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What happens when I import a Document Management file into the Drawings tool?

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regional availability
The Document Management tool is available in select countries. It is not yet available for Procore accounts in the United States. For more information, please reach out to your Procore point of contact.

Background

The Drawings tool allows you to select Document Management files for viewing and marking up in the Drawings tool so you don’t have to bring that document through the full upload process all over again. Teams can upload and approve documents through established Document Management workflows and then use the 'attach files' selector in the Drawings tool to find the document and quickly bring it into the Drawings tool with all the metadata attached. The rest of this FAQ discusses the data syncing limits and import indicators after the file is imported.

Answer

Syncing limitations

Any document markups or new document versions created in the Drawings tool are not reflected in the file version that exists in Document Management tool. Likewise, any changes made to a file in the Document Management tool are not reflected in the version that was previously imported into the Drawings tool. This is why it's recommended that teams only import approved Document Management drawings into the Drawings tool. 

For example, if a new version of the document is uploaded in one tool, it will not appear in the other tool. If the document is deleted in one tool, it will not affect the document in the other tool. And if markups are made in one tool, those markups will not appear in the document in the other tool. 

Until Procore has a more integrated solution, this temporary import solution speeds upload times by taking advantage of the upload work already done in the Document Management tool. You can upload to the Document Management tool and then pull the file into the Drawings tool, where it will likely remain. To find out if a document was imported into the Drawings tool or if a document originated in the Document Management tool, look for the following indicators. 

Indicators in the Document Management tool

When a Document Management file is imported into the Drawings tool, that action is communicated back to the Document Management tool along with the date, time and name of the user who did the import. This information shows in the following places:

  • ‘Submitted to Drawings Tool’ column. The drawings   icon shows in the ‘Submitted to Drawings Tool’ column in the Document Management tool. Learn how to choose columns. 
    • Hover over the icon to see the import date, time and initiator.
    • You can also filter by by the ‘Submitted to Drawings Tool’ attribute to see all documents imported to the Drawings tool. 
  • Banners. When viewing a document on web or mobile, a banner explains that the document was previously submitted to the Drawings tool, along with the import date, time and initiator. 
  • Information panel. When viewing a document, look for the 'Submitted to Drawings Tool' section.
  • Change History. When viewing a document, the Change History is accessed from the bottom of the Information panel.

When a Document Management file is imported into the Drawings tool, Procore also stores the date, time and name of the importer as part of the metadata in the Drawings tool. This information shows in the file’s Change History, which is accessed via the 'Change History' tab when viewing the document.