How to create and maintain a master template

The master template is the shared catalogue your projects copy from. Keep it stable and versioned. Projects are always created from a published master release, never from unpublished draft work.

Most organizations already have a master (for example Community Standard). This guide is for people who maintain that catalogue - or who need a new one for their organization.

On Enterprise Starter you can add 1 organization-specific Master Template; Full Enterprise has unlimited custom templates. In pragmaticBIM, start from the Community Standard and add your requirements in the editor or by importing an IDS.

Before you start

• You are an organization admin in the editor.
• You can sign in with GitHub.
• For a brand-new master (new organization catalogue), pragmaticBIM registers the GitHub repository first. You then maintain it in the editor as below.

Open the master

1. Open the Elementplan editor and sign in with GitHub.
2. Select your organization.
3. Under Templates, open the master (marked as a template).

You are now in template mode: QA, Goals, Workflows, Domains, Models, Elements, Values, Translations.

Create a draft

Live Data is read-only. Click + New Draft, give it a short name (for example update-fire-usecases), and click Create draft.

Build the catalogue

Work through the tabs that match what you are changing:

1. Goals - add project goals. Expand a goal to edit Ausprägungen (ordered levels). On each level, assign only the new workflows that become active at that step. Higher levels automatically include lower ones.
2. Workflows - use cases: code, name, description, domains, related goals.
3. Domains and Models - disciplines and Teilmodelle (delivery files) under them.
4. Elements - IFC entity, definition, attributes (name, Pset, datatype, phases, use cases, allowed values).
5. Values - controlled lists referenced by attributes.
6. QA - coverage overview before you submit.

Save often with Save. This only writes the draft.

Submit, approve, publish

1. Click Submit for review and describe the change in one line.
2. An organization admin opens Pending Reviews, checks the diff, and clicks Approve & Apply.
3. Open Publish Version, set a tag such as v1.1.0, and click Publish Version.

Until a release exists, + New project cannot pick a master version.

Publishing freezes the template as a Published Release. Drafts are never a copy source. This is the first freeze. Each project later gets its own second freeze when you publish that project for the viewer.

Good practice

• One topic per draft (easier to review and revert).
• Treat the master as a product: increment versions when the catalogue changes.
• Do not put project-specific model assignments in the master; those belong in each project’s Information Delivery Plan.