We are beginning to revise our archiving standards. I was wondering if anyone is willing to share their approach to hardcopy/digital and email archiving standards.
TIA,
Brad
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Archiving standards used in your office
We are beginning to revise our archiving standards. I was wondering if anyone is willing to share their approach to hardcopy/digital and email archiving standards.
TIA,
Brad
Re: Archiving standards used in your office
Can I get back to you when we actually have one?Unfortunately, we don't really have a standard. We tube our signed copies, and archive the .dwg files on the file server which then eventually get backed up to CD.
Re: Archiving standards used in your office
We've got two levels of archive:
Old stuff. Before we had a standard, which is mostly word documents, and TIFF scans or hard copy drawings. We've now finished scanning "everything" to tiff and have no paper drawings left in our archives.
New stuff: Projects since modern times. We still keep all the word documents and cad or Revit files, but now also keep PDF's for archives.
All archives are kept on site and duplicated off site. No structure beyond that but I'm supposed to come up with one before the end of the year.
Re: Archiving standards used in your office
How much did scanning to TIFF cost!?!? I can't imagine... How long did it take for you to scan all sheets to TIFF? We've got 10 years of projects in 2 storage rooms. Is there a formula for this? 10years * 2 storage rooms = $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$Originally Posted by Andre Baros
Does scanning to TIFF satisfy legal requirements?
Re: Archiving standards used in your office
We worked out a bulk rate with DIR, our repro house, and send out about 1 year a month for almost 2 years. Prior to sending out each tube, the partner in charge purged out useless information so that we were not scanning duplicates, color work, junk, etc. We tried to focus on scanning only record documents, shop drawings, consultant drawings, etc. and avoided all the random stuff which people saved. Legally, the TIF's are all fine. We pulled out any process related stuff and color work and scanned that ourselves (since it was a very small amount of stuff). Each months bills varied between 1 and 3 thousand. By spreading it out it was pretty painless and we've already filled much of the space we got back with other things such as models, etc.
Re: Archiving standards used in your office
Well, what's the annual rent cost for the square footage of building you're using to store dead drawings? At a previous employer, I went around and totalled up the area used to keep drawings, in flat files, hanging files, piles, tube, etc and came up with about $100K annually. That was spread across two floors, and the overwhelming number of the drawings so stashed were uncataloged and useless.
Re: Archiving standards used in your office
Can I inject a little advice for future "archiving"? Stop using .PDF to store files! Start using .DWF! Here's why, .PDF is too freakin' large! .DWF will save you disk space. .DWF allows you to use that data in the future. Say you need to reference one of those projects, you can stick the .DWF in as a background and snap to all your o-snaps, you can't do that with a .PDF. Never assume you will not need that data again, and always do what is easier for you later on when you do need that data again. .DWF is the way to go for archiving! Smaller file size, guaranteed correct plotting, smart files for future use.
Re: Archiving standards used in your office
I applaud your support for DWF but for every problem we've had with a PDF, we've had 10 with DWF. DWF just doesn't work yet. Also, PDF is now an open standard so we have a lot of options for support versus being committed to Autodesk for DWF. Who knows what we'll be using in 20 years, but PDF is more likely to be around, or to easily migrate to a new format.
Regarding the scans, we had run out of real estate for rolls of drawings, so we either needed to scan or to rent new space... and the scanning was less expensive. An added benefit is that people use the archives more now, since they're all online you can easily go back and reference an old project to see how something was done or to answer a question for an old client.
Re: Archiving standards used in your office
Now don't get me wrong, I think DWFs are a great format of drawing that Autodesk tried to establish, but most of our clients when we send out a DWF file for viewing, the were unable to open the drawing to see..and even though we told them to download the dwf viewer off of the Autodesk website for FREE, they still didn't do that for some reason. I just think companies and workers don't see the need for more than one type of format, which is unforunate for Autodesk, but Acrobat came up w/ the method first and that is what the majority of the world uses. And I think AutoDesk realized that in the making of AutoCAD 2008 since now it can make PDFs from the drawing itself.
Re: Archiving standards used in your office
I totally agree on the headaches with clients and the outright refusal to try a new format. And yes, most of it stems from "you mean I gotta' download another program and install it on my machine?" Even if it is free, it's more trouble than they care to deal with. But what I'm saying is for "archive" purposes, not client submittal. Why would you keep a ton of .PDF's around when you could have a smarter file that is smaller anyways? If the .PDF had the capability of being inserted into my CAD file for the latest project and retain all the o-snap stuff so that I could actually work smarter with it instead of laying it on my desk, dragging out my scale and re-drawing everything, then I would back them. All I'm saying is, for outright "archive" purposes, don't pass on it just yet. The benefit will come back as soon as you pull that file from your archive folder and begin working on your new project. I know we do a ton of work that is on a building we already did some work on. Don't you?
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