Welcome to Aconex. You might be wondering, "what is Aconex and how can it help me?".

Construction and engineering projects generate plenty of information and data. 

Documents; drawings; correspondence; processes.

You've got a mammoth task keeping all that data organized, secure, and accessible across multiple teams, organizations, and locations.

Not to mention trying to gain useful insights if it's all over the place.

That's where Aconex comes in.

Aconex brings your project together and stores the information securely online, all in one place. Balancing the need for data security and collaboration.

And all the tools you need are built right in. Find things fast, manage processes and costs, collaborate with everyone on your project, draw valuable insights from your data and see the whole picture, where ever you are. If you need to, you can integrate with other systems.

When Aconex is set up correctly and everyone knows the basics, it helps jobs get done quicker, easier, and on budget.

So, how does it work?

The key to success in Aconex is capturing all the relevant information, both up-front and throughout your project. We do this with Mail and Document types. 

Mail is for correspondence, questions, answers, advice and other processes.

And Documents are used for drawings and other files that need to go through a series of revisions. 

Mail and Document Types help you get set up with the right information. Choosing the type sets up forms to collect the right details at the right time. 

This little bit of work saves time down the track, and unlocks the power of search, workflows, reporting and just about every other process, from start to project end.

In Aconex, your information is securely stored and selectively shared.

Accessible on any device, anywhere, your information is your information. To start, organizations can only access data they created or received. And then each organization decides what they share with others. No one automatically gets access to everything on the project.

Plus, Aconex keeps a record of everything, so you can always see who’s done what, no matter the size of the project or organizations involved.

This level playing field creates trust and shared accountability, encouraging everyone to collaborate and be on the same page.

And, that's just the start. Once you know the basics, Aconex will be your one-stop-shop for Document reviews and markups, site Inspections, issue and cost management, BIM Models and much much more.

On your Aconex journey, Support Central will be your guide, covering every facet of Aconex in detail, through a mix of how-to articles and videos like this one.

Welcome to Aconex, it's great to be working with you.

So, what is a Project Admin and what do they do?

A Project Administrator, or Project Admin, works for the Aconex project-owning organization. They manage project-wide settings that affect everyone working on a project.

Project Admins ensure each organization on the project has all they need to keep the project running smoothly. This includes setting up the way users work with Mail and Documents throughout the project.

They also manage access to the project by deciding how users can be invited. When required, they can remove users and archive organizations that are no longer participating in the project.

While Project Admins have access to project settings, they don't have any extra access to project data. Each organization decides who can see its data, so no one sees more than they need.

Now you know what a Project Admin is and what they do.

So, we've logged into Aconex and have been invited to a project.

The Tasks page is the first thing we see. It’s like your home page in Aconex.

Here we'll find the things to action, see which projects we're on, and there are shortcuts to common tasks too.

From the panel on the left, we can access information on other projects we've been invited to.

For a consolidated view of tasks across all our projects, we can click here.

Or we can quickly switch between them using the drop-down here - this is available anywhere in Aconex.

Oh, we've got a few tasks that require action on the Five Star project.

Before we go into those, let's have a quick look at how we get around in Aconex. 

Up here is the main menu. It's always visible, which makes it easy to move around. 

Each menu provides shortcuts to the most useful actions, such as searching for a drawing, or sending an RFI.

What each of us sees might be slightly different,

depending on the project configuration and the permissions assigned to us.

If we don't have the right permissions, we can contact an Org Admin.

We'll find them here. 

These are the main contacts for Aconex in our organization, and they manage our user permissions.

If we get stuck, In-app help is never far away.

Click here for articles, videos, and guides - always relevant to the screen you are currently in.

OK, now that we've had a look around, let's get back to those tasks, they won't magically complete themselves.

First up is the Mail inbox.

Any mail item that's unread, outstanding, or overdue shows up here.

Mmh, we have a few mails overdue.

We simply click the mail to see more detail.

By default, the ten oldest tasks are shown in this list, but we can click View All and that will show us all of them.

Let's return to the task page.

Next, are incoming transmittals. A transmittal is how we send documents between organizations.

Looks like we've been assigned some shop drawings to review.

Just like with Mail, we can click on the link to see more detail. 

And as we look down the screen,

we'll find action items for other features of Aconex too,

such as Packages or Supplier Documents.

Right, we've seen everything there is to see on the Tasks page. You're all set.

Why not go and have a look around your Task page in Aconex?

Today we'll look at the details of our project. This is the first thing we see in project settings.

At the top, we can set our project's logo. It appears in any mail sent on the project, and on the tasks page. Let's upload a logo by clicking the edit button and dropping in our image.

Next is the project name and code. We should never need to change these. 

The short name is used in places like the project list on the Task page and the project selector at the top of the screen. All users can see this, so if we need to change it, we'll let our users know in advance. 

We'll skip down to Access Level.

We can set the default access level for new users to normal or read only, we'll leave it as normal.
And here we can change the access level for a whole organization. As well as normal and read-only, we can choose archive.
Archive is handy when we have organizations no longer working on a project. They can still view their existing data, but they can't receive mail or update documents. They are hidden in the project directory, and can't be re-invited to the project, unless we change their access level back to Normal.

Finally, we'll check the Contacts section. This information is shown in the directory, so it’s a good idea to make sure the address and contact numbers are correct and up-to-date. 

Remember we should always communicate any project setting changes to the team –before we make them. This keeps our team informed to prevent any disruption or confusion.

Today we'll learn how to configure Project Roles. 

These help us set the types of information each organization on the project can create, such as Mail and Document types.

Because it's project-level, a subcontractor, for example, can have different roles for each project they're on, depending on what they need.

Assigned roles don’t restrict the type of information someone can view; just what they can create. 

From Setup, we click Project Settings. Then, select Mail and Documents Role Settings.

All organizations working on this project are listed here. And, here are the roles they've been assigned. 

Each project starts with an initial set of roles. However, as needs change, we can update the project roles and even add new ones. Let's add a new one now.

We click here to create a new role. First, give the role a meaningful name.

Let's create this one for the consulting organizations on this project.

The set as default option is something we’ll come back to in a moment.

The four tabs we need to configure are for Mail Types, Doc Types, Doc Statuses, and Review Status Sets – which relate to Workflows.

On the left we see the list of available mail types and on the right are the types selected for this role. Let’s select a couple of types.

'Notice to Proceed' and 'Instruction' are needed by consulting organizations. Just click and use the arrows to move them or double-click a type.

We need a 'Change Order', but it's not on the list. We click the Show All checkbox and filter to find it. Then we double-click to add it.

Now, let's do the same for Doc Types, <pause>, and then Doc Statuses. 

We should keep the available types as few as possible to help the consultants find the right ones quickly with few mistakes.

We won't configure Review Status Sets today but the process is the same. 

As a Project Admin, it's important to make sure organizations newly invited to our project are assigned to the correct role.

If we forget this, they may end up with access to the wrong Mail and Document types.

Let's set this one as default. 

Once we're done, click OK to save the role. 

We can see the newly added role here, and it's clearly marked as the default role.

Finally, we need to assign the role to the appropriate organizations on this project.

To assign the role, we tick the box for the organization under the relevant role. If we tick more than one role, they will get access to all the types from both roles.

That's how we add new roles, but how do we edit an existing one? It's easy. On this screen, we just click the role name.

We remove the Doc Status 'For Information', as it's no longer needed for this project, and click OK.

Congratulations, now you know how to create and edit Project roles. You won't need to do this often, so we suggest bookmarking this page to come back to, when you need a refresher.

Today we’ll learn how to configure Document Fields.

Document Fields help us capture information about our documents on the project. This helps us, and others easily find them later on.

The fields are set up when a project is first created, but we can make some changes as the project evolves.

From Setup, Project Settings, we click Documents and then Document Fields.

If we scroll down we see lots of fields and options. 

Let's look at these in more detail.

Starting on the left is the Label.

It's best to keep these easy to understand, so users know what to enter in each field.

To avoid confusion, we don't recommend changing a field label on an active project. But if we need to, we'd contact Oracle support.

Tick 'use field' to make a field available. Some fields such as the Document Number must be used on all projects.

If we need to, we can make a field Mandatory here.

Next, we see the Type and max length of each field. These can't be changed.

We used this information during the initial project setup, to choose which fields were needed on the project.

We have text fields, select lists, and more. 

The Discipline field is a single select list.

Select lists contain values that users choose from a dropdown list. 

Each value can be up to 50 characters in length.

Let's edit the list of disciplines. 

We'll add 'Structural', 

And give it a code, which is used for autonumbering.

Save the changes.

Now all users on the project can choose 'Structural' when they upload their documents.

Let's return to the fields list.

Editable Inline allows us to make changes to fields directly from the upload screen, so we don't have to go into setup each time to add more values.

We'll scan over the list and make any other changes needed, then click Save.

It's best practice to only add the document fields we know we'll use. This helps keep the list short and ensures we only capture the information we need.

Now you've got the basics of document fields, why not log in and check your project is set up for success?

Today we'll look at our project preferences in Aconex.

We’ll head over to the Setup menu, Preferences, and click the project tab. 

If a setting has a recommended default, checking the box in this column will use that.

The default setting should work for most projects, but if we want to make changes, we need to uncheck it.

Then, switch things on and off in the Settings column as needed.

Changes in this top section will apply to all users in our organization who are working on the project.

We’re from the organization that owns the project, so we can see project-wide settings. These apply to all users on the project, not just the project-owning organization.

Another Project Administrator may change settings here that can override ours, so it’s important we communicate any changes.

Let’s focus on the areas that are most relevant for a new Project Admin.

Under Security settings there are a few options:

Project-wide password strength lets us set the password requirements for all users on the project.

Project-wide password access rule controls expiry options for users on this project.

And, project-wide session time duration sets how long users’ web browsers can be idle before they’re automatically logged out of Aconex.

Further down, the project invitation method controls how users can be invited to our project.

The default and recommended setting is Open. This means that anyone on the project can invite anyone else to collaborate. Note that data ownership rules still apply, and each organization only sees information that was created by or shared with them.

Restricted automatically sets newly invited users as shadow users. A shadow user is hidden from the project directory and can only be made visible by a project admin. 

Explicit means that only Project Administrators from the projects owning organization can invite new users to the project. This comes with a bit of extra admin so is really only useful for sensitive projects, such as defense.

Under Documents, Project-wide auto numbering allows the project’s documents to be automatically assigned unique document numbers. 

Here, we can set the default columns that appear in search results.

If there's a commonly used upload profile on your project, this can help speed up uploads

And here we can set the arrangement of search filters for Documents <pause> and Drawings. 

Here in Mail, we can set values for the “Reason for issue” field. This is used when sending transmittals.

We can also choose how mail is numbered to ensure a consistent sequence across the project.

We should always keep the project roles locked. This ensures the mail and document types we've configured for each organization cannot be overridden. 

That's it. We can save our changes and our project preferences are all set.

Today we’ll learn how to manage access to our project.

Let’s start with how to add, or invite, users.

Go to Setup and select project settings.

Under project, select project participants.

Here's the list of users currently invited to this project.

To invite someone, click invite user and start typing their name.

Find the correct person from the correct organization, and select them from the drop-down.

We check the box to make sure they get an email invitation. This helps them know what to do next.

If we can't find the user we can try the advanced search. This gives us a few more search options.

We can search by organization name, first name, and more.

Once we've found who we're looking for, we have two user types to choose from. We can either add them as a full user or a shadow user.

Both user types have access to the project, but the shadow user cannot be seen by others in the project directory. This is useful for people who just need to view information without being involved in project processes.

Let’s add as Full User, and click OK.

As the Project Admin we can see some users are shadowed on our project. Click their eye icon to make them visible in the project directory. This helps others find them to collaborate.

Sometimes a user or organization will leave the project. We can select users and remove them here. At least one user needs to remain in each organization - we cannot remove them all, as they are entitled to view their historic data. 

If we want to remove an entire organization, we'll need to change it's access level. 

Under project, click project details, and scroll down to access levels.

Click Edit and select the organization we want to remove.

Set access level, to archive. 

This organization is no longer participating on the project. They can still view their existing data, but they can't receive mail or update documents. They are hidden in the project directory, and can't be re-invited to the project, unless we change their access level back to Normal.

Congratulations. Now you know how to manage access to your project.