One File

[mrdavie]

What an interesting and yet scary proposition - having one file for the project. I have already found myself making copies of the project file and renaming the copy. For example, I had to make revisions to a floor plan but did not want to lose the previous plan, so I made a copy.

Now, I am about finished with schematic plans which utilize color legends and room tags that I do not want to use for the "working drawings." I am thinking I will copy the view of the schematic plan, and rename it to the sheet number and name for the working plan, hide the legend and room tags used for the schematics, and then continue to develop this working drawing.

What I need is a story board, not for the Sheets I will print for permit and construction, but a story board for the One File itself - views, elevations, sections, etc. How do you organize your One File?

[Dimitri Harvalias]

What I need is a story board, not for the Sheets I will print for permit and construction, but a story board for the One File itself - views, elevations, sections, etc. How do you organize your One File?

You are on the right track David. I have two 'tools' I use. One is a well developed View Hierarchy the other is what I refer to as the Project Schematic.

For each project you will require a set of 'purpose specific' views. Each type of view (Slab Edge Plan, Partition Layout Plan, Code Compliance Plan, Overall Building Elevation, Details etc.) will have it's own view template associated with it to control graphic display properties and will be named according to an established schema. This helps keeps plotted output consistent and predictable and allows me to focus on the design rather than the drawings. It also ties into my browser organization and makes navigating complex projects much easier and more consistent from project to project. It's not totally automatic but the drawings should end up being a bi-product of a well organized and structured model.

The Project Schematic takes the traditional cartoon set to new heights. Because you are dealing with that single model you need to be sure that views are created based on the needs of the end result. Where annotation occurs and how you want the views to cross reference will go a long way to defining how you organize your model as well as where (which views) sections and callouts are placed and which sheet contains which views. The project schematic establishes the relationships of models to models, views to models, views to sheets and sheets to contract document packages.

Duplicating views and keeping all your SD information in the model is not a 'bad' thing in my opinion. Duplicate your plans, create new sheets with new sheet numbers based on project stage and place the new views on those sheets. The model will constantly evolve and develop and each milestone or submission should be kept as a fixed snapshot (DWF, PDF or both) for record purposes. If the project warrants or requires it, models can be archived at each stage as well.

In the long run a bit of extra care and planning at the outset to ensure the development of the model is an additive process rather than a 'duplicate/recreate' process will really save a ton of time and duplicated effort throughout the duration of the project. It also ensure that design intent is more deeply embedded in the model.
It may take a few projects to get it right because you don't know what you don't know but if you stick with it and think it through it will pay off in time and effort saved.

[nancy.mcclure]

mrdavie, sounds like you should look into two concepts: Design Options (so you don't have to copy the file to create a design alternate) and customizing your browser organization (so you can create your own folder structure beyond the default view type sorting).

The former (Design Options) can be a pretty big learning curve, worth doing some deep subject reading before diving in. The latter (browser organization) is pretty straight forward. a) Create shared parameters for the new way you want to organize views/sheets. We used simply "_Folder1" and "_Folder2". Add them as project parameters, then set up a new organization sorting with them. As you create views in the project, you simply type in the folder heading you want at the folder level, and you have lots more organizational control. The attached images may clarify.

hope that helps!

[mrdavie]

Very interesting information. I have some homework to do.

[nancy.mcclure]

Bear in mind that Design Options work very well for focused studies, like Entry Options 1, 2, &3 - not for Square Bldg vs. Round Bldg. At some point, very divergent designs SHOULD be separate models.

[mrdavie]

I played with Design Options on a simple remodel. I think it is great for design. But, when going into production it quickly became a burden and I abandoned it. I then had to figure out a way to get rid of the Design Options baggage.

But, your images of how the browser is customized is something worth developing. In the "Mastering" books there is plenty of information on how to use the software, but not much on how to REALLY USE the software to produce a complete project. I'm surprised someone hasn't written a book on this, especially a larger firm with numerous projects and resources to refine their production techniques. I don't see how sharing that information would hurt their business at all.

[cganiere]

I played with Design Options on a simple remodel. I think it is great for design. But, when going into production it quickly became a burden and I abandoned it. I then had to figure out a way to get rid of the Design Options baggage.

But, your images of how the browser is customized is something worth developing. In the "Mastering" books there is plenty of information on how to use the software, but not much on how to REALLY USE the software to produce a complete project. I'm surprised someone hasn't written a book on this, especially a larger firm with numerous projects and resources to refine their production techniques. I don't see how sharing that information would hurt their business at all.

One project I worked on, I set up separate views for each design option. So when we plotted, I placed three options on a single sheet for side by side comparison.