Bulletins and Revs

[gfreddog]

Is there a resource aka NCS or AIA which shows a preferred way or Best Practices for dealing with drawing revisions or bulletins?

Just looking for some resources and/or suggestions on file/drawing management.

[gfreddog]

137 Views?

[cadtag]

dealing with as in how? digital vs hardcopy? file organization? issues-revisions-releases? labeling of such? pre or post bid? pre or post contract? right now i've got about a 4ft stack of paper for the CM portion of a waterplant/vacuum station/vacuum sewerline job. and about 18 Gb of electronic files.

that 18Gb is after archiving all the design files, and only having the bid documents in CAD on-line as read-only

[gfreddog]

dealing with as in how? digital vs hardcopy? file organization? issues-revisions-releases? labeling of such? pre or post bid? pre or post contract? right now i've got about a 4ft stack of paper for the CM portion of a waterplant/vacuum station/vacuum sewerline job. and about 18 Gb of electronic files.

that 18Gb is after archiving all the design files, and only having the bid documents in CAD on-line as read-only

Baby steps right now...

Looking at differences and procedures for handling Issues/Revisions/Releases and their labeling.

Right now anytime a change is made to one drawing in the package the entire set is Rev'd. Which can become quite burdensome quite quickly.

Once I get a handle and standard in place to deal with that then I can look at file management as well.

[cadtag]

Baby steps right now...

Looking at differences and procedures for handling Issues/Revisions/Releases and their labeling.

Right now anytime a change is made to one drawing in the package the entire set is Rev'd. Which can become quite burdensome quite quickly.

Once I get a handle and standard in place to deal with that then I can look at file management as well.

>>Right now anytime a change is made to one drawing in the package the entire set is Rev'd.

That's the first place I'd stop at, and I'd think hard about what mean by Issues, Revisions, and Releases and come up with a clear definition for each.

By preferences, every set of drawings has an "issue" area in the TB that describes what the issue I'm working on is -- be it 30%, 90%, Release for Tender, Release for Construction, etc. That's managed by fileds tht link to custom properties in the Sheet Set, and is updated whenever I begin working on the next release. (We almost always know what we're working on, if not there are bigger problems) that issue area contains the issue title and date - combine that with a plot stamp and every piece of paper can be readily put in context. when the issue is printed, it's also archived - again using SSM - so it's always possible to go back to any officially issed version.

Revisions get messier -- are you keeping Revision numbers during design? post bid? post contract? I'd certainly never apply a REV number to an entire set if _a_ drawing was changed, Sheets have their own REV history, and REV 1 on Sheet C231 may be coincident with REV 3 on C501, which already had its own REV 1 and REV 2. The issue block help here as well; since that's always on the paper, there's no confusion that REV1 applies to only that sheet.

As a rule, REV tracking and numbering _only_ occurs after the "Isued for Bid" release is published. Prior to that point, the drawings are not contract documents per se, and changes are internal. Now, I will issue sets of drawings for permit appications and agency review, - that's indicated in the Issue name and date. And again, each issue is archived, so there's a complete history available of what went out, why, and to who.

[gfreddog]

>>Right now anytime a change is made to one drawing in the package the entire set is Rev'd.

That's the first place I'd stop at, and I'd think hard about what mean by Issues, Revisions, and Releases and come up with a clear definition for each.

Exactly... this is a system that was in place when I joined the company. As I am updating and rolling out standards the latest road block I have stubbed my toe on is the way they handle "Revs"

[gfreddog]

>>Right now anytime a change is made to one drawing in the package the entire set is Rev'd.

That's the first place I'd stop at, and I'd think hard about what mean by Issues, Revisions, and Releases and come up with a clear definition for each.

By preferences, every set of drawings has an "issue" area in the TB that describes what the issue I'm working on is -- be it 30%, 90%, Release for Tender, Release for Construction, etc. That's managed by fileds tht link to custom properties in the Sheet Set, and is updated whenever I begin working on the next release. (We almost always know what we're working on, if not there are bigger problems) that issue area contains the issue title and date - combine that with a plot stamp and every piece of paper can be readily put in context. when the issue is printed, it's also archived - again using SSM - so it's always possible to go back to any officially issed version.

Revisions get messier -- are you keeping Revision numbers during design? post bid? post contract? I'd certainly never apply a REV number to an entire set if _a_ drawing was changed, Sheets have their own REV history, and REV 1 on Sheet C231 may be coincident with REV 3 on C501, which already had its own REV 1 and REV 2. The issue block help here as well; since that's always on the paper, there's no confusion that REV1 applies to only that sheet.

As a rule, REV tracking and numbering _only_ occurs after the "Isued for Bid" release is published. Prior to that point, the drawings are not contract documents per se, and changes are internal. Now, I will issue sets of drawings for permit appications and agency review, - that's indicated in the Issue name and date. And again, each issue is archived, so there's a complete history available of what went out, why, and to who.

The main issues I see in the way we handle documents and or files are:

1. Start using SSM
2. Establish what the different phases are that the drawings will go through in their life (Design, Coordination, Bid, Construction, Drawings of Record, etc.)
3. Determine how to label and release the drawings in these phases. Revisions can be per drawing. But groups of drawings can be issued as Bulletins in each Phase, the entire drawing set would be issued complete when you change phases

CadTag As always you have provided some great info and I know I've got a long trip ahead on changing this in the company.