Quote Originally Posted by tburns
What I mean by "Accuracy is not an issue" relates to your point A. I sent them our drawing. It is accurate to begin with. Since we had another company do the HVAC update (and others), I am assuming that their additions are accurate. I only want to bring them in without losing any updates we've done ourselves. Now for point B, The files they sent back are the same ones they were given, with the addition of anything they changed about them. So if I were to paste their drawing into mine, most of it would overlap. I want to take the part of their file that overlaps exactly, and ignore it. Get rid of it. If I do that manually, it will be time consuming and there is the possibility of leaving or deleting incorrect objects.

Of course to take into account whether anything has been removed will require me to manually look it over, but to go straight to that step would save hours.

Slayer913 -
"Next time, take the other member's advice and assign "control" to the plans, so that changes are incurred by one person at a time."

This isn't possible for us. I will, however, suggest leaving existing objects on a seperate layer next time I request outside as-built drawings. I believe that's what you meant by-

Slayer913 - "Or, as I do, put changes on layers and block the outcome so that it's a simple copy/paste to update your masters."

-but I sure don't want to be the one having to do it! We have a month's worth of budget for this and other projects. I can't spend the whole month picking these files apart.
Have you thought about overlaying their file over the original file that was sent to them? If sent via email, you may have a copy of it in your Archives or Sent Items folder. You could place the original file in front. Change the colors of the layers in the original file to be subdued. You may be able to see the differences then.

Just a thought.