What is a Project?

A Project holds the drawings and the live desk.

In the world: Mercy Hospital, stairs and rails package, this bid. In the app: one Project holding every plan PDF for that bid, the people who can open it, and one takeoff desk they all join.

It is not a PDF. It is not a Set (Sets come later: many Documents as one tab). It is not a Bluebeam Session. If two people need the same sheet at 4pm, they open the Project. They don’t email a marked-up file around.

Where this lives

Projects in the sidebar is every Project this login can open. New Project is the next client. Inside a Project: Settings, Documents, Members, Teams. Share in the header is the same people list as Members.

Empty Project: Add a Document. Open that file and you’re on the desk: calibrate, measure, CSV. Recents remembers what you actually opened.

Create a Project

1. Sidebar → Projects → New Project (Recents has the same action).
2. Pick the Organization if you belong to more than one.
3. Name it for the bid (Mercy Hospital stairs and rails).
4. Create. You are Full control on that Project.

Then Add a Document. Any org member can create a Project. Guests cannot.

What lives in a Project

• Documents: one PDF (or image) each. Always. A second file is a second Document. What a Document is.
• People: org members who inherit access, plus people and Teams you grant, plus guests by email. Collaborators vs roles.
• The desk: empty Project waits for a PDF. Open a Document from Recents or Project → Documents and you’re on a page, calibrating and measuring.

Markups never move up to the Project row. Lengths live on the Document. Project totals are a view over those files (today: the Markups List / Summary CSV on the open Doc).

Why every PDF has a Project

Unfiled Documents are invalid. Takeoff requires a Project. That’s on purpose: the collab unit and the file cabinet are the same object, so you don’t grow a second “Studio” product later.

Signup left the cabinet empty. New Project is the first bid. Pick the Organization, name the Project, then Add a Document.

Creating a Project seeds you as Full control. It does not fan out a grant to every org member. They inherit Edit when the org’s Project access is “all members,” which is the shop default. Invite someone to the org and they still don’t land on every live Project.

Project → Members (or Share) is who can open this bid: people, Teams, guests. Give the least role that fits. A PM who only reads the qty wants View, not Edit.

Same desk, not a Session

Anyone with permission can be in at the same time. Edit can change unlocked markups at the same time. View and Comment are still on the sheet; they don’t write geometry.

Share is named people and Teams, not anyone-with-the-link. A guest can take off this bid without becoming an org member.

If you came from Revu: keep the markup grammar on the desk (Length is still Length). Don’t look for Studio Projects as a checkout cabinet, or a Session you Finish so the PDF “exists.” The Project is the live desk. One app, not Revu plus Studio plus Cloud. How two people work that takeoff: Working together. Browser desk or a Mac / Windows install: same Project.

Archive

Archive the Project from Settings (Archive this project, then type the name). It leaves Projects / Recents for everyone, not only you. Child Documents are not stamped archived; they hide with the parent. Restore the Project from Trash and the live files come back with it. A Document that was deleted on its own stays archived. After you restore the Project, that row returns to Trash if it is still inside 30 days. Same idea if you archive the Organization: every live Project underneath hides without you touching each one.

You need Full control to archive a Project. An Organization can have zero live Projects. Rename is Edit or Full control. Trash holds the Project for 30 days. After that it leaves Trash and you cannot restore it.

Evaluating this

A commercial precon team uses Restricted Project access, Teams, and guests so another office and a sub see this bid and not the company directory. A one-person desk can stay on one Organization until there is a second person. Same Project object.

The measuring loop is still how it works. That’s takeoff, not a priced bid: takeoff vs estimating. Measuring the set, with stairs as the worked package: quantities. A measure desk, not another estimating platform: takeoff without a platform. Shared viewing without a Session product is the collab people actually name in software-choice threads. Pick the job first. The longer live-desk walk: Working together.

Next: Documents, delete and restore, Browser desk, cloud sync, Working together, organization members, Project collaborators, Teams, who can open a Project.