Better Revisions,Addendums 8.5x11

[hart]

We do use multiple sketch titleblocks in sheet views without having unique titleblocks but instead insert a generic annotation family that has labels for all the items that are different from titleblock to titleblock. That means we have to edit each generic annotation family, which in our case has five labels that consist of Item Ref, Drawn By, Checked By, Sketch Name, and Sketch Number. We can load as many sketch titleblocks as we want and then insert the Generic Annotation family for each titleblock and edit labels as required, group the titleblock and family together in case they need to get moved so that they move together. Each group does need to be a unique name but it seems to be working for us so far.

[ckeelor]

Our firm has a slightly different approach:

1. create the revision in the original plan and cloud/tag it.
2. add a new sheet with an 8.5x11 frame
3. crop the revised plan temporarily
4. export the revised plan to a TIFF
5. insert the TIFF into the new 8.5x11 sheet, print to pdf and send out.

No, the bulletin drawing isnt live, but it doesnt need to be.

This way, the revision is saved in the project and there is no reason to mess with duplicate views and no reason to mess with duplicate section cuts that arise from duplicating views. Plus, it's really easy to train the staff to do it.

Should we need to revise the bulletin drawing, we just go back to step 1 and delete our tiff.

Eliminates a lot of the headaches we were experiencing with the other methods.

[kingjosiah]

....insert the TIFF into the new 8.5x11 sheet.....

What impact are all these linked images having on your file performance? The thought of the file size and speed with (potentially) hundreds of linked RFIs/bulletins/etc. scares me.

- Jon

[ckeelor]

King,
It hasnt become a problem, yet. However, it's probably based on the nature of the work we do, which tend to be small to mid size projects.

We are also running 64 bit Windows 7 machines, with 8GB.

If it does become a problem, it is just as easy to delete the TIFF's, but maintain the drawing frame in the project, since we always have a pdf record. Keep in mind, we have modified the model itself, too, to create the image. We could also switch to jpg's.

I know the whole thing sounds backwards, but it has been much less of a headache. We dont need our bulletin drawings to be live, as long as our drawing set stays live and we maintain records.

[patricks]

Our firm has a slightly different approach:

1. create the revision in the original plan and cloud/tag it.
2. add a new sheet with an 8.5x11 frame
3. crop the revised plan temporarily
4. export the revised plan to a TIFF
5. insert the TIFF into the new 8.5x11 sheet, print to pdf and send out.

No, the bulletin drawing isnt live, but it doesnt need to be.

This way, the revision is saved in the project and there is no reason to mess with duplicate views and no reason to mess with duplicate section cuts that arise from duplicating views. Plus, it's really easy to train the staff to do it.

Should we need to revise the bulletin drawing, we just go back to step 1 and delete our tiff.

Eliminates a lot of the headaches we were experiencing with the other methods.

Hey this sounds like a really good method. I may have to take this "to the masses" (all 2 other Revit users in our office ) and see if they'll go for this.

I was about to ask the question of what if you have an ASI 1 sheet with a revision to an existing drawing, but then the next one, ASI 2, is an entirely new detail to clarify something? I was thinking with the other methods listed above, you wouldn't have all the ASI sheets in the PB, but if you use an image of the drawings then you'll still have all the sheets listed in the PB so that a user will know which number comes next.

*edit* Any particular reason for using TIFF files? Do you find those to be the best compromise of both image quality for an architectural drawing and file size?

[jsr13]

This post is exactly what I have been looking for!
I intend on trying a couple of these & adopting one of them very soon.

Questions:
I just installed the new version (RST 2011) on our computers. Does anyone have any insight pertaining to the new software that would give one of the methods you've been talking about a clear advantage over the others? I ask because this thread started over 4 years and a few releases ago.

Does anyone know if Autodesk has made any headway into eventually incorporating a "sketch-issuing-tool" into the software? Every firm that I know of in every discipline has to issue post-CD sketches for almost every project. It just seems like this is something that should be well past the "workaround" stage. It would be nice to be able to move this from the Wishlist category, though.

[dbaldacchino]

Nothing has changed really. You now can turn any view into a jpg or some other format but I wouldn't recommend keeping a lot of these image files in the project as it will bloat it. We use a version of the titleblock in this post. I'll go ahead and post a more updated one. We have multiple orientations and sizes (like a double size so we can print at 50%). The latter is useful when you have a 1/8" drawing for example and you want to issue at 1/16" scale instead to fit more on a page. Also notice the parameter "Permanent Revision Sheet", which swops the sheet number to an editable one so you can use a number that has already been used in the set. This was required since Structural creates new sheets whereas Arch. just place this titleblock on an existing sheet and go from there. Arch drawings can be located easily as there are numerous door and room tags, however Struct drawings only have grid bubbles to gt you oriented, so if there's a change in the middle of a sheet you wouldn't be able to easily tell where it goes. Thus they create new views and permanent sheets, which show the grid bubbles.

The attached titleblock also has "crop" handles on the inside of the crop region. I took the logo off. You would need to place a png of your company logo with the same size as the box so it also acts as a mask.

[Errolowl]

We can load as many sketch titleblocks as we want and then insert the Generic Annotation family for each titleblock and edit labels as required, group the titleblock and family together in case they need to get moved so that they move together. Each group does need to be a unique name but it seems to be working for us so far.

I built groups for our SK sheets and it works perfectly. Each group consists of the titleblock and generic annotation, and these groups are pre-loaded into our template.
We make our revisions/ clouds on the main sheet, drag in the SK group, save it as a duplicate with the name of the SK as the name of the duplicate group. We can then edit group to adjust masking, add extra symbols like north arrows/ fake grid bubbles, etc. This approach also gives us a list of the SK sheets in the project by looking under groups in the project browser.

Printing is easy if you always do it at 100%. We line up the bottom left corner of the SK title block with the bottom left of our screen, then print "visible portion of current view" at 100% on the correct size sheet. Works like a charm and the current view on the screen doesn't even have to coincide with the required extents.

We then hide the group in the view once we print the SK.

[FOUTJM]

started this post in 05. we are still doing revisions by creating duplicate views and when they become to big in the browser we will filter the sheets with an added parameter to keep things cleaned up. never did catch on to the "create it one time and then delete the titleblock method" we have too many changes to changes sometimes. but i have to say, all in all, we have become accustomed to doing it and it's really not a complaint of mine anymore. it would be nice to have a new method for single drafted details(duplicate as revision?) but we will continue to use the old tried and true method. even with its little flaws Revit blows Autocad out of the water every single time.

[sgray05]

Hey guys,
So I have been trying to work through all this as we develop our title block for issuing addendums. I got everything working with our standard sheet layout with one glitch. I used jfreauff's post as a template and revised the line work to reflect our standards, I added some Labels from the list of given parameters. for example - date, revision sheet number. revision descriptions.
When I load the titleblock into the main project these items don't show up at all. no question marks, no editable fields, nothing.
Am I missing something? any help will be great.
Thanks