Smart Folder -> Find files without hunting for them

Smart Folders surface documents from across the CDE based on rules you define - without moving or copying a single file. The Problem Builders keep asking for a "Photos" section. They want to open one place and see every site photo across the project, the way their legacy system does it. A dedicated photo library. The problem with a photo library is that it becomes a silo. Files get duplicated. Versions drift. The document register says one thing, the photo library says another. You solve one problem - finding images quickly and create a worse one: two sources of truth for the same files. The real ask is not "give me a photos section." The real ask is: "let me find files by type, date, and scope without clicking through every folder in the project." Smart Folders answer the real ask. They are saved queries like macOS Finder Smart Folders that dynamically surface files matching your rules. No copies. No second library. The files stay exactly where they are. The Smart Folder just knows where to look. The Result One click. Every site photo across the project. Every image in this grid lives in a different folder. The architectural plan attachment is in Drawings. The site condition photos are in Delivery. The forms captures are in Forms. The quality defects are in HSEQ. None of them were moved. The Smart Folder simply knows where to look. What's New A saved search you can name, configure, and reuse A Smart Folder is a filter definition saved against the project. You give it a name, tell it what to look for, and it returns a live list of every file that matches pulled from the existing document register, not from a separate store. Smart Folders appear in the sidebar under Project Documents in a dedicated "SMART FOLDERS" section. They have their own icon so you can tell them apart from physical folders at a glance. Available across Project Documents and Company Documents. How It Works Define the filter. The results stay live. The Create Smart Folder modal exposes every filter you need to build a useful saved search. Each one is optional — use as many or as few as the use case demands. Tri-State Scope Selection Folder scope that stays clean Click once → Folder only → Click again → Folder + subfolders → Click again → Removed When a parent folder is selected with subfolders, its children are automatically disabled - they are already covered. Results Files behave exactly like files When you click a Smart Folder, the document list switches to show matched results. Every file behaves identically to the normal explorer - open, preview, download, version history, detail drawer. The only difference is a File Location column showing where each file actually lives. Smart Folders are read-only views. You cannot upload to a Smart Folder, move files into it, or delete files from it. The files belong to their original folders. The Smart Folder just surfaces them. Permissions You only see what you already have access to Smart Folders respect the existing CDE permission model completely. A portal user who creates a Smart Folder will only see results from folders they have access to. A builder sees everything, as usual. No permission leakage. Why It Matters The CDE already has the files. Now it has the lens. Every builder running five projects has the same problem: the documents are in the system, but finding them requires knowing which folder to look in. Smart Folders invert that. Define what you are looking for once, and the CDE keeps the answer current. The "Site Photos" use case is the starting point. But the same mechanism works for "All PDFs uploaded this week", "DWG files in Drawings and subfolders", "Geotech reports containing 'bore log' in the filename" - any cross-folder, type-filtered, date-scoped query that would otherwise take ten clicks and a good memory. Smart Folders turn the CDE from a place where documents are stored into a place where documents are found. © 2026 Deep Space Group · deepspacegroup.ai