Field Notes Overview

Field notes refer to various notes recorded by project team members such as architects, consultants or GCs as comments to themselves when walking the job site. Throughout the day, project team members (in the field and home office) might carry around ledgers or spiral bound notebooks, cell phones, cameras, hard-copy drawings, pens and pencils, and even voice recorders to take project notes. Any notes requiring action must be transcribed into the project management system later, as the recorded notes are a personal record with no connection back to the central project files.

Today, the use of Smartphones and tablets is increasing as they present a convenient method for taking photos and entering text quickly. Most jobsite problems are better described with a photo/video/audio file in conjunction with text. Project Center helps you streamline the entire process of entering and tracking field notes. You can now enter field notes in the form of text, photo, audio, or video captured using a Smartphone or a tablet at the job site, which can then be synced with Project Center via Info Exchange, making them easy to review and manage by the project team.

After logging field notes on the job site, users can then easily generate site visits and daily reports from the field notes, as well as action items with information pre-populated from the field notes.

Field notes workflow

Getting started in Project Center

You can start logging field notes in any of the following ways:

●        Use the Field Notes activity center to log and manage your field notes in Project Center.

●        Enter field notes in Info Exchange.

●        Use the Newforma Field Notes app on your iPhone, iPad, or Android Smartphone. The field notes will automatically sync with Info Exchange and Project Center.

Field Notes iOS and Android mobile apps

Using the Newforma Field Notes app on your iPhone, iPad, or Android® Smartphone enables you to quickly and easily create field notes any way you prefer - a text entries, photos, audio, or video. You can then use that same device to quickly sync and upload your notes to Info Exchange and the Project Center database. The field notes can then be reviewed and managed at any time in Project Center or Info Exchange.

Using the Newforma Field Notes app enables you to consolidate your ledgers, notebooks, cell phones, cameras, hard-copy drawings, pens, voice recorders and/or any other items you use into one easy-use device for taking notes as you see fit. The app is available in the Apple App Store and the Google Play store. Refer to Newforma Mobile Apps to get started.

Prepare a project to be used with the Newforma Field Notes app

Prior to using the Newforma Field Notes app, do the following to prepare a Project Center project to ensure all components are configured.

●         Project team - In Project Center, add any external users to the project who will create field notes. Configure a permission set to allow external users access to field notes.

●         Info Exchange - Post the project to your Info Exchange Server so that external users can access it.

●        Spaces - In the Spatial Index activity center, define spaces for the site, building, exteriors, and each floor for general field note items.

●        Sharing data with the device - setup a method to download supporting documents and data sheets to the device.