The construction industry uses forms to collect and share information at every stage of a project. Traditionally on paper, these forms are now being converted into digital forms that enable workers to share information via mobile devices and tablets either at the construction office as well as the job site. There are many benefits of moving to a digital form rather than paper:
Bringing the forms online is one step in digitization for construction firms and contractors, bringing information online into a secure cloud location for real-time and accessible data to use in reporting.
Set up your quality and safety forms to fit your construction project’s needs and ensure all crucial project information is captured.
Save time and increase transparency by connecting forms with issues and RFIs. Create an issue directly from a form, and if needed, escalate that issue to an RFI right away.
Export completed forms in PDF or Excel and easily share them to keep everyone up to date on project status. Include the photos and documents added to the forms in your report to provide further context.
Whether it’ll be only one team member or several working on the same form, choose the collaboration setting that best suits your workflow. Add contributors and reviewers to increase accountability.
Use pre-built templates, import PDFs, or create daily reports and quality and safety checklists from scratch. Make signatures and specific fields required to ensure accountability and data accuracy.
Connect essential pieces of information to your forms so project members get the full picture. Add documents, notes, and jobsite photos and tie your form to a location on a sheet or to a markup.
Get a transparent audit trail of all updates made on a form at a glance. Easily identify the latest update. See assignee changes, added documents, photos, team member signatures, and more.
Use our intuitive mobile app to create and to edit forms on the jobsite, even when you’re offline. Thanks to the robust sync, you’ll always have the most up-to-date project data in your hands.
The Forms tool in Autodesk Build enables your team to fill out, review, and manage project forms. This provides a single secure point to coordinate data collection, photos, and follow-up documents.
Create templates for checklists, daily logs, or other forms for your team, and anyone can complete the forms on site through our Autodesk Construction Cloud mobile app or at the office on the web.
To help you get started right away, Autodesk® Build comes with a set of preconfigured form templates. However, you can also import templates or create a brand new template.
You will receive an email notifying you with updates about relevant templates and forms in these instances:
If you used PlanGrid Field Reports and have your PlanGrid and Autodesk accounts linked, some of your email notifications settings will carry over to Forms in Build.
If you disabled the following notifications in PlanGrid, you will not receive those notifications for Build projects:
You can always use the preconfigured templates in the Forms tool. However, setting up your own custom form templates will give you and your team more control over your forms.
You can create form templates by:
Once you create a form template on the web, you can create forms from it.
The templates will also sync to and can be used in the Autodesk Construction Cloud mobile app.
Learn more in Forms on iOS or Forms on Android.
To get started, navigate to the Templates tab in the Forms tool.
Click Create, and select Create template.
Select Build a new form and click Next.
You can learn about uploading an existing PDF form in Create a Form Template from a Smart PDF.
Now you can select a preconfigured template to customize or begin with a blank template.
Select an option and click Next.
Start by giving your template a name.
You can also select a template type and add a description.
You can later filter forms by template type, which is useful when your project has many forms.
Whether you chose a blank or preconfigured template, you can start customizing the titles, questions, type of responses, and more.
Use the menu on the right side to add more sections or items to sections. There are eight sections and items available.
See the following sections for details on each:
There are character limits and limits to the number of sections that you can have within a form.
See the Forms section in Product and Tool Limitations.
This adds a section where you can add one or more questions with different answer types for contributors to respond to.
Reference the numbers on the following image to learn more about each aspect of a section you can customize:
Question and description
Response type
Answer options (if available for the chosen response type)
Add more response options (if available for the chosen response type)
Conditional Logic:
Conditional logic is available for the following response types:
To use conditional logic, select one of the supported response types and then enable the conditional logic toggle.
Then you can map an if-then statement to each response.
For each response, select a Then… action. This action will be visible to a member if they select your specified response.
The following Then… actions are supported:
to select which information you want filled out on forms from this template.To move or delete sections, click the more menu in the upper-right corner. Then select whether to move it up or down or to delete it.
When your template is fully configured, click Save. You will need to then choose how contributors will use the template and finalize it.
Choose how contributors will use and submit forms created from your template and click Next.
Select editors, reviewers, and viewers and toggle on any options. Click Create.
While you can create custom form templates at any time, with the Forms tool in Build, you can also import form templates.
This allows your team to quickly bring in form templates to your project that you may already have.
Templates can be brought in from:
Note: Once you import templates from BIM 360 or PlanGrid into a project, you can import them in to the Library tool in Account Admin, to standardize the form templates for all your projects. See Form Templates in Library.
If you are a Manager on form templates, you can edit, archive, and delete the templates you manage.
In the Forms tool, navigate to the Templates tab.
In the Templates tab of the Forms tool, when you select a form template built in Autodesk Build using the Template Builder, you can edit the following:
In the Templates tab of the Forms tool, when you select a form template created from a PDF form, you can edit the following:
In the Templates tab in the Forms tool:
For deleting form template folders, see Archive Form Templates.
You can archive form templates to keep them for record or to temporarily hide them so that they cannot be used.
When you archive a form template, the forms that were created from that template also get archived.
These forms will no longer be available in your project’s forms. They can be restored by unarchiving the form template that these forms were created from.
Comprehensive field and project management software that delivers a broad, deep, and connected set of tools for builders.
Check out Autodesk Build and learn more about managing forms.
Still have questions?
Tracking costs and monitoring risk while keeping a job on a budget can be one of the biggest hurdles to any building project. Finding ways to do all of these things efficiently makes a huge difference when it comes to delivering a project on time and on budget.
KPMG estimated only 31% of construction projects came within 10% of their budgets. Effective cost control is the solution.
One of the most important efficiencies you can create to best position yourself for good project outcomes is fine-tuning your cost management process. This can affect everything from the bidding process to change order management, your team’s efficiency, and ultimately, your bottom line.
Here’s a look at all things construction cost management, including what it is, why it matters, how to improve it, and how having the right processes in place can set you up for success.
There are many functionalities available within Cost Management. Check out this overview video to learn more about them:
Within Cost Management, you can work with tools that help track costs, manage risk, and keep a project on a budget:
Files, Reports, and Members are central tools for Autodesk Construction Cloud.
There are a number of tools available to improve cost management in construction, including new technologies and platforms, and solutions for every step of the project lifecycle. Read on for six ways you can improve your approach to cost management.
Construction management software can help bring cost control workflows like budget and contract management, payment applications, and change orders into one platform, thus reducing risk and providing a real-time look at the financial health of a project. Using connected construction project management solutions (i.e. solutions that connect construction data and processes across a project’s lifecycle, from design through operations) ensures teams always have the most relevant and accurate information regarding costs, no matter if they’re onsite or at the office.
The right construction management solution can play a major role in keeping you on top of project costs in a number of ways. First, it can provide a single source of truth, centralizing all cost data in one place that is easily accessible. What’s more, these platforms often have solutions that allow for flexibility in customizing budget codes, hierarchical build-ups, and segment options.
Another benefit of construction management platforms is increased visibility. Cloud-based project management systems offer real-time access to information on the financial health of a project, allowing team members to view a summary of all budget items and contracts providing a clear picture of revenue, costs, forecast, and variance related to each item.
Finally, construction management platforms provide security, allowing teams to set user permissions, and ensuring only the right professionals have access to necessary project information.
Estimation is integral to a project’s success, as inaccurate estimates can cause you to lose competitive bids, eat into profit margins, and even damage your reputation. There are a number of challenges to creating accurate estimates, including having multiple sources of materials, and the massive amount of time it can take to account for every last project detail.
Still, there are many ways to improve estimates through model-based estimation platforms. These platforms allow for an estimation process based on a 3D environment while offering the flexibility to make changes to project details in real time. This translates to increased efficiency and accuracy in the estimation process, setting you up for successful cost management and starting a project off right.
Having real-time insight into the construction budget is key to staying on track financially over the course of a project. A number of connected construction tools can help you visualize cost-related risk by monitoring and tracking budget items and factors affecting cost as they come up, providing a clear picture of the financial health of a project. This will help with both accurate forecasting and cost control throughout the entire job process.
Staying organized and on top of multiple spreadsheets, folders, and documents to manage all trade contractors and suppliers can be both stressful and time-consuming, not to mention extremely inefficient. The right cost management tools can help you more efficiently create, edit, and view contracts in a centralized location. This also means that, because all contracts are automatically associated with cost items, teams can easily view a history of cost items by the supplier, keeping both contract and cost data organized and accessible.
The nature of change orders is to shift the course of a project in often unforeseen ways. This inevitably leads to cost adjustments that can sometimes be difficult to manage. In order to best position yourself for optimal cost management, the change order process must itself be optimized to ensure your project is staying on track, even when changes come your way.
Streamlining the change order process starts with choosing the right tools to manage upstream and downstream workflows to create clear accountability and ensure nothing slips through the cracks. Cloud-based platforms can help improve communication, visibility, and collaboration throughout the change order process, and ensure that teams have all of the data they need to make cost-effective decisions as a project takes a new course.
Leveraging a connected construction platform keeps your team organized and ready to respond to change orders at any phase of a project. This will help project teams control costs and confirm all changes are accounted for and effectively managed, allowing you to maintain a positive cash flow, reduce risk, and maximize profits.
Understanding and preparing for budget risks is vital to proactively managing costs throughout the course of a construction project. The implementation of business intelligence tools is on the rise to serve this very purpose, allowing project managers to identify cost and budget risks before they become major issues.
Business intelligence tools work by putting data at the center of a project, and transforming this information into intelligent solutions for project optimization. For example, tools like Construction IQ include built-in machine learning and AI functionality that permeates across a construction management platform to identify high-risk issues that affect costs, schedules, quality, and safety.
Cost management affects nearly every aspect of a construction project, so getting it right is vital to achieving the best outcomes for a job. Innovative technologies, like platforms that help improve general project management, accurate estimation, budget tracking, contract integration, change order optimization, and risk assessment, provide vital construction cost management solutions that can set you up for success time and again.
See how you can connect cost data across workflows and automate processes with an integrated cloud-based platform. Visualize how effective construction cost management transforms business to maximize profit, efficiency, and productivity.
Request a live demo to meet with our solutions consultant who will show you how Autodesk Construction Cloud can fit your business needs.
We will walk you through how these powerful cloud-based cost management tools help reduce risk and improve profitability.
This article will look at the common issues and a way to simplify tracking of issues using Autodesk Construction Cloud that connects teams and project data from design to construction and built projects. It combines the core construction products into one unified solution to keep your crew aligned.
The Issues tools in Autodesk Build and Autodesk Docs allow you to track work across the construction lifecycle and create references to photos, files, RFIs, assets, and more.
Once you configure the Issues tool, your team will be able to create issues quickly and easily from the field. This makes it simple to identify problems, prevent delays, and manage work on your project. With greater visibility and the ability to track progress, you’ll be able to deliver quality work on time.
The Issues tool provides a set of preconfigured categories and types under those categories to organize the issues on your project. You can get started right away or configure the categories and types to your project’s needs.
To configure, customize your issue settings. You can create custom types and categories. Issues have default attributes that you can fill out to provide details on the issue, but custom fields can be added. Adding a root cause can also help to understand how to prevent issues from recurring. You can also manage permissions to issues so that your team has access as needed.
You can create issues within the Issues tool or from markup in the Sheets and Files tools.
Once issues have been created, they can be viewed in the Issues log, managed, and exported.
The work may be challenging, but the software shouldn’t be. Autodesk Construction Cloud products help you build better in a simple, user-friendly interface. Here are some of the products:
Comprehensive field and project management software that delivers a broad, deep and connected set of tools for builders.
Centralized document management solution that acts as a single source of truth across the project lifecycle for all project teams.
Automate clash detection and connect issues across designers, trades, and construction teams to better manage design collaboration and model coordination. Connect and streamline your processes across your entire project lifecycle.
Why do you need to track all issues, from design to handover, in one place? You can create accountability to resolve issues faster and with more transparency and all these:
When you start a new project and navigate to the Issues tool, your issues log will be empty. Before your team begins creating issues, you should configure the issue settings so that the issues created are accurate and consistent.
You can configure the following issue settings:
Each issue on your project can be labeled with an issue type. Each type is organized under an issue category. This makes it easy for you to sort and filter your issues. It also allows you to differentiate between the same type of work that may exist on different parts of your project.
Custom fields allow you to collect and organize any information that’s useful for your project and associate it with issues as a custom attribute. When you create a custom field and add it to a category or type, it becomes available for any issue that’s assigned to that category or type.
Issue permissions affect how certain members can interact with issues on your project. By default, the Issues tool has permissions by role. For any project members who do not have a role, they automatically have the lowest permission, “Create for my company”. Project administrators can manage permission levels in the settings of the Issues tool. Permissions can be assigned to individual team members or applied to them through their roles or companies.
When working with issues, understanding root causes helps prevent problems from recurring. Root causes fall under categories, which help you find and filter root causes.
The Autodesk Build and Autodesk Docs Issues tools come preconfigured with the following root cause categories:
Creating issue templates allows your team to quickly create issues with prepopulated information and avoid redundancy in the field.
Important: You must be a project administrator to create, edit, and delete issue templates. These actions can only be performed on the web.
In the Issues tool, there is a preset list of statuses that your team can use to identify the stage an issue is in. Project administrators can adjust the visibility of the statuses to determine which are available for project members to use. This can streamline the list of statuses to the ones that support your team’s workflow. Note: Issue status settings are only available on the web.
To configure issues settings within Autodesk Build or Autodesk Docs:
Complete documentation of issues is critical to mitigate risks on current projects and prevent similar issues on future projects. When issue tracking is integrated with your project management system, all documentation, and communications related to the project become centralized to provide complete transparency into project status.
Want to learn more about how to simplify your issue tracking using Autodesk Construction Cloud?
Microsol Resources, a trusted partner in construction technology solutions, offers added benefits to enhance your experience with Autodesk Build’s Issues tools. With their expertise and support, you can maximize the efficiency of issue tracking and management.
Microsol Resources provides valuable resources such as training, implementation assistance, and ongoing technical support to ensure smooth integration and utilization of the Issues tools. Their dedication to customer success ensures that you have the necessary guidance and expertise to make the most of Autodesk Build’s capabilities. Partnering with Microsol Resources adds an extra layer of support and expertise to empower your team in effectively addressing and resolving project issues.
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