Conceptboard - Tips for Architects

Get Started

Conceptboard is simple to navigate

If you are using concept board on a laptop or desktop, it is  recommended to use a mouse or keyboard to navigate.  Trackpads are not effective as a navigation tool within this platform, as precise selection is difficult; however, if you don't have a mouse or keyboard available, a trackpad can be used.  When using a mouse, left and right click, and scroll and zoom will give you much of the same functionalities that you are used to in other architectural design software.  If you are using a tablet, spread your fingers to zoom and use two fingers to move.  Using a tablet will also give you the ability to create quick, free-form sketches.

How to navigate on a computer                                                                                                                                                                                   

How to navigate on a tablet

Name your boards

Name your project boards and keep track of all your files by selecting the "Unnamed Board" title at the top of the page.

PRESS PLAY BUTTON TO WATCH SNIPPET

Drag & drop

You may drag and drop “png” and “jpeg” images directly into Conceptboard from your computer.  Please note that Conceptboard  has a limit of 50 mb per image or upload.

PRESS PLAY BUTTON TO WATCH SNIPPET

Forgot to save?  Don't worry!

Conceptboard will auto save your work at the last point you worked on it,  even if you forgot to assign a file name.  Just go to your Project Boards page and your last opened file will appear.

Create quick collages

You can create quick collages by importing sketches and stock images.  These can quickly and effectively demonstrate your schematic and conceptual ideas to your lecturers in the initial stages of the design project.

PRESS PLAY BUTTON TO WATCH SNIPPET

Sketching or scribbling

Scan your hand drawings or develop your sketches from scratch within Conceptboard.  This feature is most effective when done with a tablet or wide screen phone device with a designated pen feature. 

Professors may also use these tools to sketch ideas in order to communicate their critique to the students more effectively.

PRESS PLAY BUTTON TO WATCH SNIPPET

Share your board

From within a board, you can click the blue ‘Share board’ button located in the upper right-hand corner of the board toolbar. You can enter an email or select a user from the drop-down menu. Separate multiple email addresses with a comma. Each time you share the board this way, an email notification is sent to the user.

PRESS PLAY BUTTON TO WATCH SNIPPET

Collaborate with other students & professors

Students may use Conceptboard to manage their design teams more effectively.  Conceptboard allows you to:

• Make comments on a drawings
• @ mention someone (like on Twitter or Instagram)
• Create and assign tasks for your group members
• Send alerts when a task has been completed

PRESS PLAY BUTTON TO WATCH SNIPPET

Streamline your design process & research

Streamline your design process and research using pre-designed templates or building blocks.  Highlight important information that may become critical aspects of your design process in the future using one or several visual formats available within Conceptboard. 

Are you unorganized? Let’s fix it!

Sections are a great way to organize your boards. 

You can create Sections by using

• Shapes
• Sticky notes
• Image Files

You can use them to:

• Create an overview of the board
• Create/Format presentations from board content
• Change where the board opens when a user joins
• Create custom exports (as image or PDF)
  
  

PRESS PLAY BUTTON TO WATCH SNIPPET

Embedding animations or videos

You can embed a video or animation by dragging and dropping the content onto the board, much like you would an image, or if you have Internet content to that you would like to share, you can copy the website link from websites like YouTube or Vimeo.

Go to the Insert Tab > Select Embed Audio/Video > Paste the Link > Resize to your Liking.

Webconferencing & Conceptboard

Conceptboard has a built-in webconferencing feature, but PLEASE DO NOT USE IT. This feature offers a very limited number of hours per month per user, and the school is charged extra once this limit is reached. We have no way to prevent this so ask everyone to please use Zoom or other webconferencing tool instead.

USING ZOOM: In order to collaborate with other students and professors, there are two ways to use Conceptboard in tandem with Zoom.  You can either share your Conceptboard page, through the "Share Your Screen" feature offered in Zoom, or ask all of your guests to connect to both Zoom and your Conceptboard page.  The latter offers more flexibility for the presenter, who can either control what board guests are viewing through the “Moderation” tool, or provide guests the opportunity to independently explore the board’s content. 

Log into your Syracuse University Zoom account here:

 Login to SU Zoom Account

This option is the standard Zoom login for SU Architecture Students, Faculty, and Staff. 

Preparation: Organizing your Studio boards

Share the Conceptboard workspace to be used for the Zoom meeting ahead of time.  Have students and faculty import their content and videos into the board at least 24 hours prior to the meeting start time. These boards may be quickly organized by each member using the align/grid method.

Lock the board

Once the presentation content is loaded, if you are the meeting host, make sure to lock the presentation board before the meeting. This will prevent your collaborators from changing the content on the board during the meeting.  You can lock the workspace under Board Settings. 

Only invite up to 50 participants

Conceptboard will lose its effectiveness after 50 participants log onto the board.  To ensure a smooth and effective experience, cap participation at 50 people per meeting where possible.

Hide user cursors

To optimize the viewing experience, it is recommended that you hide the user cursors prior to the start of the meeting.

In order to do so click on the view tab within the board and uncheck "view user cursors."

Full Length Tutorials

Watch these full length tutorials of an Architecture student using Conceptboard.

Tutorial Part 1 - Introduction, Create quick sketches & Collages