How fields, card types and templates fit together

Four ideas build on each other: a field is one question, a card type is the list of questions a kind of point asks, a template is a set of answers saved ahead of time, and a point is one spot on a drawing with its own answers.

Idea	What it is	Example	Where it lives
Field	One question	Status, Qty, Installed on	Setup › Fields, for the whole company
Card type	A kind of point, and the questions it asks	Wall, Hold-down, Issue	Setup › Card types, for the whole company
Template	A starting card for one card type	“HDU2 hold-down”, with the model and quantity filled in	Under its card type
Point	One spot on a drawing, with its answers	W2-2 on Level 1	On the plan, in one project

Fields and card types are many to many. A field can be on many card types, and a card type asks many fields.
A card type has many points. Each point has one card type, and one card holding one answer per field.
A card type has many templates. Each template belongs to one card type.
A template fills in a point once. After that, the two aren’t connected.

A card type is a kind of point

Each point has one card, so choosing a card type is choosing what kind of thing the point is. It sets the questions the card asks, the point’s starting color and its initials or icon.

You can switch a point’s card type until someone changes its card. After that it stays that kind of point, so to change it, place a new one.

A field belongs to the company, not to a card type

There is one pool of fields. A card type picks from the pool and doesn’t get its own copy. If Wall, Hold-down and Issue all ask Status, they ask the same Status: a report can count Status across all three, in every project.

That’s also why changing a field reaches so far. Rename it or edit its choices, and every card type that asks it changes. A rename asks first and names those card types. Editing choices doesn’t ask, but the card type’s page says which others share the field.

What’s shared, and what each card type sets

This split answers most setup questions.

Belongs to the field, the same on every card type	Set by each card type, on its own
Name and Description	Whether it asks the field at all
Field type and its settings, like Unit or Past dates turn red	Where it sits on the card
The choices, with their colors, initials and icons	Required and Hidden
Multi-select and Choices have colors	Everything under On the plan: what the field puts on the point
On the card: Buttons, Chips, List or Dropdown	Which field is the card’s Name, and which flags get a title bar button

So Status can color the whole point on an Issue and be a small ring on a Wall, while its choices stay the same on both. A field doesn’t have to look the same everywhere to be the same field.

A card type can’t offer only some of a field’s choices. Every card type that asks a field gets its whole list. If a card type needs a different list, that’s a different field.

A template gives a head start, and nothing more

A template is a filled-in card saved under one card type. When someone places a point from it, its answers are copied onto the card. From then on that point’s answers are its own: changing the template later never changes points already placed.

Every card type has a Default template, which is why a new point can start with answers already in it.

Reports can’t count by template. A template fills in answers, and reports count the answers. To count every HDU2, make the model a field and have the template fill it in.

A point’s answers are its own

Once a point is placed, its answers belong to it. The point on the plan follows those answers: pick Blocked and it can turn red, if the card type is set up that way.

Fields you take off a card type keep their answers, and so do fields you hide. Hidden answers still count in reports.