Project Settings

Partly availableSome of what this page describes is in DimSum today and some is still coming. Parts marked Coming are designed but not built yet.

The settings that belong to this job and travel inside the `.dsum` — job details, units, Plan Levels, scale, and the job's own properties (a Labor Rate, a Tax Rate) that every part can use.

Overview

There are two settings pages in DimSum, and one rule tells you which is which:

If it travels with the file, it's a Project Setting. If it stays on the machine, it's a System Setting.

Your name, your company logo, your keyboard shortcuts and where your Jobs folder lives belong to you — they're System Settings, the same whichever job you open. The levels in this building, the units this job is bid in, the customer it's for and the labor rate it's priced at belong to the job — they're Project Settings, stored in the .dsum, and they come along when you email it to someone else.

So this page has no built-in markup, overhead, tax or waste defaults. A rate you use across the job is a Job property you add yourself.

Where to find it

• The gear in the top bar, next to the theme switch ("Project Settings — everything stored in this job file"). The sliders icon beside it is System Settings.
• File → Project Settings… in the menu bar.
• Done or Esc closes it. It is a sheet over the app rather than a fourth layout of the shell — deliberately, because a page you come back from does not need to be a grid variant, and not being one means it cannot break the shell at a width nobody tested.
• Clicking the job name in the top bar still renames it in place, which is the fast route when renaming is all you wanted.
• Available only when a job is open. With no job open you get Home and System Settings.

What is on it today

Section	State
Job — Name, Job / Quote #, Customer, Description, Notes, Units, Details section name
Plan Levels & sections — storeys lowest first, then sections; right-click → Set elevation…	Coming. Adding, renaming and deleting levels is done in the Project Tree
Scale — which pages are scaled and which are not	read-only; set a scale from the canvas
Job properties — your own properties on the job
Framing — Hanger Overlap % and Bearing Window
— this job's own tables	Removed Tables and lists live only in the Material Library
— this job's own material lists, imported	Removed, with the job's import wizard
Not here yet — Display precision, Sides / Elevations, Report Sections, Protection.	Listed on the page, greyed, marked Coming
(waste, markup, overhead, tax for new parts)	Superseded — not built. Use Job properties

That "Not here yet" list is the rule the whole app follows: a section that cannot work yet says so where you would look for it, rather than being missing and reading as an oversight.

How to use it

Fill in the job details

1. Open Project Settings. The Job section is at the top.
2. Set the Name, Job / Quote #, Customer, Description and Notes. These are the fields the New Job dialog asked for, and this is where you change them afterwards. Each one is saved when you leave the field.
3. Pick Units: Imperial — feet and inches or Metric — metres.
4. Set the Details section name — the group that holds pages you have not put on a level (details, schedules, specs).

Three of these are properties a formula can read: {Job > Name}, {Job > Job #} and {Job > Customer}. Description, Notes and Units are not properties yet. For anything else a formula or (later) a report should read — a Lot #, a Bid Date — add a Job property.

Coming Address and Bid Date fields, and picking the Customer from the Address Book (a System Setting — the book is yours, the choice is the job's) Parked.

Renaming the job here also renames its folder and its .dsum, so Explorer always matches DimSum. A name another job already uses is flagged while you type. The rename closes and reopens the job to do it safely. See File types.

Set the units for this job

the Units choice is stored in the job file, so a job set to Metric stays Metric on any machine, and Home shows it. Coming showing lengths in metric. every length still displays in feet-inches, whatever this says.

A job-wide override is not here yet.

Work with Plan Levels & sections

1. The list shows storeys lowest first, ordered by elevation, then sections (groups with no elevation, "Section — no elevation"), so it reads the way the building stacks.
2. Right-click a storey → Set elevation…, type the height of its floor above project zero (9'-1 1/8"), press Enter. If the new elevation changes the order, the list re-sorts, and one Ctrl+Z undoes both.
3. Delete level (right-click the level) works here the same way as in the Project Tree. When the level has pages, the menu says how many move (Delete level (2 pages move)) and it asks first. Its pages move to Details, and one Ctrl+Z puts the level and its pages back.
4. Add storeys and sections (right-click a level → Add storey above), rename them and drag pages onto them in the Project Tree too.

A Building Template will fill the levels in for you, but you can always build them by hand. See Plan Levels.

Check which pages are scaled

The Scale section reads "3 of 5 pages have a scale" and lists each page as Scaled or Not set. A page without a scale still draws, but its quantities are not trustworthy (they show — in formulas). Set scales on the canvas.

Set the framing defaults for this job

Setting	Starts at	What it is
Hanger Overlap %	50	How much of the smaller member's depth a joist and a beam must overlap up and down for a joist hanger. 0 to 100
Bearing Window (ft-in)	4"	How far below the joists a beam's top can be and still hold them up. 0 or more

• They are saved in the job, in the .dsum, so the job counts the same hangers on every computer. Each is one Undo (Change the hanger overlap to 60%, Change the bearing window to 6", or Change the framing defaults for both).
• Type and press Enter, or click away, to save. Esc puts the saved value back. A bare number in Bearing Window is inches (6 is 6"). Under each box a hint says what it is and where it starts (50% to start, 4" to start).
• Refused, with a sentence under the box, and nothing saved: Hanger Overlap % must be from 0 to 100, and The bearing window must be 0 or more.
• Formulas read them as {Job > Hanger Overlap %} (the old {Job > Hanger Overlap} still works) and {Job > Bearing Window}, like Name, Job # and Customer. The Joist and Beam tools' Hanger Overlap % starts as {Job > Hanger Overlap %}, so changing the job's value moves every tool item and joist that hasn't set its own.
• A new job starts with the values in System Settings → Framing (50% and 4" until you change them there).

Add job properties

Job properties are numbers and choices that belong to this whole job. Parts use them in formulas, so changing one here changes every part that refers to it.

1. Project Settings → Job properties → + Add property.
2. Fill in the dialog: Name Labor Rate, Type Number, first value 45. Click Add. (The Group is Job.)
3. The row reads 45.00 — no $, because nothing in DimSum is money (typing $45 works too; the $ is dropped). Any part reads it as {Job > Labor Rate}, e.g. a labor part's Labor Cost = {Qty} * {Job > Labor Rate}.
4. Change it to 50: every part that uses it follows at once. Ctrl+Z puts 45 back.

Until you add one, the section says: "None yet. Add a Labor Rate or a Tax Rate here, and any part can use it as {Job > Labor Rate}."

Job properties work like properties anywhere else (Property System):

• Any type: Number, Percentage, Slider, Text, Checkbox or Color, with the same settings as anywhere else. A Tax Rate is a Percentage (7 → 7.00%, 0.07 in formulas), and every part's own Tax Rate can read it as {Job > Tax Rate}; a Lot # is Text; a Truss Manufacturer can be Text with a List.
• fx makes one a formula, and it can read the other job properties: Burdened Rate = {Labor Rate} * 1.3.
• Right-click → Settings… to change how it shows, Rename… (every formula in every item that used the old name is rewritten) or Delete property… (it says which formulas would show ERROR, and asks first).
• Only the properties you made are listed. Name, Job # and Customer are edited in the Job section above.
• Job properties do not get columns on the Estimating tab; the part properties that use them do.

Defaults for this job — superseded

With no money built in there are no pricing properties for those defaults to feed. Put the numbers you price with in Job properties and write them into your part formulas:

Earlier default	Now
Waste % for new parts	A part formula (* 1.10), or your own Waste % property on the item
Markup %, Overhead %	Job properties (Percentage). Every part has a blank Markup % you can point at it: {Job > Markup}
Tax %	A Job property Tax Rate (Percentage). Every part has a blank Tax Rate and Taxable; give Tax Rate the formula {Job > Tax Rate}. Tax only ever appears where your formula puts it
Labor rate	A Job property Labor Rate (Number)

Options & settings

Section	Contents	Status
Job	Name, Job / Quote #, Customer (typed), Description, Notes, Units, Details section name
Job (planned additions)	Address, Bid Date, Customer from the Address Book	Coming
Plan Levels & sections	Storeys and sections in order; Set elevation…	(add / rename / delete in the Project Tree)
Scale	Per-page list: Scaled / Not set	read-only
Job properties	The job's own properties
Framing	Hanger Overlap % and Bearing Window (ft-in, 4" to start), kept in the job
	A job has no tables of its own any more: tables and lists live only in the Material Library. What a job holds of a table is the values, frozen, with the folder's, table's and row's names, and its update screen still offers a row's change and a tool's (Dynamic Lists → What a job stores)	Removed —
	with the job's import wizard (Import a list…, Pull a table in…) and the part's Material row (Pick… / Unlink). A material is a part loaded from a Material Library row in the Tool Designer (Material Library)	Removed —
Display precision	A job-wide override of the decimal places	Not here yet — decimal places are System Settings → Numbers (per computer) and each property can set its own
Sides / Elevations	Front, Rear, Left, Right and custom sides	Coming
Report Sections	Which sections this job uses, and their order (position = priority)	Not here yet — designed, not built, no build named. Division and SubDivision replaced Report Section on parts and items; whether this becomes the job's Division order is to confirm
		*Dropped —
Protection	Page passwords and protected pages	Coming
		Superseded — use Job properties

Examples

A job priced with a labor rate

Project Settings → Job properties → Labor Rate, Number, 45. On each labor part, your own Labor Cost = {Qty} * {Job > Labor Rate}. A framing labor part at 18.2 hr shows 819.00. The customer negotiates the rate to 50: change it here once and that part reads 910.00, and the Estimating tab's Labor Cost totals follow.

A job with a tax rate and a markup

Job properties Tax Rate (Percentage, 7) and Markup (Percentage, 15). On a material part, give its Tax Rate the formula {Job > Tax Rate} and its Markup % the formula {Job > Markup}. With your own Ext Cost at 100.80: Tax = {Ext Cost} * {Tax Rate} → 7.06; Sell = ({Ext Cost} + {Tax}) * (1 + {Markup %}) → 107.856 × 1.15 = 124.03. Another job, another rate, same parts.

A metric job in an imperial shop

You bid one job for a Canadian GC and set Units to Metric — metres. That choice is stored in the .dsum and goes with it to the GC. Coming every length, area and report in that job showing in metric while your other jobs stay in feet and inches — lengths still display in feet-inches.

A two-storey house with a basement

New job, no template. In the Project Tree, add storeys (right-click → Add storey above) and rename them Basement, Main and Second. Here, right-click each → Set elevation…: Basement -9', Main 0, Second 9'-1 1/8". The list re-sorts bottom-up. Drag the foundation sheet onto Basement and the floor plans onto Main and Second in the tree. Anything you draw carries its level's elevation into 3D later, and {Level > Elevation} reads it in formulas now.

A job that doesn't price

A concrete sub bids quantities only: leave the parts' Cost fields blank and add no number properties, and the Estimating tab shows quantities only.

Tips & shortcuts

• Put every rate you price with (labor, tax, markup) in Job properties before you build parts. Then one edit reprices the job.
• Give Job properties plain names (Labor Rate, Tax Rate) — you'll type them inside {Job > …}.
• Set Units when you create the job. Changing it later is safe (nothing is re-entered), but it is the job's record of how it was bid.
• Set level elevations before you draw anything that needs them in 3D.

Rules, limits & edge cases

• Notes and Units travel with the job. Before that they were cached per machine, and a job opened elsewhere showed dashes.
• Renaming the job renames its folder and file too, which means the job closes and reopens mid-rename. If anything fails, nothing is renamed.
• Changing Units doesn't re-enter any value; the stored value is always inches internally.
• A Job property's name can't be Name, Job # or Customer (those are built in), and can't contain { } > (the three characters a reference is made of), nor [ ] \ / or :.

Related features

• System Settings — everything that stays on the machine
• Property System — how {Job > …} works
• Parts — where Job properties get used
• Estimating tab
• Plan Levels
• Project Tree
• Building Templates — will fill this page in for you
• New Project Process
• File types — what's in the .dsum