E-SPECS

[luigi]

Is there anyone that is using E-SPECS For Revit? How has your firm implemented it? Successful, or not? Please give Pro's and Con's....

Thank you!

[Scott D Davis]

We had Eileen and Gil from Interspec at our office earlier this week to give a demo to a couple of Principals and department heads. E-specs is very promising for our firm, because it works almost exactly the way we do to produce specs.

We will probably start using E-specs as a stand alone spec application, to get people used to it. Currently, we print spec sections from master PDF files on our network, then mark them up manually with red pencil, then turn them in to a department, who makes the red mark changes to the electronic files. They, in turn, print (again!) the spec sections after making changes, and then the hard copy goes to proofing. The spec is proofread and changes/corrections are marked up. Then that hard copy is returned to the project manager/architect to verify changes, fill in 'blanks' that may have been missed. Then that copy goes back to processing for the "final."

What E-specs is going to allow us to do, is have all the mark-ups and proof reading done electronically. This should save us a ton of paper, because each print takes about one ream of paper (500 sheets). It should also save a ton of processing time, because the changes from a hard copy are not being entered manually into the electronic version. This should also negate errors due to interpreting someone's hand written comments.

The 'bonus' as Eileen and Gil showed at the presentation, is that once we get up to speed on using E-specs, is that we can tie it into AutoCAD, and more importantly, Revit! Specs will beging to compile themselves on the fly!

Gil did stress that E-specs does not take the place of human interaction that is necessary for specs. It simply helps automate the process. E-specs is very Revit-like in some regards, that it is a database, it can be queried for reports (show me a list of all manufacturers in this spec), and that sections are linked. If a section title or number changes, all references throughout the document update.

Additionally, I see E-specs having even more potential as two-way database interaction with Revit becomes available. It very easily could get to the point that a change in the specs, could drive a change in the model. To me, this is very promising as these documents are part of a complete set and should be tied together. It is critical that our specs mach our drawings, and vice-versa.