Creating custom card designs for access and visitor cards

Quick answer

With the permission Can manage card designs for employees., you can create custom access card designs directly in Bausicht. On the construction site, open Settings → Access cards → Card templates and, in the Employee cards section, choose New employee template.

The Card templates tab also contains visitor card templates, provided you have the corresponding permission. For signature templates for visitor cards, switch to the Signature templates tab.

Creating a new template

The creation dialog guides you through three steps:

1. Information: Enter a name and specify whether the card has a back side that can be designed.
2. Usage: Specify who the template applies to.
3. Design: Edit the front and, if applicable, the back and save the template.

Name, data fields and logo

For employee cards, you can select up to eight data fields when creating the template. Available fields include:

• First and last name, first name or last name
• Company and client
• Position in the company and personnel number
• ID number, date of birth and nationality
• Trades and driving licences
• Issue date

The construction site name and card number are part of the base template and do not need to be assigned to the eight selectable fields. As the logo, you can choose the Bausicht logo, No logo, the existing Construction site logo or a Custom logo.

Visitor templates start with the relevant visitor data such as name, company and role. Further data fields can be added later in the editor.

Single-sided or double-sided

Enable Double-sided card if you want to design the front and back separately. In the editor, you then switch between the two sides using Front and Back. The option can also be changed later under Edit → Information.

Specifying who a template applies to

An employee card template can be selected in four ways:

• Default template: applies if no more specific group or company template applies.
• Employee group: replaces the default template for the assigned groups.
• Company: replaces the default template for the selected companies on this construction site.
• Company including subcontractors: additionally applies to subordinate companies in the client chain, unless a more specific template is set up there.

A group or company cannot be assigned to several templates at the same time. If Bausicht indicates that a group or company is already in use, remove the existing assignment first.

If you later set a template as the Default template, Bausicht removes its existing group and company assignments after a confirmation prompt.

Visitor cards use their own default template. Employee and visitor templates are managed separately.

Using the card design editor

Open a template and go to Edit → Design. The saved design is initially only shown as a preview. Click Edit to change elements. Then save your changes or choose Cancel to discard them.

Moving and resizing elements

• Click an element and drag it to the desired position.
• Drag the element’s handles to change its width and height. The QR code stays square when resized.
• Open Edit position / size to enter position X, position Y, width and height exactly in millimetres.
• Use the arrow keys to move the selection in small steps. Hold down Shift for a larger step.
• Double-clicking free text lets you type directly on the card. Press Enter to apply the text or Escape to cancel.
• Delete or Backspace deletes the current selection.

Selecting and editing several elements together

Hold down Shift and drag a selection frame around several elements on an empty area of the card. You can then, as a group:

• move them together,
• duplicate or delete them,
• move them one layer forward or backward,
• distribute them evenly horizontally or vertically if at least three visual units are selected.

Linked labels and data fields are treated as one unit when distributing evenly. This keeps, for example, the spacing between the Company label and the corresponding company value.

If only several texts are selected, you can change their common font size and font weight. For several images or profile pictures, you can set the image fitting (Fill or Fit) and the corner radius together.

Layers, duplicating and undo

• Bring forward and Send backward change the order of overlapping elements by one layer each.
• Duplicate creates a copy of the selection.
• Undo and Repeat are available above the work area.
• Keyboard shortcuts: Ctrl/⌘+Z undoes changes; Ctrl+Y or Ctrl/⌘+Shift+Z restores them.

Snapping, spacing guides, zoom and panning

The button with the dot grid at the bottom left switches automatic alignment/snapping on or off. When moving and resizing, guides appear at the card edges, centre lines, other elements and matching even spacings.

If snapping is active, hold down Ctrl on Windows/Linux or ⌘ on Apple devices to skip it temporarily during a movement.

Use the magnifying glasses at the top right to zoom the work area in or out. Drag in the empty work area to move the visible section.

Which elements can I add?

Open New element. Depending on the card type, the following elements are available:

Free text

For headings, notes or fixed labels. Settings include text, font size, font weight, alignment, capital letters, text colour, padding and text background.

Free text can be linked to a data field as a label. If the linked data field is empty when the card is printed, the label and its background are hidden as well.

Data field

Automatically shows the current value when printed, for example name, company, client, position, personnel number, date of birth, trades, driving licences, construction site name, card number or issue date. In the editor, you see realistic example values.

Profile picture

Only available for employee cards. You can choose between Fill and Fit and adjust the corner radius – up to a round profile picture.

QR code

Inserts the access card’s QR code. The QR colour and QR background can be adjusted. The code stays square and should not be made unnecessarily small so that it can be scanned reliably.

Colour area

Suitable for areas, lines or frames. Fill, border colour, border width and corner radius can be configured separately.

Image, icon or logo

You can upload your own image or SVG file or choose an icon from the built-in catalogue. Options for icons include:

• outline or filled variant
• icon colour and stroke width
• optional background with its own colour
• size and corner radius of the icon background

For uploaded images, choose Fill or Fit and set the corner radius. Replace graphic swaps the image of an existing element without creating the element again.

Editing the background of a card side

Choose Edit background to adjust the active front or back side. You can:

• set a background colour,
• upload, replace, download or remove a background image,
• download an empty reference template for the matching card type and card side.

The background image fills the entire card side. Logos and other freely positionable graphics, on the other hand, are added as a separate element.

Managing templates later

Clicking an existing template opens the following areas:

• Preview: shows the current print image.
• Edit → Design: edits the card elements.
• Edit → Information: changes the name and single-/double-sided setting.
• Edit → Usage: manages default, group and company assignments.
• Edit → Duplicate: creates a new editable draft from the template.
• Edit → Delete: permanently deletes the template, provided the applicable requirements are met.

Templates without an assignment are shown as Inactive in the overview. They remain editable but are not selected when cards are printed.

Enabling custom card designs for the first time

Construction sites that still use the previous card printing see the Card designs section at the top with the Enable custom designs button.

Before switching, a default template must be selected for both Employee cards and Visitor cards. Enabling also requires the permission to change the general construction site settings as well as the management permissions for employee and visitor card designs.

Important: Once confirmed, the switch to custom card designs cannot be reset to the previous card printing. Therefore, check both default templates in the preview.

Frequently asked questions

Why is my template not being used?

Under Edit → Usage, check whether the template is set as the default or is assigned to at least one employee group or company. A template with the status Inactive has no effective assignment.

Templates are only used after custom designs have been enabled, and only for access cards created afterwards. Cards that have already been created keep their previous design; to get a card in the new design, create a new access card.

Why can’t I click “Enable custom designs”?

A default template must exist for both employees and visitors. In addition, your user account needs all permissions required for the switch.

Can a card have two sides?

Yes. When creating the template or under Edit → Information, enable the Double-sided card option and design the front and back separately.

Why do I only see employee cards or only visitor cards?

The two sections have separate permissions. Only the section your role is allowed to manage is visible.

Do I have to contact support for a new design?

No. Authorised administrators create and manage card designs directly in Bausicht. Contact support if the feature is not yet available for your construction site or if you need help with a special printer configuration.

Where the card templates are stored in Bausicht

You will find your saved templates under Settings → Access cards → Card templates – there you can see the Name, Card sides and Usage columns for each template.

Need further help?

If you need further assistance with creating or enabling a card design, our support team is happy to help.