Groups are an important organization method within e-PlanREVIEW® (EPR). Groups are used to organize people and when creating plan review assignment tasks. Users must belong to one or more groups within a purpose to access the plan review page, although they only represent one group at a time while marking up plans. A “Group” within EPR usually represents an agency department, sub-department, division, office location (if multiple locations exist), or any other metric chosen by the agency. Because of these uses, it’s important to create/update group information before creating users and/or preparing assignment workflows.
New deployments of EPR come pre-configured with a sample set of Group values for Permitting and for Design Review purposes, but agencies are encouraged to add, update, or remove groups as needed during implementation.
Create a Group
To create a new group within EPR:
Navigate within the EPR menu to Settings > Configuration > Groups.
Click within the “Purpose” dropdown and select either For Permitting or For Design Review.
The “List Type” value will be pre-selected as “Group.”
Any existing group values will load within a table.
To add a group, click the
(Add) button in the lower right corner.Type the group name into the “Label” field.
Can use alphanumeric characters, as well as “-”, “_” or “/” characters.
The full label displays in tooltips and in comment report letters if the Group is used as a header value.
Type the group abbreviation into the “Item Abbreviation” field.
Can use alphanumeric characters only.
Abbreviation length should be between 1-4 characters at maximum.
Abbreviation is displayed most often throughout EPR, appearing within table columns, in comment tags, and other similar locations where saving space is a priority.
Type an “Order” value (if desired).
If all values are left as 0, groups will list alphabetically.
If values are set, order values are only used when sorting comments in the Review page comment pane.
Type in a hex color value into the “Item Color” field or click on the circle next to it to select from the color picker.
The selected color is used to represent the group throughout EPR.
When a reviewer adds a comment or sketch to a file, it will reflect their current group color.
Using black, gray, or white tones for group color is not recommended.
Click on the List Item is Active toggle to enable or disable the group.
Click SAVE to complete.
Do not click on the List Item is not Default or List Item is Default toggle as it does not apply to Group values.
Groups Page Layout | Add Group Window |
|---|---|
 |  |
Edit a Group
Most group information can be edited as needed, though because of how information is tracked behind the scenes, updating an existing “Label” is not recommended. If a label needs to be changed, it is usually better to create a new group record (with the new label) instead of repurposing an existing group.
To edit an existing group within EPR:
Navigate within the EPR menu to Settings > Configuration > Groups.
Click within the “Purpose” dropdown and select either For Permitting or For Design Review.
This will load any existing group values within a table.
Click
(Edit) to open an existing group.Update value(s) as needed.
If necessary, click on the List Item is Active/Inactive toggle to disable or re-enable the group.
Click SAVE to complete the update or CANCEL to close the form without making any changes.
Updating an existing group’s label after it has been saved is not recommended. Instead, create a new group with the desired label, and, if the old group is no longer needed, make the group inactive.
Delete a Group
If a group has not been used, it can be safely deleted from EPR. However, deleting should be reserved as a last resort.
To delete a Group:
Navigate within the EPR menu to Settings > Configuration > Groups.
Click within the “Purpose” dropdown and select either For Permitting or For Design Review.
This will load any existing group values within a table.
Click
(Delete) to remove the group.
Deleting the group will be successful as long as it has not been used anywhere within EPR. For groups that have been used already, go ahead and inactivate the group instead.
Deleted groups are not removed from existing Assignment Workflow Distributions. Update any active distributions to remove any groups that have been deleted records. See Assignment Distributions
Inactivate Groups that Cannot Be Deleted
If a group has been used but is no longer necessary going forward, edit it to make the group inactive.
Inactive groups:
Stop appearing in group dropdowns
Cannot receive new plan review assignments
Continue to display pre-existing assignments so they can be completed
Can be reactivated at any time
Inactive groups are not removed from existing Assignment Workflow Distributions. Update any active distributions to remove any inactive group records. See Assignment Distributions
Apply Group Color Restrictions
From the Group settings page, the Agency can also control whether users can markup plans using any color they want or if they are restricted to only marking up plans using their group color. By default, this “Apply Group Color Restrictions” is OFF, but can be enabled if preferred.
To change the group color restriction:
Navigate within the EPR menu to Settings > Configuration > Groups.
Click on the Apply Group Color Restrictions toggle to turn it ON or OFF.
When this is ON, users can only markup plans using their group color. If a user belongs to more than one group, only the current group color can be used. Switching to another group will allow markup in the other group color.
When this is OFF, users can freely change the markup color they are using from the toolbar in the Review page.
Comments are always created in the user’s group color, regardless of the restriction setting.
Configure Group Status Access
Groups can be further managed by controlling which plan review assignments statuses they can select when conducting plan review. While a newly created group can access any active assignment status by default, this can be restricted if the Agency desires. Refer to Group Status Config for more information.
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