Create and Edit Forms

Forms can be created and edited in various ways throughout the BIMXtra system designed to cover various scenarios and use cases.  It is not necessary to use all of these possibilities, only to find those that work best in combination for your particular project.

• From Insight the Forms menus provide access to work with forms and have them connected to 3D and 2D objects in your models,
• The Insight Map function existing shows forms located on a map,
• From Onsite the Forms menu provide access to work with forms and have them connected to 2D objects in your models,
• From BIMXtra Schedules the Object data panels provide access to work with forms and have them connected to scheduled objects in your project,
• The BIMXtra Construction page provides full access to work with forms including seeing them on a Map, 

No matter which way you start the forms, they will all open up in the same window style, as per the configuration defined in the form schema.

Navigating forms

At the Top of the form is the Quick Navigation Toolbar, if it's configured in the form schema.

The form container headings are shown in the drop down selector, and selecting one zooms the view to the top of that container.

Use the + / - buttons to expand / collapse all containers.

The container heading also has an arrow on the right hand side that can used to expand / collapse that container.

At the Bottom of the form is the function toolbar showing the buttons that the form schema is configured to show. 

Buttons show a text label as configured in the schema Labels for Insight and web viewed forms.  The buttons are shown as icons only in Onsite.

The possible buttons are:

• Delete Form
• Distribute Parent
• Distribute Selected Children
• Create New Child
• Save Form

Container headings

Container headings can be configured to show various information, including the text title and heading colour.  

From the left hand side, you can see:

• A selection box for child forms, in order to select multiple child forms and distribute them in a single action.
•  A colour swatch representing the form status.
• The container title, if set.
• The room name the form is associated to.
• A Container label, if set.

From the right hand side, you can see:

• An icon to show whether this form has been distributed.
• Icons to show this container has photos and / or files attached.
• An arrow icon can also be used to expand / collapse the container.

Distributing Forms

Forms can be distributed to users who become the 'Assignee' of that form.  Only 1 user can be assigned to a form at any 1 time.  The current Assignee of a form and a record of its Distributions can be seen in the column of the construction page.

The Distribute buttons are shown in the bottom toolbar of the form during execution, with a label configured in the form schema.

Both Parent and Child forms can be distributed with Child forms being able to be bulk selected using the selection box in the container heading and distributed in a single action.

v2 Forms can also be distributed in bulk directly from the Construction Page, or from the Schedule Object Data panel.

Email notifications are sent to all users included in the distribution, i.e. Both the Assignee and cc'd users.

Conditions for form visibility need to be met for users to be have forms distributed to them and for them also to be able to see and access them.

Linking Forms

At the bottom of the container, you can see this button:  which is where you can link forms to one another in a parent-child or child-parent relationship. 

On this window, you have the following linking options:

• Link as Parent to Existing Form: Creates a parent to child relationship link to an existing form. The form you have just created will be the parent and the existing form you select from the drop down will be the child. 
• Link as Child to Existing Form: Creates a child to parent relationship link to an existing form. The form you have just created will be the child and the existing form you select from the drop down will be the parent. 
• Link as Parent to New Form: Creates a new form instance and a parent to child relationship. The loaded form will be the parent and the new form you select from the drop down will be the child. 
• Link as Child to New Form: Creates a new form instance and a child to parent relationship. The loaded form will be the child and the new form you select from the drop down will be the parent.

To create the link simply click on either the top (existing) or bottom (create new) drop downs, select the form or schema and select one of the four buttons available.   Use the search bars to search the Form Ref and Form Descriptions.

You will receive a message saying 'Success. Form Linked Successfully' and that is it, your forms are linked.  

You can view the linked forms at the bottom of the container under the tabs 'Parent' or 'Child'.   

These are the colours of the links and what they mean:

 Green - Form is complete

Orange - Form is active (created / part signed)

Red - Form is overdue

Grey - Form is deleted

Alternatively, click on Linked Forms to view the link in a visual format.   

Note: This setting is on by default in the schema and it will only be available after the container has been signed off. 

When working in a Parent/Child form then the Links shown will be those for the actual form being executed at that time.  In other words, if you have opened a PARENT form then all the links shown will be those of the parent (even if seen in the child containers).  If a CHILD form is then opened by clicking a child form link, then the links shown will now be of that child.  Thus following a link to open a new form will also update the view of the linked forms always to be of the form you ave open in execution.

Working with Location Data

Objects and Forms in BIMXtra can be associated with areas and locations of your project through the information associated to them in the Design Schedules. In addition, the locations used in a project can be extracted in their own right and given as the Locations of Forms.  The locations set for your Forms are seen, and can be filtered, in the Locations columns of the Construction Page.

The fields referred to as Location Data are:

• Building
• Level
• Department
• RoomName
• RoomNumber

The names of these can be configured by the project admin so that Friendly Names that have meaning for a particular project can be used.

No particular relationship between the fields is enforced by BIMXtra, so again a project admin can use them for any purpose. However, it is usual to consider the following default setup for them:

• RoomName and RoomNumber are 2 values associate with the same area,
• A Room can be in any one combination of Department, Level and Building.

In summary, you should think of Location Data in 3 particular ways, referred to as Location Data, Object Data and Form Location. 

Location Data

Location Data is the set of locations of a project as defined by the settings in the location fields of the Construction project configuration.  These values are used to populate the Location Data control of forms, if included.  Any hidden values in the Location Data control are ignored during execution, so only visible values are considered.

Any values configured as visible in a Location Data control also set the Form Location for those values.

If a Location Data control is configured in a Parent/Child configuration, the following also applies:

• Any Location Data values configured as visible in the Parent Form are automatically inherited into the Child Forms as well as setting the parent Form Location.
• Values inherited into the Child Forms set the Location Data control whether or not that value is visible in the Child Form.  In this way the location of a Child Form can be set by the Parent and not changed by the user in the Child Form if those values are not visible in the Child.
• Values shown in the Child as well as the Parent will be set to match the Parent if they are not set in the Child.  They can then be further edited in the child but they will no longer be updated by editing the parent.  In this way a default value can be given to the Child from the parent but it can also be updated by the child from there.
• Values shown in the Child Form only can be then used to complete Child Form Location.  In this way a Form Location can be set for a group of forms by a parent, with individual child forms then completing their own locations.

The Location Data can be configured to provide data from the project in the following way:

• Room Schedules - Provides an entry for each of the entries in the Room Schedule at that time.  This can be used to provide a determined set of locations, based on a master list in the Room Schedule, whether or not objects are associated with them.
• Object Schedules - Provides an entry for each of the locations set in any of the Object Schedules at that time.  This can be used to provide a set of locations as actually configured by objects in the project., in other words, a location must be associated to an object to appear in this list.
• Live / Revised - For both the Room and Object schedules above, Live data provides a list built from the schedules current at that time, while Revised data only provides data from the Revised schedules.

Object Data

Object Data is the set of data for each object in the Design Schedules, and the standard Locations fields above are also part of these by default.  In other words each object knows where it is located, and we can refer to 'Object Location data' in this way.  This data is all populated in the Object data control of forms, if included.  Any hidden values in the Object Data control are ignored during execution, so only visible values are considered.

Any location values configured as visible in an Object Data control also set the Form Location for those values, but only if there is no Location data control also in that form.

Form Location

Forms hold the location they are associated and this can be configured using either Location Data, Form Execution#Object Data or a combination of both.

The Location fields of the Construction page show these Form Location values which can also be filtered.  In this way a project can have a mix of form types and workflows that each follow their own definitions yet are all visible with the same summary data.

Note:

• When viewing Parent forms on Map, its child forms are also shown.
• When viewing Parent forms on drawings, its child forms are not shown. 
• When viewing Child forms on drawings its location is inherited from the Parent form.

The Form Location is completed by the Location and Object data controls in the following way:

Standalone Forms

If a Location data control is present in the form it sets the Form Location, otherwise any Object data control present will set the Form Location.

Specifically, if both controls are present in a form the Location Data will set the Form Location and the Object data is ignored.

Forms used as Child Forms

If a Location data control is present in the child form, then the parent's Form Location is inherited into the child for all Location data fields the child has deleted from it's Location data config.  Object location data is not inherited into child forms in any way.

If a Location data control is not present in the child form, then any Object data control in the child will set the Form Location.  This is the same rule for Standalone forms, just followed within the context of a parent/child setup.

Specifically, any Object data in a child form does not override any Form Location of that child set by the virtue of Location data inherited from the parent.

Form Geolocations

All forms attempt to extract a Geolocation at the time of their Creation. It does so it 3 ways depending on your device and circumstances, and hence results may vary across devices and projects:

1. BIMXtra uses Assisted GPS on physical devices ( EG Mobiles/ Laptops) to derive a location and thus both the GPS and the Wi-Fi systems are used to geolocate a form created on these devices.
2. BIMXtra uses IP network services to estimate a location for any forms created on the web.  This is an estimated location given the details of your network routing (which BIMXtra has no control over) and as such can only be considered very roughly as accurate.
3. Any form that does not have a location will by default be located at the co-ordinates of the project address

This location is then used to show the forms on one of the maps, either in Insight, Onsite or the Construction page.

Parent/Child Forms

All forms are defined in the Schema Designer and usually when run are considered Standalone Forms, in as much as the user is interacting with one form at a time.

However, forms can also be run as a Child of another form, in which case the user interacts with both forms at the same time.  A Parent form is any form that has a Child Form Schema configured for one of its Containers, while a Child Form is any form referenced in that Child Form Schema setting.  The following conditions apply to forms used in Parent/Child configurations:

• Parent Forms can only have one Child Form configuration, which mustn't have any other controls configured in the container setup as the Child form.
• The Parent Form's container settings are used for the Child Form. However, the child forms configuration for all other elements is used when run.
• Child Forms can be run as standalone forms, even while they remain linked with the parent.  Indeed, there are many workflows that actively use both modes of working with the forms.
• Child Forms can only have 1 container.
• Child Forms must have a Completion Sign Off which will complete the Child Form when run in the context of the Parent Form but will not increment the Parent Form's workflow stage.
  • In conjunction, the Parent Form's container used for the child form must have Override Signature On
• Parent Forms must also have a Completion Sign Off which will complete the Parent and stop further editing of any uncompleted Child forms within the context of the Parent.  Any uncompleted Child Forms can still be opened independently and further edited or completed.
• Child Forms can be at any workflow stage. However, the Parent Form must follow workflow guidelines for sign offs that increment its workflow.
• Specific Child Form revisions are configured as Child Form Schemas, and they must be published before they can be configured.  Similarly, if the Child Form is updated, the Parent Form must be updated to pick up on those changes.
• Child Forms are linked to Parent forms automatically during execution, and the link can be deleted as required.  However, making a link between forms does not enable a linked form to be run as a child during execution.
• Parent Forms are distributed individually, separately from the Child Forms.  This enables, for example, a supervisor role to have an overview of all Child Forms connected to a single parent.
• Child Forms are selected and distributed in bulk, separately form their parent and from each other.  This enables for example, individual trades to be assigned their own Child Forms while not being aware of other trades issues, or having overview of the supervisors Parent Form.

The workflow in Insight enables each child to be associated to its own objects, and also for those objects to be swapped at a later stage.  Many workflows are enabled by this functionality, for example, a review style process can be setup with a Parent Form that holds all items created in that review, with each of the items created as child issues being able to be distributed to their relevant parties. 

Form Workflows

Workflows define the stages a form steps through as it progresses through its container Sign offs. A Stage Sign Off moves a form along to the next workflow stage, while a Completion Sign Off moves the form to the After Completion workflow stage.

A workflow stage consists of a number of containers, and it determines the state of those containers at that stage, i.e. whether they are Editable, Read Only or Hidden.  Each workflow can contain multiple editable containers but only one of them should contain either a Stage or Completion Sign Off while the others have their signatures overridden.  In other words each workflow stage must have 1 signature that increments the workflow once it's signed off.

Workflows are configured as part of the form schema in the Workflow Designer.

Undo Completed Form Stages

Completed form stages can be undone by Superusers in reverse order by clicking on this button at the bottom of the container 

The signature on the latest completed stage will be deleted and it's workflow stage restored to be the current and editable stage.  In turn each previous form stage can be undone.

When a previous stage is undone, any existing data in subsequent stages already entered will be kept while the containers themselves will revert to the visibility state defined in the schema workflow for the undone container.

Linking Objects to Forms

Forms can be linked, or associated, to your projects' BIM objects for various workflows and reasons, and in particular to help build a connected project model. For example:

• A Snagging form can be linked to the objects that represent the snagged items,
• A Check-sheet can be linked to the objects they certify.

The features of BIMXtra that can be used to build this connected model are:

• Insight Object Association - Enables objects to be associated with a form at any point, including revising them later.  Therefore forms can be created and at a later stage can be associated with objects in the 3D model.
• Onsite Drawing Association - Enables objects in DWFx files to have forms raised against them,
• Schedule Association - Enables forms to be raised against groups of objects as determined by the schedule filtering and grouping.

Further the features than can be used to review and interrogate these objects and forms are:

• Insight Saved Forms panel - Open project forms and Zoom to the objects linked to them,
• Insight Status Checker - Construction Tab has tools to highlight objects with various form status' including Installation Status.
• Insight/Onsite Forms selector - When viewing drawings see pins that represent forms on drawings.  Those forms can also be linked to DWFx objects.

Installation Status

Once a form is Signed Off as completed, an Installation Status is given to any objects that form is associated to.  Schema Designer sets the Installation Status number for a form, while the Insight Installation Status configuration defines project specific names for those numbers.

The objects can then be highlighted and selected in Insight by their Installation Status using the Construction Tab of the Status Checker.

PDF Print

Every time a form is completed or a stage is signed off, BIMXtra will automatically create a folder in DMS > Document Library > Published > Form Signoffs for each form schema if a folder hasn't already been created.

A PDF print of the form is then created and automatically added to the folder.

ZipExport Forms Archives

Forms Managers can export closed v2 Forms into self contained Zip file exports, known as ZipExports.  The ZipExports contain all referenced documents in the form and a PDF print of the form that links to those docs.

Zip files can be distributed to 3rd parties, for example as handover archive records of the project forms that can be held outside of the BIMXtra system.