Sheet Set Manager - Multiple SubConsultants

[BeKnit]

My company is launching a project that involves multiple subconsultants. I am the CAD manager for this project and I would like to use the Sheet Set Manager (SSM) to coordinate our drawing files.

We've been using the SSM for projects that we have worked on alone but never on a project which involves collaboration with companies that are at remote locations. We will be using my company's ftp site to share data. I plan on having our subconsultants post updated cad files weekly.

I'm not planning on being overly ambitious with my implementation of the SSM for this project. I mainly want to utilize it to keep sheet titles and callouts referencing other sheets up to date. (I will use fields in my title blocks and detail callouts that will bring in the appropriate drawing title from the sheet set.) I will also use the SSM for batch plotting.

Has anyone had any experience with a similar situation? Does anyone know of any good source of information on using the SSM across multiple remote locations?

[ekubaskie]

Tommie Richardson had a hint in his blog for dealing with pages from subs, where you have no control over their page content...

http://crossing-the-line-with-c3d.blogspot.com/

[TerribleTim]

Guess you would still have to go back through and fix that "created" sheet when your sub-consultants change their sheets or add & remove sheets, right? Would be nice to have a way to automate that.

[cliffccooper]

If I am understanding you correctly, I would set up the sheet set manager to match the sub consultant with a discipline (ex. Company A = Electric, Company B = Plumbing, etc...) then set up folders and map these folders within SSM. Dump all sub consultant drawings into the correct folders and when updates arrive just overwrite the files that way SSM is still looking for the correct layouts. Hope that answers your question.

[BeKnit]

Hi,

Sorry for the delay in getting back to you. Mad rush getting this project organized before the kick off meeting.

Thanks so much for the input. I'll let you all know how things work out.

[TerribleTim]

The one problem I have right away is that consultants tend to not send you their drawings, only the hard copy at submittal time. This means that the general rule of thumb is a last minute crunch as you finally have the "official" sheet list once they arrive for the submittal.

I did try the method of making a blank CAD drawing that contained multiple layout tabs (1 for each consultant sheet) and then imported those layouts as a sheet. The only problem with that is that it took forever to go through and name each layout tab so that I knew what they were once imported, then rename each "sheet" that was imported as the set had well over 75 sheets. I almost felt like it would have been faster to just do them the old way in an m-text box. But that defeats using the SSM for drawing indexes.

Anyone else got an idea?