Revision Best Practices

Wanted to get opinions on best practices for drawing revisions. When I chnage drawings I normally copy the whole set change the individual drawings I need and give the whole set /folder a new date which is sort of the revision number for the whole set and I keep all of them. I do this as they are electrical and only having 1 set with different drawings at different revs there would be no way of knowing what goes together.

I only chnage the rev of the drawing in the drawing title block and never change the drawing name.

I wanted thoughts and opinions on this method. and wanted to know if I am on the right track.

Your method is used by many firms. Personally, I think it's a bit of overkill. In my 15 years of experience, I only needed the record PDF or hard copy of drawings for reference of previous revisions and those have been few and far between. Your needs may differ.

I use the same archiving method as you PAB12.

The reason for archiving is to find be able to go back to previous versions if required or to use that digital data on future projects.

I use the same archiving method as you PAB12.

 

The reason for archiving is to find be able to go back to previous versions if required or to use that digital data on future projects.

After many years in the trade i usually save all cad versions within the file with rev.1 and so on at the end of the file name.

Because of the multi seats the op doing a revision saves it to the next revision #, therefore if clients decides to go back to the last one as hit so many times happens at least the original one was not crushed because sometimes it could be a pain to undo and forget changes to be made especially in bom.

if clients decides to go back to the last one as (it) so many times happens

My experience has been quite the opposite. We have never had to go backwards with our design. It's always moving forward. We may make changes to the changes trying to hash out a solution that works. All the back and forth as far as exploring what approach to take is done before we start the drawings. Changes are expensive to the client and our bottom line as well, therefore we don't make them unless there is a good reason for it and depending on the nature and the extent of the change, we may charge the client additional fees.

If I revise an older design that would still be relevant as it is, then I make it a new drawing and number and leave the old as is. I usually add the revision only if it is a permanent change.

Previous companies I have seen all sorts of standards for this, it really seems to be industry and company related.

If I revise an older design that would still be relevant as it is, then I make it a new drawing and number and leave the old as is. I usually add the revision only if it is a permanent change.

We do this also and keep the proposed change in a temp folder until it is accepted. These are usually smallish changes. Large changes are usually decided upon before being done in CAD.

With the AutoCAD platform being file-based in Windows Explorer, I never edit the original base file or sheet file because it is considered "current" no matter the revision it's presently on. I archive the file before I make the changes and add a suffix. So if Revision 1 is coming, I would immediately archive the file I was working on prior to any edits and use a suffix of "_Rev00.dwg" which stands for the original being archived, making the "current" file the latest and greatest.

Also, any submittal package immediately gets archived and I use Bulk Rename Utility to add the suffix to each DWG file, use Reference Manager to repath the XREF's and use what a *.ZIP file was originally intended to be - an archive file. Store it away and it remains untouched and your "current" DWG's are free to move forward with any revisions or addendum's.

And what did all you fine people who are old enough to have worked on a drafting board do when you had to revise a drawing?

Once a drawing is issued for release our company always moves forward as well. No one has ever asked to see what the process piping and instrumentation diagram for the phase one sulfonation system looked like back in 1992. Same goes for building layouts. Perhaps it all depends on what field one works in.

With the AutoCAD platform being file-based in Windows Explorer, I never edit the original base file or sheet file because it is considered "current" no matter the revision it's presently on. I archive the file before I make the changes and add a suffix. So if Revision 1 is coming, I would immediately archive the file I was working on prior to any edits and use a suffix of "_Rev00.dwg" which stands for the original being archived, making the "current" file the latest and greatest.

 

Also, any submittal package immediately gets archived and I use Bulk Rename Utility to add the suffix to each DWG file, use Reference Manager to repath the XREF's and use what a *.ZIP file was originally intended to be - an archive file. Store it away and it remains untouched and your "current" DWG's are free to move forward with any revisions or addendum's.

Bulk Rename Utilty is fantastic :-)

And what did all you fine people who are old enough to have worked on a drafting board do when you had to revise a drawing?

 

Once a drawing is issued for release our company always moves forward as well. No one has ever asked to see what the process piping and instrumentation diagram for the phase one sulfonation system looked like back in 1992. Same goes for building layouts. Perhaps it all depends on what field one works in.

It is useful in engineering. E.g. if we designed a stage of a subdivision 10 years ago and are doing additional work nearby or another stage of the subdivision then we can go back and look at (and utilise) the design plans and as constructed survey plans. It saves on time and survey costs. This is why it is good to have archived hard copies of drawings also. We have digital archives and I can go back to a project from the late 80s or the 90s although you may find the files either aren't there or todays software is not compatible in opening them (I'm not talking about dwgs here).

Another good reason is to find out why a job went wrong. The project I've been working on this week is being redesigned for the 3rd time in 5 years [it has yet to be constructed]; those who had worked on the project previously now work elsewhere so there was no handover. Having good revisions allows one to see what went wrong/what is right/where people got info or values from/how the modelling was carried out etc. In this case the original design was good although the second (re)design was not just poor although totally wrong, not capable of being constructed (yet dangerously this was approved internally, externally and construction had commenced onsite before anyone picked it up) and not meeting even basic design criteria.

Not to mention when things go seriously wrong. Every company makes mistakes which Si what the insurances are for. Engineering disasters may not happen for 10, 20, 50 years etc; it is important to have a thorough record of who done what and why. The ISO management system requires this also.

Revisions are a necessary part of life, but I cannot say that they have been handled the best way in our case. Saving whatever drawings were used on a particular job would probably be the best way to go for us. Unfortunately, that is not usually done. Some drawings are considered "standard"s and are simply referenced. However, "standard"s also get revised, so one may need to know which revision of a "standard" was used on a given job. It may take a while to figure that out. Also, some revisions have been done incorrectly:facepalm:, so it is best for us to have a copy of every revision in order to recapture important information. But, if someone forgets to save the previous revision, then it can become a guessing game.