# Projects

Project fields, status flow, and release behavior.

Source: https://support.toolingmetrics.com/en/engineering/reference/projects/
Updated: 2026-10-29

An **Engineering Project** groups one or more jobs, letting you define the sequence of jobs needed to make a part or multiple parts. Projects are the approval and release unit: releasing (and then approving) a project cascades a pre-release check, lock, and — on approval — a tool-assembly-release and inventory sync across every job it contains.

## Fields

| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| **Name** | Descriptive name for the project (e.g., *Housing Op 10–30*). Required. Maximum 64 characters. |
| **Description** | Optional free-text description. Maximum 128 characters. |
| **Status** | See [Status flow](#status-flow) below. |
| **Multiple jobs setup** | When enabled, all jobs in the project must use the same machine. Enforces single-machine multi-setup planning. |
| **Picture** | Reference photograph for the project. PNG or JPEG only. |
| **Locked** | When true, prevents changes to the project's jobs. Toggled independently via the **Lock**/**Unlock** command. |

For the fields and status flow of individual jobs within a project, see [Jobs](https://support.toolingmetrics.com/en/engineering/reference/jobs/).

## Status flow

Projects use the same 5-state lifecycle as jobs.

| Status | Description |
|---|---|
| **Draft** | Project is being designed. Jobs and operations can be added and changed freely. |
| **Released** | Pre-release check has passed and every job in the project is locked against further edits. Submitted for engineering-manager approval. Inventory sync has not happened yet. |
| **Approved** | Engineering manager has confirmed the project. This is when all tool assemblies across every job in the project flip to Released status and their products are synced as Inventory Items. |
| **Active** | Project is in production. |
| **Archived** | Project is no longer active. Read-only. |

Project-level status and lock changes cascade: saving the project's status or lock overwrites the status/lock of every job it contains, regardless of each job's own current state.

## Commands

| Command | Available when | Description |
|---|---|---|
| **Release** | Draft | Runs a pre-release check. On success, transitions to Released and locks every job in the project. Does not sync tool assembly products to Inventory. |
| **Mark as Draft** | Released | Reverses the project (and every job in it) back to Draft status. |
| **Approve** | Released | Transitions to Approved. Flips all tool assemblies across every job in the project to Released status and syncs their products as Inventory Items. |
| **Mark as Draft** | Approved | Reverses the project back to Draft status. |
| **Mark as Released** | Approved | Reverses the project back to Released status. Does not undo the tool assembly release or product sync already applied. |
| **Archive** | Active | Marks the project as no longer active. |
| **Active** | Archived | Reactivates an archived project. |
| **Lock** | Not locked | Locks the project (and cascades to its jobs) against edits, independent of status. |
| **Unlock** | Locked | Unlocks the project so it can be edited. |
| **Setup Sheet** | Any | Generates the setup sheet for the whole project, with a section for each of its jobs. Opens as a PDF. Not gated to any status. |

A project also has **Process**, **Tool List**, and **NC Programs** tabs with the same functionality as the equivalent job tabs, except that on the Process tab jobs can be added, edited, deleted, and reordered.