CSI specification format 2

[linkstrap]

Can any suggest where I might get a specification format for electrical/technology construction for free? I need to develope a specification for a project.

 

[DanDel]

Check out the manufacturers of the construction components you will use for your project. They usually publish a specification guide.

 

[vlvguy]

I am an ME in the valve manufacturing sector.
I need to find out how to convert a Word Doc and/or an Excell file directly to the CSI format, for use by a project/specification engineer.
Any ideas/suggestions would be greatly apprciated.
Thank you.

 

[weh3]

There are specialized programs for doing that. I worked for a Defense Contractor A/E that had a full-time spec typist using Specsintact. Try CCB.org.

William

 

[BJC]

Google up specifications and you'll get lots of hits. Many universitys with ongoing construction programs have their specifications on line and in CSI format. Standford university had theirs on line.
IMO CSI specs are written by lawyers to keep owner and general contractors our of trouble and get things cheap. If any jobs winds up looking like you, as the engineer though it would that's a mircale. CSI charges a lot of money for their canned weasle worded specs that let subcontractors and vendors have their way.

 

[advidana]

csi specifications are pretty good to start with, but you need to modify then base on your experience and training. Alway be careful of using any premade specifications. People tend to copy specifications without understanding what some of the technical words mean. For example if you don't know the meaning of hot dog then you may think it is a dog that is hot instead of a sauage.

 

[alehman]

Great point advidana. Also be wary of copying guide specs from equipment manufacturers without a thorough understanding of what it means.

I use CSI and have found the basic materials specs are a good starting point. The equipment specs are designed so they can be satisfied by wide range of manufacturers for bid jobs. If you want something different than run-of-the-mill products, you need to edit appropriately. As an example, for switchboards CSI is very vague. It covers standards compliance and that's about it. I use that as a base to develop my own specs to get what I really want. CSI's spec editing add-on's for word processors make it easy to edit and format.

As an engineer, the "weasle words" have saved my (client's) a** a time or two.

Writing good specs is an art form and a talent that many engineers lack. Too often once the drawings are done the project gets shipped with the engineer's off-the-shelf spec book that's been used on every job for the past ten years. When the junior engineers start turning out projects, they copy that same book, often little idea of it's contents.

 

[advidana]

Another tip I would like to make about spec's. Most specifications call for "equipment and parts shall be furnished new". some contractor then summitted a war surplus generator that was still in an unopen box and never used therefore he said it was new but the manufacturing date was 1966.
we went to court and a judgement was made that is new equipment because of the wording of the spec. So now I change that specification statement to be "equipment and parts shall be furnished new and of the latest design". The logic being-the manfactures are alway updating thier equipment, so far no old manufactured equipment have been been summitted since for approval.