Documentation

Projects (Multi-Project Workspace)

Organise PDFs, issues, and cost rollups per project so you only see the engagement you're working on — no mixing across clients.

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Projects (Multi-Project Workspace)

LocusBIM organizes your PDFs and issues by project. Every PDF you open and every issue you file is tagged with a project, so when you switch projects you only see the work for that engagement — no mixing, no manual filtering, no "which PDF belongs to which client?" confusion.

The Default Project

On first run, LocusBIM creates a project called "Default". Everything you open or create lands here until you choose otherwise. If you only ever work on one project at a time, you can ignore the Projects menu entirely and Default does the right thing.

Creating a Project

Open the Projects menu in the top bar. Type a name (e.g. "1234 King St — Tenant Fit-Out" or "Q3 Hospital Renovation") and confirm. LocusBIM stores the project locally in SQLite — there's no cloud round-trip, no signup, no waiting.

Switching Projects

Click any project name in the Projects menu to make it active. Three things change immediately:

  1. PDF list — Recent Files and the open-PDF flow only show docs tagged with this project.
  2. Issue list — IssueList queries filter to this project, so the issue count, the panel, and search results scope to it.
  3. Cost impact — the Cost Impact toolbar has a "PDF | Project" segmented toggle. PDF shows costs for the active PDF only; Project rolls up costs across every PDF in the current project. Other projects' costs never appear in either view.

How a PDF Gets Tagged

When you open a new PDF (File → Open PDF…, drag-drop, or the Recent menu), it's tagged with the currently-active project at insert time. The tag is persistent — switching projects later does not move PDFs between them. If you opened a PDF under the wrong project, the easiest fix today is to close it, switch project, and reopen it (it'll get the new tag).

Tip: Treat Projects like folders, not labels. A given PDF lives in one project; you can't share the same doc across projects without opening separate copies. This is intentional — keeps the audit trail clean for compliance work.

Deleting a Project

Deleting a project does not delete its PDFs or issues. They move into the "unassigned" bucket of the Default project so you can re-tag them later. This is deliberate — an accidental delete is always recoverable.

When To Use Projects

  1. You work on multiple active engagements in parallel — keeps the visual clutter down.
  2. You need clean per-project reports — BCF export, cost CSV, and issue counts all scope to the active project.
  3. You hand off a project — switch to it, export its issues + cost report, then archive. No need to filter across a year of mixed work.

If you're a solo practitioner with one active project at a time, Projects is invisible — just stay on Default.

Related topics
  • Cost ImpactLive cost estimates as you mark up PDFs and 3D issues. Calibrate scale, link IFC element types, map Revit categories, toggle imperial/metric, roll up per project.
  • License & AccountActivate, deactivate, renew, and move your LocusBIM license between machines. Refund policy, auto-renew toggle, and tier comparison.
  • ExportingSave marked-up PDFs, flatten annotations, export BCF for issue exchange, and print clean drawing sets.