What is a Template?

A template is a Layer project that is saved so that new projects can be created or updated when the template is applied.

The templates under the Templates tab on your home screen are the templates that you have the ability to open, view, and edit (based on your permissions for that individual template). This means that these templates were either:

• Created by you (you are the Owner).

• Created by someone else on your team who added you to the template with either a Viewer/Editor/Contributor permission.

The list of templates on your home screen is not the complete list of templates that are available to use within your company.

The complete list of templates in your company is accessible by clicking on the Create Project + button and selecting the Company tab.

The Templates tab on the home screen listing templates the current user owns or has access to.

👉 Important: template edits apply to new projects only. When you add a field, modify a view, or update an automation in a template, projects that were already created from that template are not retroactively updated. Existing projects keep the structure they had when the template was first applied. To roll out a change across older projects, you'll need to apply the updated template to each one or make the change directly inside each project.

What are the different kinds of Templates?

There are two kinds of templates:

• Layer Templates: Templates built by the Layer team for public use by anyone when creating a new project or adding new categories to a project.

• Company Templates: Templates created by Layer users for internal use among their own company. These may include templates for company best practices, common project structures, etc.

The Company tab inside the Create Project dialog showing every template available in the company.

What can be included in a Template?

For each category, the following items are always included in a template:

• The category fields.

• The category’s saved views (the saved view configuration/filters/sorting).

• Any automations (Revit sync parameters) that are set up for the category.

• The Currency & Date configuration for the project.

If the checkbox is selected to Include Elements & Data when creating a new template, then the following items are included:

• The elements in the category, which include:

The following items are NEVER included in templates:

• Files that are not associated with any elements in the project

• Notes that are not associated with any elements in the project

• Tasks that are not associated with any elements in the project

• Activity log items

• Revit model files or the elements from a Revit model

• 💡The fields and views from a Models category can be included in a template, but never the actual Revit (model) elements.