Getting Started
Learn how to build custom tools in Layer to manage and connect your data efficiently. This guide covers essential steps for creating workflows, linking data, and generating automated reports.
Zach Soflin
Sep 24, 2024
A Building’s Lifecycle is complex and the software by every stakeholder party is unique. Often these systems create friction as information moves from one platform to another.
Layer allows users to create apps to remove this friction in 3 ways:
Collecting Building Data from different sources
Connecting Building Data from different sources
Creating with combined sources of building data
Users can use the building blocks in Layer that do one, some, or all of these workflows in any combination.
👀For example a workflow to connect building assessment data and show it in Revit includes collecting building assessment data from a Layer Mobile Form, then connecting that data with a Revit model.
🧺 Collecting Data
Data in Layer is organized into Categories in a flat data structure (meaning there are no hierarchies to categories). There are many ways that you can collect data into Layer Categories:
🔗 Connecting Data
You can connect and blend data in Layer by leveraging the “Related Element” feature to create relational links between Layer Categories.
Related Elements allow you to create Lookup fields which can then display data from a Related Element.
🪄 Creating with your Data
There are many ways you can create with your Layer Data. The most common ones are shown below:
Document View
Layer Document View allows you to create standardized document templates that render a PDF from elements stored in your Layer Categories.
You can create 2 types of Document View reports
→ Standard Document View shows 1 element per PDF page
→ Summary Document View creates tabular summaries of your categories records based on your filters.
→ Read more about Document Views
Shared Views
Tabular & Gallery views can be shared with anyone publicly by creating a “shared view”.
→ Read more about Shared Views
📦 Getting started from a Template
Technical Difficulty: BeginnerWhat you need: Some project dataTemplates allow a user to stage a new Layer project without the need to preconfigure every setting from scratch. → Read template documentation💡Workflow Guide: Your First Layer Project → Get StartedLayer subscriptions also include access to a set of curated Workflow Templates built by our team. You can find these in the Layer Template Gallery on our website, or under “Create Project from Scratch” in your Layer environment.
📝 Getting Started from Spreadsheets
You can also start a project from an existing spreadsheet based workflow. Technical Difficulty: IntermediateWhat you need: the spreadsheets you are using today. Review → Link to Documentation to get started.
