# How jobs are organized
| Name | |
|---|---|
| Unit | A unit is a basic building block of a stair. There are only two types – straight and corner. All stairs are comprised of combinations of these two units, arranged in different ways and given different properties. |
| In the unit templates list at the left side of the Stair Design pane in the Design window, you may see many different examples of unit templates. However, the two named “Straight” and “Corner” are the two most basic. Every other unit has been made from one of these (or made from a unit that was made from one of these, etc.) | |
| Stair | A stair is comprised of one or more units in a single un-broken run from top to bottom. |
| Well | A well is a hole in the upper floor, and/or pre-existing landings (platforms). It may have one or more sections of horizontal balustrading. |
| Design | A design consists of one or more stairs and/or one or more wells. It is what you see in the Design window at any one time, so it is assumed that the stair(s) and well(s) are somehow related (although this doesn’t have to be the case). |
| Job | A job consists of a design, plus all the support windows for that design (e.g. Site, Job Details, Setout, Components, Quote Calculations etc.). |
| Project | When you create a new job, you are actually creating a project containing a single job. However, more jobs can be added to that project. So a project is a “container” of “folder” for one or more jobs. |
However, a project goes beyond being simply a folder. If there is more than one job in the project, each job can (and by default does) share some windows (and therefore the information in those windows). The window that is always shared is the Client window (so, by definition, all jobs in a project share a common client). The other windows that are shared are: Site; Details; Components; Setout; My Data; Quote/Invoice/Receipt. In each of these windows there is a Shared checkbox, which is ticked by default. If you set or change something in one of these shared windows for one job in the project, that setting or change will apply to all the jobs in the project. If you un-tick this button, this window (for this job) is no longer shared - any setting or change you make in it now will apply only to the current job. See Shared Windows.|
If the idea of projects sounds complicated – just ignore it until the time when you have a need for this kind of flexibility. You can pretend that they don’t even exist by simply treating a project as a job (when you start a new project, it opens with a single job; when you save the project, it saves that job; end of story).
For more information, see Multiple jobs in a project.
# Scenarios:
Just to make things interesting, a job can act as a container for more than one design. Each different design is called a scenario. Scenarios are useful when a client wants a quote on different options for the same job (e.g. give me a price on this stair with a bullnose, and without a bullnose). Rather than create separate jobs, you can create two (or more) scenarios within the same job. The discussion above about shared windows can also apply to scenarios.
For more information, see Multiple scenarios in a job.
You can also use scenarios like “sub-jobs” - see “All Scenarios Active”
To wrap it up; a project consists of one or more jobs, each of which consists of one or more scenarios, each of which consists of a design containing one or more stairs and/or wells and various supporting data and specifications. In 90% of cases the project and scenario features would probably not be used - there would be a single job containing a single stair and/or well. In these cases these unneeded project and scenario features are practically invisible – not cluttering your workspace, but available in an instant should they be required.
# Multiple jobs in a project
# Overview
A project is simply a container for one or more jobs, however …
All jobs in a project share a common client - anything you do in the Client window of one job shows up in the client window of all other jobs within the project.
All jobs in a project may also (and by default, do) share the information contained in the Site, Details, Components, Setout, MyData and Quote/Invoice/Receipt windows.
Any of these windows (except the client window) can be set to “un-shared”, meaning that anything you do in that window thereafter will only impact the current job.
Also see How jobs are organized and Shared Windows.
# Why would you want more than one job in a project?
The “Project” feature could be used in the following situations:
- You have a client undertaking an apartment, townhouse or tract project. Many (or all or none) of the stairs use the same timbers, sizes, styles, setout etc. The stair design for each job might be all the same or all different - it’s irrelevant.
- You have a project home builder who builds stairs for single dwellings at different sites over a period of time. The disadvantage of this is that a project imports most of its defaults (and prices) at the time it is created. Thereafter any job created in the project shares those defaults and prices (which may have changed over the intervening period of time). Whereas it is possible to update defaults and prices within one job of a project without affecting other jobs in the project (by un-sharing the relevant windows and reloading them from the defaults), it becomes a bit impractical (there are alternatives – see below).
- You have a single dwelling that has two or more stairs.
In this situation an alternative is to create multiple stairs and/or wells in the same Design window of a single job. Obviously this becomes impractical (though still possible) if there are more than two stairs because of the space available in the Design window.
Note that if you have two or more designs which are identical (especially for the purposes of quoting), you can use the Quantity field in the Quote Calculation window.
# The advantages of multiple jobs in a project
- Easier to find; When you want to open a particular job, in the Open Project window select the project from the list on the left and select one of its jobs from the list on the right.
- Faster to open; If the project is already open, you can select the job from the Jobs menu.
- Easier to organise; In the Directory window, jobs can be grouped or sorted according to their Project Name.
- Easier to make bulk changes; Changing something in a shared window of one job will update that window for all jobs in the project (if the window is shared in those other jobs). Also see Shared Windows.
- Switch jobs without closing windows; When you switch from job to job using the Jobs menu, the currently open windows do not close – they are simply updated with the different job.
- Summarize costs; the Project Info sheet lists all jobs in the current project and shows various quotation information, with totals at the bottom.
- Smaller file footprint; because many windows are shared between jobs, each job does not hold a unique copy of that information – shared information is held by the project. This can amount to considerable size savings in the jobs database. Other options besides multiple jobs in a project The alternative to using multiple jobs in a project is to take the one-job-per-project approach, then organise those projects using one or more of the following strategies:
- Project folders; multiple projects can be given their own Project Folder.
- Project Name Prefix; all projects within the group could be given a common prefix in front of their project name, which would group them in the Open Project window and in the Directory window.
- Job Notes field; this field in the Process window could be used to tag similar projects in the Directory window.
- Job Templates; you could create each project in the group by opening a Job Template (so that all projects start with the same information)
- Stair Templates; Similar stairs in a design can be created using a stair template. Stair templates could be saved in folders according to the project group.
- Multiple stairs in the same Design window; more than one stair and/or well can be created in the same design of a single job.
See also:
Adding a job to a project Naming a job Opening a job within a project Deleting a job from a project
# Multiple scenarios in a job
Also see How jobs are organized and Shared Windows.
Scenarios are useful when a client wants a quote on different options for the same job (e.g. give me a price on this stair with a bullnose, and without a bullnose). Rather than create separate jobs, you can create two (or more) scenarios within the same job.
The best way to think of scenarios is as follows: Imagine that everything you’ve read about a job so far is actually talking about a scenario, and that a job is simply a container for one or more scenarios. When you start a new job, your first scenario is automatically created (you can see it listed in the Scenarios menu). If you only have one scenario in a job, the concept of scenarios is redundant – the one and only scenario is saved when you save the job (which is saved when you save the project).
Only one scenario can be open at a time, so there’s never any confusion here. As far as the job is concerned (with regards quoting, cutting lists etc), it comprises only the current scenario. If you have Scenario 2 (or whatever you want to call it) open, and the save and close the job, the next time you open this job, Scenario 2 will be the current scenario. The other scenario will exist (you can select it from the Scenarios menu), but it s not the current one.
The same applies with the Directory window. You will never see scenarios mentioned here. The job in the Directory window is always the current scenario. Scenarios follow the same shared windows concept as do jobs – you can un-share a window in a scenario and that same window in the other scenarios of the job can stay shared – see Shared Windows.
See:
Adding a scenario to a job Naming a scenario Opening a scenario within a job Deleting a scenario from a job
# Shared Windows
See also Multiple jobs in a project and Multiple scenarios in a job.
Multiple jobs in a project can share information. The information in the following windows can be (and by default is) shared:
Client window Site window Details window Components window Setout window Quote window / Invoice window / Receipt window
The other process windows (Design window, Materials window, Labour window, Quote Calc window and Payments window) cannot be shared because they relate to the unique design for the job.
The Client window is always shared - by definition, all jobs in a project share a common client.
So let's use a different example – the Site window. Imagine you have a project comprised of three jobs (say three units in a small apartment block). The address and site details for this job are identical, so we don’t need three different Site windows. You don’t have to do the following – just follow the logic…
Open the first job in the project and open the Site widow. You’ll notice at the bottom of the Site window a ticked Shared button. Type in the site details. Save and close the job. Open the second job in the project, and open the site window. You’ll see those same details. Un-tick the Shared button in this window, then type a different Measure Date. Save and close the job.
Open the third job – you’ll notice that it has the same details as the first job (because both are shared).
So now we have jobs 1 and 3 with shared Site windows holding the same (and always the same) information, and job 2 with an unshared window holding different information.
That’s basically how it all works. Simply apply the same logic to the other windows.
Note that you could un-share all three site windows. In this situation the shared window doesn’t die (the project still holds it) - it's just that no job is actually using it at the moment. If you click the Shared button in the site window of one of the jobs, you’ll get back your shared window (with the information it contained the last time it was edited).
# Shared windows and scenarios
I’ve been a little deceptive (for the sake of simplicity) when discussing shared windows in terms of jobs - the shared window concept actually operates on a scenario level.
If your job has only one scenario (ALL jobs have at least ONE scenario), then you don’t need to bother with this concept.
If your job has more than one scenario, then un-sharing a window only un-shares it for the current scenario. Once again let’s use the above Site window example. If Job 2 has two scenarios (Scenario 1 and Scenario 2), and you un-tick the shared button in the Site window of Scenario 2, the Site window in Scenario 1 is still shared (with the Site window in the other two jobs). This allows for complete flexibility.