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Drawings and RFIs

The drawing register, revisions, and raising an RFI.

Drawings and RFIs

What it is

Three tabs on one page. Sheets is the drawing register: one row per sheet across every set on the job, with its number, title, discipline and current revision, filed automatically from what is uploaded. Revisions is each revised set compared against what was on file: what changed, what it touches in the estimate, the scope and the variations, with accept or reject per change. RFIs are the questions raised against the drawings: who each went to, when an answer is due and what came back. An RFI is the formal record that you asked, when, and what the answer was.

Before you start

  • The Drawings module is on (Settings → Team Modules).
  • Drawings are uploaded to the job (Documents, or dropped into chat). The register files them itself.
  • To address an RFI, the architect, engineer or consultant is in Contacts, or you type a name and email.

How to

Add a sheet by hand

  1. Most sheets file themselves. For one that did not, on Sheets press Add drawing.
  2. Enter the Drawing number, Revision, Title, Discipline, what it is Issued for (For Construction, For Approval, As Built, Information Only), the issue date and Issued by, and Attach the drawing.
  3. Save. Later revisions are issued from the drawing, not re-added.

Issue a new revision of a sheet

  1. Open the sheet from the register. Under Issue a new revision, enter the Revision label, issue date, Issued by and what it is issued for, and Attach the drawing file.
  2. Save. The new revision becomes current; the old one is kept in Revision history marked Superseded, so site can always see which is current. Supersede retires a whole sheet, optionally naming what replaced it. Edit register details corrects number, discipline, title or issuer.

Review a revised set

  1. When revised sheets are waiting, the masthead says so. Press See what changed; the page compares each revised sheet against the copy on file. From Sets received on this project you can compare only the sheets one set superseded.
  2. On Revisions, each review lists the changes per sheet and what each touches. Accept or reject them one at a time, or accept all recommended; a review with a proposal has Approve and Dismiss. Anything the comparison held for a person is listed to apply.
  3. Re-scan, including sheets it could not read looks again, with a model, at documents that look like drawings but gave no sheet number. It is the one button on the page that costs money, which is why it is a button.

Raise an RFI

  1. On RFIs press Raise RFI (or Raise RFI from an open sheet, which links it).
  2. Address it: search Contacts for the business and pick the person, or type a name and email. Enter the Subject, the Question (what the drawings do not say, and what it holds up), Answer needed by, the Drawings it is about, its Impact (cost, programme) and any attachments.
  3. Save. It is Open, numbered, and on the list with its due date; overdue ones are marked.

Record the answer and close it

  1. Open the RFI. Record response: what came back in their words, From, Received, and Attach the reply. It becomes Responded; you can add another response.
  2. Close with outcome: No change (the drawings stand), Variation (the answer changes scope or cost; Raise the variation opens the variations page prefilled from the RFI) or Drawing revision (the answer needs the sheet reissued; Revise opens the sheet). Add a note and press Close RFI.
  3. Reopen a closed RFI with a note of what is still unanswered; Withdraw one that should never have been raised.

What happens on its own

  • The page files new documents as it opens: a 25-page PDF becomes 25 rows with number, title, discipline and revision read off each page. A sheet it could not name is filed under the file name and page so it is at least findable; rename it and it stays renamed.
  • A set whose pages only cite other drawings (a joinery schedule saying "as detailed on A8.30") files under its own name, not the architect's numbers.
  • When a set supersedes filed sheets, a comparison is queued and appears on Revisions; the overnight sweep runs them too.
  • If a plan check has run, its verdict, conditions, per-sheet notes and findings appear above the tabs, and the questions it drafted are raised as real RFIs against the sheets they are about.
  • A variation raised from an RFI is shown on that RFI.

Things that surprise people

  • Nothing on the register needs typing in. If you are typing drawing numbers, upload the set instead.
  • Comparing a revision reads the drawings with a model and costs money, so it waits for See what changed rather than running on every upload.
  • Closing an RFI as Variation does not raise the variation. It offers to; you do it.
  • Open is informational. Overdue is the thing to look for, and it is shown on its own.
  • Variations for what an RFI's answer often becomes.
  • Documents for where the sets are uploaded.