how do i tell people their drawings won't work

[mytt]

alright, maybe you all can provide some insight, because i've hit my limit with the project i'm working on.

i was asked to print a hundreds of dwgs (none that i ever worked on) to pdf. fine, i did that, to their plotting standards. every single one is wrong. not by something i did in the plotting, but because the engineers & drafters that worked on the dwgs before used a different standard, or the company i'm doing this for used a titleblock that won't quite fit. to top it off, there are missing x-refs- which i dont have access to/was not given, about an inch off either end of the dwgs doesn't show up on the pdf because of it's print margin, and some of the dwgs have been scaled to ridiculous proportions which makes them appear completely blank in pdf form or only shows a few lines, not the entire drawing. (examples attached)

they are, supposedly, all D size titleblocks/layouts, my plot scale is 1:2 (because they asked for them to be scaled down to B size). some of the dwgs almost work, like i said before only the edges are cut off, but that means losing some of the information in titleblocks or general notes.

either way, all of the them have problems.

communication-wise, i've pretty much been cut out, so asking questions is out. when i've tried explaining to them before that i'm bound by standards, they seem to not understand. all of these drawings have printed on them 'do not scale this drawing' because they have been given a scale, so i don't scale them except by what is allowed (D to B size).

other than documenting what is wrong with every single pdf, why it's wrong & why i can't fix it, what else can i do? any advice?

*sorry for the mini-rant, this is something that i'd go to a cad manager about, if we had one. any help is hugely appreciated.

[Wanderer]

Rant away, and rest securely in the knowledge that you're not alone.

Everyone insists that their drawings ARE 1:1 (drawn and plotted) and scaled properly.
Just like everyone insists that the blocks they use are all BYLAYER.

Everyone says it.
So far, in my experience, everyone is wrong.

They just ASSUME things are correct, and you can't tell them any differently.

Oh, and x-refs are the bane of my existence. I wish I had $1 for every time I had to call someone and tell them to send the x-ref along. They probably insist they sent everything, so, you have to have the drawing name handy for them, sometimes the saved path, just to really walk them down and spoonfeed them.

Job security, I've been dealing with other peoples' sloppy drawings for over 12 years, and I'm always going to have work... making them work.

I love slapping together sheet sets and using 'publish > publish using page setup overrides', to create pdf sets or plots because it takes no time or effort, but, I can only do that when I know the recipient is too lazy to grab a ruler, because obviously the scaling is going to be 'off'.

[dgorsman]

NCR: non-conformance report. Essential if you are dealing with ISO 9000 series quality controls, still useful even if not. After filing the NCR, the problem is documented and the originator gets the responsibility of making it right along with the fault if they do not.

[mytt]

wow, great insight. i really like to hear that i'm not alone... it's like getting a big hug & saying everything is going to be okay...

i think i'm going to end up going to the division manager where i'm at and let him deal with this, only problem, he doesn't know cad at all.

the situation with these drawings is that i'm working for a contractor for the company who had another contractor do these drawings over a year ago. no only does this site not have their own cad standards, but the ones they say they are using seem to just be a pile of papers that no one cares about, until i don't do something to standard. grr... other drafter doesn't follow them, no problem... if i don't follow them, problem.... i swear there is no winning.

at this point there is no way to go back and have the other company fix their drawings (a mess up here and there is understandable considering how many they did), but i can't take the blame for the drawings not showing up when i print them to pdfs. i'm a level 1 drafter that's being expected to do the work of a senior level designer, but they want me to be a silent cad monkey... clearly things are working 'well' here

and dgorsman... i like that quote you've got... unfortunately, they are flying by the seat of their pants, i'm the one getting the friction burn.... and it's not fun....

[Wanderer]

You're far from alone, we're one big, happy, frustrated community here.

Communication is a delicate thing in this game. I've recently had to explain to my 70yo Director, whose computer has never even been turned on, that an architect's actions have ****** up over two years of my work. It's not the easiest thing to do, because the architect DID ask permission to do this thing wrong... but he asked our VP who knows almost as little about CAD as my Director. However, phrasing things in facts 'this is what I did, this is the documentation for it, this is what they said they were going to do, this is what they actually did, this is how much of our time it has wasted, here is what needs to be done to fix it.'
It's been a lot of practice, but, clear writing and supporting documentation has delivered me a few times.

Oooh, your situation sounds extremely difficult. At least I have the benefit of being the client and can occasionally have payment stopped until more recent mistakes are fixed.
Authority is often more important than skill, if you don't have it, you're just swimming against the current and will just have to be satisfied with treading water.

[duhvinci]

Keep in mind the term "Do not scale" is not directed to you, the plotter. It is directed at the field person whom is more likely than not to lay a scale on the drawing to determine a dimension. If it helps get the drawings plotted don't worry about maintaining a specific scale of your plot.

[mytt]

wanderer- i wish you could just come out here and whip this place into shape... and 2 years, ouch! that's got to sting

duhvinci- i'm slightly okay with doing 'fit to paper' for the dwgs that specifically say they are not to scale, but it's the ones that have been given something specific that i just can't stand to break away from... all the training i've been thru & everything i've read says to plot 1:1... these dwgs say 3/8"=1' and dang it, i'm going to do everything i can to keep it that way.

[Wanderer]

wanderer- i wish you could just come out here and whip this place into shape... and 2 years, ouch! that's got to sting

~chuckles~ I do tend to do that anyplace I work... me likey standards... I prefer public floggings as a deterrent to deviation.
Yeah, this is probably the worst one he's done me so far, but, it's certainly not the first time this particular company has caused me work/rework/fixing stuff I didn't break. Usually it's 2-6 months of wasted time max.
With this one, I do not have the option of withholding pay, because he doesn't work for me, but, I went to the VP with it. I'm not backing down after this much work, when even the archie acknowledges how wrong his set is.

This type of thing will never be fixed without STRONG, CENTRAL, AUTHORITY overseeing all of it. Unfortunately, I'm just the tail wagging the dog here most of the time. ~shrug~ Must be why none of my predecessors ever stayed around long.

[mytt]

ha! public floggings... if i could i would... this place needs a cad jail for the people that don't follow standards

[j_follett_88]

Funny one of the engineers here circles the problem area and writes "this is F***ed up" it gets it across .
but seriously just say sorry this doesn't seem to work and have your reasons ready to go if they can't take something constructive they aren't a very diverse employee and don't care to improve.