Electronic Shop Drawings
Electronic Shop Drawings
(OP)
I work as a consulting engineer as a sole-proprietor . I don't review shop drawings electronically as I find it easier to have certain drawing printed for my review. I know this is a little odd in this electronic age but this is the way that I do things. In my contract to the owner I state that the drawings are to be printed and mailed to me (to avoid the costs of printing the shop drawings myself).
Recently I was asked to review some shop drawings on a building that I designed. I asked my client to print the shop drawings an mail them to me which they agreed to. Now the fabricator is refusing to accept the drawings saying that they need an electronic copy for their records. I haven't had a problem in the past with this method... and I have done previous work with this fabricator before and it has never been a problem. Is this something new or should I just get with the times an start doing this review electronically?
Recently I was asked to review some shop drawings on a building that I designed. I asked my client to print the shop drawings an mail them to me which they agreed to. Now the fabricator is refusing to accept the drawings saying that they need an electronic copy for their records. I haven't had a problem in the past with this method... and I have done previous work with this fabricator before and it has never been a problem. Is this something new or should I just get with the times an start doing this review electronically?






RE: Electronic Shop Drawings
RE: Electronic Shop Drawings
While that is a possibility I'm not sure I want to do that as I don't have a high speed scanner.
RE: Electronic Shop Drawings
Anyway, I agree that it worth getting these into an electronic form for the fabricator, and going forward, as you'll probably run into this more and more. You'll probably find it has advantages on your own end as we have found. Large scanners for 11x17, hand scanners, or even D and E size plotters with scanners exist. One client we worked for had a high end photocopier/scanner/printer that could scan about 100 11x17 sheets a minute and then combine and email you a PDF of the document. We asked if we could use it to PDF all our old records but they didn't let us. ;)
If you're working with large scale drawings like D or E size prints then you can probably have them scanned for cheap at the local printer who should have a large scanner. Or you could do what I do and lay them out on the office conference table, stand over them with a camera phone, and just take pictures. With good lighting and a steady hand high-res photos are generally good enough for records I've found.
Maine EIT, Civil/Structural.
RE: Electronic Shop Drawings
Maine EIT, Civil/Structural.
RE: Electronic Shop Drawings
This causes some duplication of work but it is minimal and it provides me with all my dirty-marks and them with what i want them to see. I used to have to do 4 paper copies. one for inhouse and then transfer to 3-sets for architect (they distributed). Now i only do 2 so in the end it is actually quicker... or so i tell myself.
RE: Electronic Shop Drawings
I have two other projects that are going to be sent to this fabricator and I predicting problems in the future.
RE: Electronic Shop Drawings
RE: Electronic Shop Drawings
RE: Electronic Shop Drawings
RE: Electronic Shop Drawings
Otherwise, find somewhere you can get them scanned, and just raise your price with this fabricator.
RE: Electronic Shop Drawings
RE: Electronic Shop Drawings
RE: Electronic Shop Drawings
Requiring that they deliver you hard copies seems hard to justify given current practices, though, as it tends to add a few days to the process when its not in a normal workflow for a company. If they're 11x17 or smaller, you should really have a printer that can handle that. If it's larger, get a relationship with a local printhouse and add whatever fee you need. It's just a matter of forwarding the email with the drawings on to the printhouse and it makes everyone a little happier. Scanning is the same thing. You just drop off a pile and they'll do it for you. Plus you don't have to hold on to physical copies of hundreds of shop drawing sheets in your records.
The trouble involved is worth it to avoid the hassle to other parties. It lets you keep that goodwill for technical issues that actually matter.
RE: Electronic Shop Drawings
FedExing hardcopies back and forth has comparable effort and cost to printing and scanning if you want to look at it that way. FedEx = $20, scanning = $1/sheet at the printshop in my building.
RE: Electronic Shop Drawings
RE: Electronic Shop Drawings
I prefer having to print out my one review copy than to have to mark up 6 copies, of say 50 sheets.
Unfortunately the pdf editing software is a bit crude to use and that part takes some time.
I've put the bug in my cadd program developers to consider making a pdf editor more cadd like.
On another note, I wouldn't care if the fabricator refused hardline or not. The Consultant isn't responsible to the contractors so who cares what he wants.
Let him get his own scans.
RE: Electronic Shop Drawings
(sorry, good grammer is not my native language)