Breakouts, Plan Set Versioning, and Multi-User Functionalities

Under Review

I do a lot of community forum reading and found myself thinking hard about layers after going through the comments on the System Layer post in the inside track. Layers are currently being used multiple ways:

To segment projects so you're not working in the same space as another estimator.
To segment projects into estimate breakouts.
Estimate version/design milestone control.

Maybe each of these need to have their own dedicated workflow that zzTakeoff nudges users towards using:

Spitball here- maybe a toggle for users to be able to click on/off whether they want to work collaboratively or solo rather than using layers. This would apply to the current active layer. The toggle would filter out other user cursor movements, takeoffs, annotations, etc. and only show their own takeoffs/mark-ups.
I think layers is likely the right solution for estimate breakout management, but needs tweaking.
Users should be able to multiple layers at the same time to ensure full scope capture.
Have direct workflows to move/copy takeoffs from one layer to another would out copy, paste, go through the prompt of would I like to create the takeoff in the new layer, delete in the old layer, then having to convert the pasted takeoff to an existing takeoff if you already have it in the layer (huge PITA for me right now, can you tell?).
Being able to create a project version/snapshot rather than copy, paste, rename 30% drawings to 60% drawings. Effectively, this could do the same thing but be more native in zzTakeoff's architecture. Plus, having the ability to compare versions/snapshots through zzTakeoff's reports tab would be massive. Being able to simply point out "these are the things that changed/I interpret differently now" would be incredibly helpful for communicating to designers/PMs/owners.

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Lorin Allred zzTakeoff45d 9h

Hey Victor, thanks for the detailed request! I’ll send it to our team. We are currently planning to allow multiple layers to be enabled at once (the show/hide on the system layer was our toe into show/hide layers). We also have show/hide per user coming soon.

Regarding the snapshots and comparisons, those would be very useful features! We are planning to add some way to handle the different design phases of a project (30%, 60%, etc), so this feature request could link into it.

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Aaron Grenier 37d 21h

Per-user show/hide controls and a workflow for managing DD phases would take a lot of pressure off layers. We would likely use custom properties for breakouts and alternates, and keep layers focused on scopes of work. The ability to move annotations and takeoff between layers would also make that approach more practical.

Separately, I’d like show/hide controls at every grouping level in the takeoff window. When reviewing an estimator’s work, I often need to isolate certain takeoff on a crowded page. Right now, I have to expand multiple groups to reach the show/hide icons. If I could hide or show a whole group from its top level, then carry that view as I page through the drawings, reviews would be much faster.

Great to see progress in these areas! This is truly going to be the most dialled platform for real world workflows very soon. Keep it up zz almost there.

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