How does your drawing numbering system work..?

[Strix]

... and how do you file your drawings and handle revisions?

I'm struggling with the amorphic way the drawings are handled in this office, and have the silly situation of having to alter two separate drawings (which I'd have expected to be separate layouts of the same one)

I think the usual method is to copy with basepoint anything that needs duplicating on the other drawing, but for more complex drawings that's going to lead to errors. We don't appear to have an archiving system, so I've no idea how revisions are supposed to be handled :?

The file names for drawings bear no resemblence to what's in the title block either - a situation I've never come across before in ANY office I've worked in

(sorry to ramble, but any info on how you ensure your drawings don't go astray is welcome - thanks :) )

[ReMark]

Presently we give each new drawing a sequential number (we're up to 2280) followed by a two character designation (ex.: FB for FaBrication) followed by a two digit building number. So a drawing could be numbered, for instance, as 2280FB02. However, for the sake of remembering what the drawing might be about we name them. Example: N2PipeRackSupport(.dwg). This is a drawing depiciting fabrication details for a nitrogen pipe rack support. Every drawing is cross-referenced in a master drawing database so it can be looked up by title, cad drawing file name or drawing file number.

[SLW210]

For the automotive firms, we use their supplied numbering system, generally consisting of Unit#. Layouts are usually ####-001 thru 099 and assembly and details are ###-100>. For non-automotive or an instance where the company does not have a numbering system we use the Job#.

[ZenCad1960]

Working with LDD and it being project based, our system is rather based on that. If anyone is working in LDD type of platform we can discuss that if wanted.

[Wozza]

[QUOTE=Strix;75608The file names for drawings bear no resemblence to what's in the title block either - a situation I've never come across before in ANY office I've worked in[/QUOTE]

If you have the authority, that'd be the first thing I'd change. Drawing number and file name to be EXACTLY the same.

We have a new number for every job and each service has it's own designated letter, so our system is pretty straight forward.

If the job number is 17099, then the first mechanical, electrical and fire services layouts would be numbered thus:

17099-M01
17099-E01
17099-F01

We only change the revision letter for formal issues and when that happens, we save a *.plt file to a dated outgoing folder together with a pdf of the transmittal. That's our record copy.

The name of the 'paper space' tab is always changed to match the revision letter, so every plot file carries the revision letter as a suffix. For example:

17099-M01-A.plt

We have a facility for batch converting plt files to pdf should the client require them and our Oce plotter has the facility for batch plotting collated copies of either format.

[Alan Cullen]

Pretty much how we do it, Wozza.....

Job No - discipline/stage No - drawing No.....
K7565-C3-01......Job No K7565.....Civil Stage 3.....Drawing 1
K7565-C3-02
K7565-C3-03

We've never had a problem with this system.......

[ReMark]

The company I previously worked for used the last two digits of the year, a "dot", and then a sequential number based upon the order in which the job came into the office. So, the first job of the year 1999, for "XYZ Company" had the designation 99.1 (simple, right?).

[rustysilo]

We use the project#_dwgname.dwg for ours. I like to utilize layouts for the dwgs as well so I'll have a structure like this for our projects:

207001_design.dwg (contains layouts for Geometry Plan, Paving & Drainage Plan, Water & Sewer Plan, etc.)
207001_details.dwg (contains layouts for Paving & Drainage Details, Water & Sewer Details, etc.)
207001_swpp.dwg (contains layouts for Stormwater Pollution Prevention Plan & Details)
207001_gennotes.dwg (contains layout for General Notes & Legend)

Then if there are major revisions made I have a subdirectory called Archive where I save the superceded files. For instance if there is a revision for the design file I will archive the older one as 207001_design-1.dwg. The next revision would be archived 207001_design-2.dwg. Etc.
Alternatively you could amend the filename with the date instead of 1, 2, 3...

Note: It is best to NOT change the name of your current active files if you are using xref's. This saves you from having to repath the xref's.

[Alan Cullen]

rustysilo....

I've gotta have a talk to you shortly....haven't yet.......because I keep seeing you post everywhere......and I like what I see......but I'll get back to you soon.....hope you don't mind.....still trying to formulate what to say......but it's all good, mate.......welcome aboard by the way.....:D

[chulse]

Working with LDD and it being project based, our system is rather based on that. If anyone is working in LDD type of platform we can discuss that if wanted.


I use Map 90% of the time, but occasionally need to use LDD so I have my project folders (subfolders) set up to play nice with LDD...

I separate revisions with a dated subfolder.

[Galingula]

We do architectural stuff here. We have a numbering system for drawing names.

A03.01 is the first floor plan drawing. A03.02 the second, and continue as required. Sections are A07.01 and so on. So A01.XX thru A10.XX (schedules). We stick to each sheet having one layout, that sheet. So A03.01 first floor plan.dwg. The sheet number in the title block matches the actual file name. We feed base plan xrefs into the sheets. Our floor plan base plan (bpFLOOR) may feed into 20 different sheets, and display at several scales.

Each job we do is numbered sequentially for the year. Like 07030 is the 30th job for the year. Each job has the exact same directory structure. But cascades off of a main directory. So "07030 JC Penny Birminham MI" has a bunch of directories under it. One is condocs. In condocs you find sheets and baseplans. The job directories show sequentially in their directories, and the sheets show sequentially in the condocs directory. So all jobs have the same directory structure, with unique first folder names. Makes it familiar for everyone, for every job.

We xref a file called "tb" into our title blocks on the sheets. First time the set goes out they all share TB. If we do a revision, we make a TBR1, with new dates for the revision, and that replaces the TB in the sheets that went out. For revision 2 we make a TBR2, etc.

When it's archive time, I drag the job directory (07030 JC Penny Birminham MI) into an archive directory on the server. When it gets old enough it gets burned to DVD. We don't lose any xref paths between base plans and sheets

[rustysilo]

rustysilo....

I've gotta have a talk to you shortly....haven't yet.......because I keep seeing you post everywhere......and I like what I see......but I'll get back to you soon.....hope you don't mind.....still trying to formulate what to say......but it's all good, mate.......welcome aboard by the way.....:D

OK. I actually used to have an account here under the alias 'loosestring', but I guess it likely was deleted due to inactivity. I began using other forums more often since there is little discussion on the subject of civil cadd here. I'm back though.

[evan]

OK. I actually used to have an account here under the alias 'loosestring', but I guess it likely was deleted due to inactivity. I began using other forums more often since there is little discussion on the subject of civil cadd here. I'm back though.
Care to share your favorite forums regarding civil CAD?

I work at a civil firm and use MicroStation primarily. We do have ACAD, mostly just to check converted files before shipping them off.

[rustysilo]

I'm guessing that Bentley's forums would be best for Microstation. The forums at theswamp.org and augi are good for AutoCAD, but I don't believe there are many Microstation users there. I'd try theswamp just to see and then search around the inet for other Microstation forums.

[evan]

I'm guessing that Bentley's forums would be best for Microstation. The forums at theswamp.org and augi are good for AutoCAD, but I don't believe there are many Microstation users there. I'd try theswamp just to see and then search around the inet for other Microstation forums.

Yeah, I hit the Bentley forums, but they actually use usenet newsgroups and I really prefer using vbulletin forums rather than a newsreader. I'll have to take a look at the others you listed, thanks.

[slimjramirez]

We get 30 people from different offices, blind fold everyone, then make them spin in a circle at least 20 times, then have them throw darts at a large, wall-sized, poster of random numbers.

...or at least....that's how our system seems to work.

[RFRUSSO]

We get 30 people from different offices, blind fold everyone, then make them spin in a circle at least 20 times, then have them throw darts at a large, wall-sized, poster of random numbers.

...or at least....that's how our system seems to work.

Hey neat! That is how we pick the names for our layers! But rather then numbers we have words. Half my walls are named, "Cow-electrical-raining" and the other half are named "Demo-new-fun"

[iain9876]

Pretty much the same answers as above except.

for example .. a drawing with the number :- 4532-0907-2A-01-A

Could be
job nr -4532
date-09-07 (month and year)
Phase (or stage)-2A
drawing number -01
revision -A

From the above you can immediately see the job number, date, stage, drawing number and revision at one glance.

you could alter the above to whatever you want. For example if it is a large project and has several phases(stages) you could add those too.
Assigning the revision number more or less gets rid of duplicates.

One thing you need to use (I don't know if you already use them) are Xref's. Which are invaluable when creating drawings day in day out....especially where you need to go back after a while and change things.

The above also helps get rid of issues with duplicates and drawing revisions (you just need to rename each one then archive the previous revision to a superceded folder.

I hope that is of use....if you want more info...just ask.

[iain9876]

We get 30 people from different offices, blind fold everyone, then make them spin in a circle at least 20 times, then have them throw darts at a large, wall-sized, poster of random numbers.

...or at least....that's how our system seems to work.

Health and safety issues there I think

[iain9876]

We do architectural stuff here. We have a numbering system for drawing names.

A03.01 is the first floor plan drawing. A03.02 the second, and continue as required. Sections are A07.01 and so on. So A01.XX thru A10.XX (schedules). We stick to each sheet having one layout, that sheet. So A03.01 first floor plan.dwg. The sheet number in the title block matches the actual file name. We feed base plan xrefs into the sheets. Our floor plan base plan (bpFLOOR) may feed into 20 different sheets, and display at several scales.

Each job we do is numbered sequentially for the year. Like 07030 is the 30th job for the year. Each job has the exact same directory structure. But cascades off of a main directory. So "07030 JC Penny Birminham MI" has a bunch of directories under it. One is condocs. In condocs you find sheets and baseplans. The job directories show sequentially in their directories, and the sheets show sequentially in the condocs directory. So all jobs have the same directory structure, with unique first folder names. Makes it familiar for everyone, for every job.

We xref a file called "tb" into our title blocks on the sheets. First time the set goes out they all share TB. If we do a revision, we make a TBR1, with new dates for the revision, and that replaces the TB in the sheets that went out. For revision 2 we make a TBR2, etc.

When it's archive time, I drag the job directory (07030 JC Penny Birminham MI) into an archive directory on the server. When it gets old enough it gets burned to DVD. We don't lose any xref paths between base plans and sheets

Do you organise your drawings using sheet sets?

[ZenCad1960]

We work in the Civil LDD world so what we have done is organize a mapped drive. In the initial set of folders are all our client names. We found that this makes it really simple to find information on each project very simple for all the PMs and even Admin. Under each clinet folder are the individual projects. Under LDD this makes it possible to use all three pull downs in the open dialog box of LDD. In each project folder we have a documentation folder with various other folders for transmittals, emails and the such so we can keep everything organized within the project folder instead of a different location elsewhere for that type of stuff. This has worked very well up until now.

Recently, after our company was bought out by a large international firm, the larger firm decided to go with a project accounting system called Vision by Dietec (Spelling?). What this does is assign random numbers for project numbers so there is no organization we can use as discussed previously on this thread. One of the things we are struggling with is we used to give each drawing a three number code that represented the job so if the drawing was accidentally moved, it could find it's home fairly easily. Not the project numbers are like fifteen numbers long and not very practical.

Having said all that we are typically now just using a simple form:

01-Cover
02-Notes
03-08 HC (Horizontal Control - 6 tabs)
09-15 Grading (Grading sheets, 7 tabs)
etc

As you can see, it should work well as long as no one moves the drawings by accident.

If someone might have a suggestion I am all ears.

[yedan]

hows goes, customer ref-product type- sequencial number _ Iss ??

so a timber moulding for a shopfitter called birchwood would be

Bir-16-0001_iss1

[hendie]

I assign a part number to my drawing.
The first digit denotes the contruction style. After that it's a consecutive number.
Then I throw it into my document mangement system, which automatically extracts all the attribute values and stores them in the database, and stores the drawing in the correct place according to specific attribute data.
I don't worry about revisions, the EDMS handles all that for me, automatically keeping a revision of all documents, and I can call up prior revisions at any time to compare if required.
Users can only access the documents through the EDMS system so even if the document is "moved" then all the relationships are updated automatically and we can still find everything.
All directories are hidden from users, so they can't go in the back door and mess things up.
A complete search of over 20,000 documents takes about 2 seconds.
All user rights are handled by the EDMS so even users without AutoCAD can view and print/batch print documents when required.
If a user somehow manages to print out an obsolete document the great big OBSOLETE watermark on the document tells them before it gets to manufacturing.
The system even keeps an audit trail so I can tell who did what to each document, right down to who even viewed it.
I can even update the document directly from the EDMS without having to open up the drawing in AutoCAD, or the document in Word.

Aint life sweet :P , mind you, I suppose it keeps you guys busy :shock:

[Galingula]

Do you organise your drawings using sheet sets?

No. One DWG per printed sheet makes it as simple as possible for the p3ople here. No one here is expected to have anything but the basic ACD skillz. We're small so CAD is a secondary skill to whatever their primary is. Interior des, designer, architect, construction manager type, etc.

They can look at a plot stamp and find what they are looking for very quickly

[sparklerach]

I assign a part number to my drawing.
The first digit denotes the contruction style. After that it's a consecutive number.
Then I throw it into my document mangement system, which automatically extracts all the attribute values and stores them in the database, and stores the drawing in the correct place according to specific attribute data.
I don't worry about revisions, the EDMS handles all that for me, automatically keeping a revision of all documents, and I can call up prior revisions at any time to compare if required.
Users can only access the documents through the EDMS system so even if the document is "moved" then all the relationships are updated automatically and we can still find everything.
All directories are hidden from users, so they can't go in the back door and mess things up.
A complete search of over 20,000 documents takes about 2 seconds.
All user rights are handled by the EDMS so even users without AutoCAD can view and print/batch print documents when required.
If a user somehow manages to print out an obsolete document the great big OBSOLETE watermark on the document tells them before it gets to manufacturing.
The system even keeps an audit trail so I can tell who did what to each document, right down to who even viewed it.
I can even update the document directly from the EDMS without having to open up the drawing in AutoCAD, or the document in Word.

Aint life sweet :P , mind you, I suppose it keeps you guys busy :shock:


We are looking into automating some of the steps involved in how we organise our drafting office (revisions, updating our manuals, etc). Your system sounds like a dream come true. Can you tell us a little about how it was set up or what system you use.

[Strix]

I'm coming up to Scotland in a few weeks - can I come see how you do all this Hendie?

[hendie]

Strix, pm me your details and timescale.
I'll need to check with leadership if it would be okay. They are very security conscious so I would have to get clearance for you first. I'd need to know your company name and what they do etc.

If that doesn't work I'll see if we can figure out another way.

[Strix]

Thanks Hendie - I'm not working at the mo though :?

It's just the kind of thing that's handy to know as a contractor, as alot of the drawing systems I get to work with are in a right mess, stored in files with people's names on instead of with job numbers etc