Submittals are a unique style of reporting functionality for an SI project. The difference between a Submittal report and a Standard report is that submittals are designed to display links to files assigned to products within a project and any other project files you wish to hyperlink, other reports, or PDFs of drawings.

The primary reason for this feature was to make it easier for you to provide the various accompanying documentation for products you are using within a project to other people involved. For example, interior designers might request images and spec sheets, but architects might request only spec sheets.

The reality is that you can use the tools in this feature for anything you can imagine where linked documents and files are needed. For example, close out a document for your client that includes links to user guides for all major equipment in the project.

Submittal reports can be run from the Reports tab in the Product Explorer or Project Editor interfaces. They can also be shared on the Customer Portal.

This will open the following form, where you can choose to add an existing Submittal template from your catalog, or you can choose to create a new submittal that will be Project-specific.

If you add an existing submittal you have already created, you can click the Edit button to review which files you want to include or the Run button to generate the Submittal report.

Although creating Submittal reports is covered here, there are more options when creating and editing a submittal for a specific project. The process of editing a submittal is documented below. It is the same when creating a submittal.

Here, you will add a name and description and choose your preference for how to handle the files for the submittal.

Use only links in the submittal report

This option is the default, and no files will be downloaded to a folder with this option. The hyperlinks in the report will point to the Amazon S3 storage+.

Download files for use in the submittal report

This option can take a considerable amount of time to generate as all files will be downloaded from your Amazon S3 bucket to a local folder where the PDF of the Submittal report will be generated.

The PDF must be opened from within the folder, as the hyperlinks in the report are to the files within the folder. Use this option if you are required to provide actual files vs. links with your submittal.

Download new or updated files

This option is only available when the "Download files for use in submittal report" option is selected. Use this if you want SI to check for new or updated files to download to the local folder for the Submittal report.

Here, you can modify which files and link categories to include in your Submittal report. You can also choose to exclude any files, links, or products from being a part of the Submittal report if you have not already done that within the Project Editor.

Any files in the Project's folder can also be added to a Submittal report. The recommended file type is PDF, but you can add any file type you desire. You might want to include PDF versions of Visio drawings for a project or PDFs of previously signed documents.

Here, you can choose which Submittal report you want to generate. There is only one default Submittal report, but it has three options for grouping the products on the report. If you have created any customized Submittal reports, those will also be displayed here as an option.

Click the Run button to generate the report.

The Submittal report is created, and a PDF version is created in a subfolder, named after the submittal, in your local project folder.

For example, if you created a submittal named "Specification Sheets" for a project, it would be stored in the following location: C:\D-Tools Projects Folder Location*\Client Name\Project Name\Submittals\Specification Sheets.

Once generated, you will be prompted whether or not you want to open the file location for the aubmittal.

You may want to choose Yes on this so you can send the file as an attachment to the recipient, or you may want to zip up the folder containing the submittal PDF and the files you chose to include.

Your choice will depend on which option you chose on the General tab for the submittal.

Proposals have a cover page that displays client information (project name, name, address, etc.), your company Information, and an image.

The graphic colors can be changed via report themes.

The image displayed in the middle can be changed via a Report Setting or per-project basis.

See Cover Page Image for details.

The Body of the report has a page header graphic and a group header graphic for the first grouping. These can be changed via report themes. The first image below was run "By Product", and the second was run "By Location."

The first section of the report displays the product files you've chosen to include in the submittal with a link to the files. The other fields will vary depending on how you've chosen to group the report, but the common fields are: Link to file, Manufacturer, Model, and Short Description.

The second section will display project files if you have chosen to include them in the report.