What's New?

We’re thrilled to introduce you to something we’ve been building toward for the last two years: Layer 4.

Layer 4 is the culmination of countless hours reimagining how you connect, relate, and summarize data in Layer—and it’s all been driven by you, our users, pushing the platform in incredible ways.

Watch the Announcement →

New Relationships in Layer

We’ve unified what used to be separate—related element, auto-lookup, and spatial relationships—into one powerful field. Now, no matter how relationships are created (manual, automatic, or spatial), they work the same way.

Relationships aren’t just links anymore—they’re live data sources. You can reference any related field directly, customize how it appears, and combine it with the brand-new Visual Formula Editor.

Relationship Types

• Manual - Manually relate elements between two categories by selecting elements in the project, just like the original Related Element field.

• Automatic - Build a set of filter criteria (think automatic lookups) referencing element data to return all matching elements. Automatic relationships compute based on live project data and instantly refresh when updated data is available.

• Spatial (Revit Categories only) - View the elements that are geometrically related to the given element, such as furniture in a room. Related elements can optionally be further filtered down with the same criteria available to automatic relationships.

Learn more about relationships →

Meet the Visual Formula Editor

This is one of the biggest upgrades ever to Layer.

The Visual Formula Editor gives you an intuitive, no-code way to build logic inside:

• Relationship lookups

• The new Formula Field

• Automation actions

You can now dig deep into relationships and perform complex calculations that were once impossible—like estimating total furniture costs by rolling up data through multiple layers of relationships.

Learn more →

Smarter Automations

Formulas now work inside Automations. Use calculated values in the Update Element action to create dynamic workflows that respond intelligently to your data.

A Faster, Smoother Revit Experience

For our Revit users, Data-Only Publish is here. Send model data to Layer in seconds, with automatic versioning every time you publish. No more waiting minutes for a model to publish. Get Revit data to Layer in seconds.

A Fresh Look

Layer 4 also comes with a refreshed interface—streamlined sidebars, modern visuals, and a more flexible color system designed to make your workspace feel faster and more expressive.

Layer 4 isn’t just an update—it’s a reset.

It’s our biggest leap forward since founding Layer, and it’s built to help you build faster, connect deeper, and summarize data like never before.

Minor Improvements

• Added the ability to recover deleted elements from the Activity log.

• Added support for viewing panoramic images in publicly shared views.

• Added support for searching your projects list.

• Improved performance of the project management dialog, particularly for larger projects.

• Improved performance of document view report exporting for single elements.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed a bug with data cleanup.

Field Groups

Field Groups give you a new way to organize fields within a category, enabling you to create collapsable groups of fields.

To create a new Field Group, click on the ••• menu to the right of a category's name, then select Edit Category Fields. This will open the new Manage Fields interface, allowing you to create Fields and Field Groups and organize the them using drag and drop.

Other Features and Improvements

• Updated color options for fields, field groups, and dividers that better match other colors used throughout the app

• Redesigned full-screen Manage Fields interface

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue where ampersands caused unexpected behavior in document views

Conditional Formatting in Document View

Conditional Formatting allows you to create custom rules in a Document View that dictate how field values are formatted based on when the field was last updated. Rules can define the text formatting of field values (such as adding a highlight to recently updated fields) and the file formatting (such as adding a border around recently changed photos).

To set up conditional formatting, click on the ••• menu in the top right of a Document View, and select Conditional Formatting (availiable to all project Editors, Owners, and Admins).

Stay tuned for more conditional formatting rule options in coming releases!

Other Improvements and Features

• Improved handling and reliability for large sets of data imported into Layer using Excel import and Revit import

• Added the ability for contributors to add new select field options for select fields that have the "Allow options to be created at selection by typing" option enabled

• Added Plumbing Equipment as a category that we calculate spatial relationships for

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue where individual element document views could not be exported unless the view was a Default view

• Fixes issue where the field dropdown menu would use outdated data, such as when duplicating a field

• Fixed an issue where the incorrect set of users was displayed in the User Access section Edit View page when switching between views

• Fixed an issue using SSO to sign in on an iOS device web browser, which would cause the Layer mobile app to open with an error

• Fixed an issue with quantities now showing up in Excel exports for Lookup fields

• Fixed an issue with Drawing View references not appearing in shared Gallery Views

• Fixed an issue with not being able to use a mouse click to select users or element mentions in text area fields

• Fixed an issue duplicating Form Views, which would result in a blank view

Access Controls for Views

This is our biggest update to how you can manage your views! We've heard from you that your list of views under a category can become large and difficult to manage, which is why views can now be hidden on a per-user basis.

Views can now be given one of three visibility settings that can be set when creating a new view or updating an existing view:

• Default - The view will show in all users' projects and cannot be removed. This was the way views functions previously, so all your existing views have been automatically given Default Visibility.

• Everyone - Anyone in the project can access the view and add it to their sidenav for easy access

• Just Me - A private view that only the view creator has access to

To see all available views you can add to your sidenav click on the ••• menu next to a category name in the sidenav and select Manage Views.

Restricted User Project Role

We are introducing a new role in projects of Restricted. This role allows only specific views of elements within a project to be shared with a user. To change a company user's role to Restricted, the project Owner can click on the + icon next to the Team heading in the project sidenav.

Users with the Restricted role have the following abilities:

• Access to all views that have their view visibility set as Default

• Access to views that have their visibility set as Everyone so long as a project Owner or Editor grants access for the user from the View Settings

• The project-level files, notes, tasks, automations, and activity are hidden for Restricted users

• Within view(s) that the user has access to, they can:

Document View Text Area Styling Settings

We know how important it is to get your document views looking exactly as you want, which is why we are introducing new settings for Text Area blocks in Document View that will allow you to define which styles you want to use in ther document. These options are:

• Remove text area styling completely strip out any styling from the Text Area field and opt to style the text area field within the Document View

• Override text & highlight color - opt to use any text and/or highlight colors defined in the Document View rather than those defined in the Text Area field

Other Improvements and Features

• When viewing a public Form shared view, any filters set up when selecting a related element for a Related Element field are stored as part of the shared view URL and able to be shared with other public users

• Added the ability to configure which fields should display be default in the Related Elements element picker. To configre fields, open the Field Settings for a Related Elements field

• Restricted the editing and deletion of notes to only be allowed if a user is a project Owner or if they are the orignal creator of the note

• The experience of downloading a Drawing View PDF with annotations is improved to better support large PDFs with a large number of annotations. Downloaded Drawing Views will also now appear in Files → Reports for easy access

• Increased maximum length of select field options from 100 characters to 250 characters

• Updated the user experience of creating and updating views, including making the preview image of the view dynamic based on view configuration

• Performance and speed improvements to Table View

• Update bulk edit field value interface to better match the recently updated element pane fields interface

Bug Fixes

• Fixed a bug where text area fields would have no height unless the height was re-set in the field settings

Folders for Favorite Views

You can now create folders to further organize your favorite views. To create a folder click the + button next the the Favorities section in the project sidenav.

Element Name in Form View

Form views can now include the ability to add the element name as a field on the form. This means less auto-generated element names in your project when elements are created from forms!

Set Element Name from Automations

Create an Element and Update an Element automation actions now allow you to set the element name instead of using the auto-generated element name.

Other Improvements and Features

• Updated the icon for the number input to be different from text input

• Updated formula field formatting to better reflect the set format (i.e. integer, currency, percentage)

• Updated field inputs in automations to match the interface in the element pane

• Added a warning to automations that are scheduled on days of the month that may not exist in all months

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue with lookups to date fields formatting incorrectly

• Fixed an issue with filtering on Drawing Views not pulling in all the elements

• Fixed issue with timestamps in the activity tab not being human readable 🤖

• Fixed an issue where inserting the same value into two elements back-to-back would cause the field value to not save

• Fixed an issue where formula fields could cause the element pane to lag

• Fixed an issue in text fields that include a URL where the button to open the link would not update when navigating between elements

• Fixed an issue where files would sometimes not display in a file field, even though they were associated with the element and field

• Fixed an issue where applying a template would override any new select field options added since the template was last applied

Summary Document View

A new document view mode was added to allow all the elements in a category to be displayed in a table in single document. Summary document view tables support all the same features as existing related element tables as well as the ability to filter individual tables. Summary document view tables also support all of the standard table view aggregations, allowing users to aggregate data and insert it into table footers.

Focus Mode

Use focus mode to filter the fields displayed in the element detail pane on the right hand side of the screen to only those fields visible in the view. Focus mode can be used to simplify the fields visbile and sort them according to the current view.

Improved Report Generation

An improved report generation process has been released for use in all Layer projects, increasing the complexity of reports that can be generated and reducing erros with the report export process.

Other Improvements and Features

• Shared Layer views can be pinned to the homescreen on iOS to open in fullscreen mode.

• Elements can be update via file import if matched to the unique Layer ID or Element Number.

• Views can now be favorited! A Favorites section in the side navigation has been added to display users' favorite category views.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed a bug with category counts getting out of sync when elements have been duplicated.

• Fixed a bug with spatial Relationships showing as [object Object] in a lookup field.

• Fixed a bug with user mentions in text area fields not being formatted properly in document views.

• Fixed a bug with recurring time automations scheduling timing out.

• Fixed a bug with the dashboard's project list column sorting not working.

Form View

Form View is a new view type that allows you to create a sharable form to create new elements in any category in your project. The form is completely customizable -- you choose which fields are available on the form. The form can be shared using a secret link, directly with external users via an email address, or embedded into other apps or websites.

Element Inputs Have a New Look and Feel

Element fields have been re-built from the ground up to provide a refreshed experience that is consistent across all field types.

Other Improvements & Features

• A default style is used when placing element notes on document views

• Added the ability to select all elements that match a filter when selecting multiple elements for a Related Elements Field

• Added the ability to create a new related element from the select elements dialog while also selecting existing related elements

• Added the ability to manaually reorder files within a File Field using drag-and-drop

• Added the ability to duplicate an automation from the ••• menu at the top right of an existing automation

• Update existing elements when importing an Excel/CSV file by matching a spreadsheet column to the Layer Element ID or the Unique Element Number

Bug Fixes

• Fixed issue where elements table and/or gallery could get out of sync with element pane when updating element field values quickly

• Fixed issue where very small annotations were not selectable on Drawing Views and in the PDF file viewer

• Fixed issue in which the Starts With filter returned unexpected results for Revit parameter element data