissions

*Before enabling the project permissions feature, please ensure that all users and projects have an office location assigned, otherwise users will not be able access project information. *

Assigning Office Locations to Users

1. First make sure that the office location address is setup on the Company Settings tab.
2. Go to the users’ tab, check the box beside the users name, then the ‘Assign Office’.
*Office locations can also be updated using the above steps.
Important to Note**A user must be active on the account to have an office location assigned**

Assigning Office Locations & Setting Up Permissions for Projects

1. First make sure that the office location address is setup on the Company Settings tab.
2. Go into the project details area within the grey Project Overview tab.
3. Select the office location from the dropdown menu and save.

To set permissions for only one office to see the project, while in the project details, go to the access tab, and assign the same office to the project from the ‘Assigned Office’ dropdown menu.

If there are users from other projects collaborating on this project, you can also assign specific users to have access to this project, from the ‘Directly Assigned to Project’ dropdown.

For account owners and users who need access to all projects, you can grant them access on the users tab.

Click on the 3 dots beside that users name, here you can remove an office location and grant them access to all projects.

Advanced Spec Coding

Setup a default coding scheme that allows you to create specs using the code set up required for the project without having to make manual updates.

Setting up the code scheme

Each project can have a different coding scheme, to set up the coding scheme, go to the project details within the grey project’s, overview tab to set the option.

You can setup your coding scheme with,

Category Number Range Setup

The number ranges will set up your code with a specific number that represents a certain category of product types, i.e. Seating 100’s, Lighting 700’s, Casegoods 500’s.

1. Go to the pink Spec Type tab and click on a spec template.
2. Within the template, select manage categories.
3. The default categories can remain or be deleted.
4. To add more categories options, select New+
5. You can order the category names by providing a number, if you are grouping specs by category in a report, they will show in this order.
6. Once you have setup the name and number range you need to make sure that the category is assigned to the relevant spec type templates.

*Duplicate number ranges can be setup if needed.

Copying Specs to Projects

With advanced spec coding, when you are copying a spec from project to project, you can choose from a number of options on how you would like the code to be transferred to the new project for the item(s) being copied.

This is especially helpful if you are copying a project and want to keep the spec codes consistent between both projects.

Revit Integration

Before you begin, ensure you have created the relevant project in DesignSpec that you wish to sync with Revit, as well as download the Revit plug in from the pink Revit tab. Download the plug in that matches the version of Revit you are using.

Once the project is set up, follow these steps using the DesignSpec Sync add-in:

1. Open your project in Revit.
2. Launch the DesignSpec Sync add-in from the Add-ins tab.
3. Sign in to your DesignSpec account.
4. Select the sync direction: Revit to DesignSpec OR DesignSpec to Revit

Revit to DesignSpec

Link Project: Choose the DesignSpec project you want to sync with.

Map Attributes

Map Areas

Sync

Data Synced from Revit to DesignSpec

Note: If the total area quantity does not match the Revit product quantity, DesignSpec will create Areas with no quantity and record the quantity in the general field.

​DesignSpec to Revit

Link Project

● Choose the DesignSpec project you want to sync with Revit.

Map Attributes

● DesignSpec attributes can be mapped to Revit Parameters.

○ Add a shared project parameter if it does not exist.

○ Use Reset Mapping to automatically match DesignSpec attributes to Revit Parameters.

Sync

● Sync specifications to Revit if a matching Product Family with the same Type Mark already exists.

● Click on an attribute to view the DesignSpec-to-Revit fields available for sync.

● Check the box next to each attribute to sync its data to the corresponding Revit Product.

Note: If the data can be converted into the appropriate Revit data type, the sync process should function without issues.

Data Synced from DesignSpec to Revit

● Architectural

● Category

● FFE

● Furnished / Installed By

● Shipping Cost

● Spec Stage

● Summary Notes

● Website

● Vendor

● Vendor Representative

● Manufacturer

● Parameters (Attributes)

Revit Integration Tutorial Video – Revit Tutorial Video

Slack Integration