Electronic/Web Based Submittals

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Author Message Robin Snyder (Unregistered Guest) Unregistered guest Posted on Friday, January 26, 2007 - 10:59 am:    Has anyone encountered, or added, verbage to their specs regarding electronic submittals? I have a project where the Architect would like to allow the Contractor to make submittals through the project website. Any help would be appreciated. Robin@spectraspecs.com Kim A. Bowman, CSI, AAIA, LEED AP Senior Member Username: archspecmaster Post Number: 29 Registered: 02-2005 Posted on Monday, February 05, 2007 - 02:25 pm:    I have been getting electronic submittals, for ALL submittals, on the last couple of projects. We ask for all submittals to be submitted in .pdf format, electronically, and uploaded to our ftp site. This makes it very fast and it is real easy to do and review. They are now strating to come in on a regular basis, without too many GC's complaining about it anymore. I have been specifying electronic submittals for two years now. Ellis C. Whitby, AIA, PE, CSI, LEED® AP Senior Member Username: ecwhitby Post Number: 25 Registered: 03-2003 Posted on Monday, February 05, 2007 - 03:11 pm:    "ALL submittals"? How about samples, colors, etc. The problem I have with electronic submittals is that for drawings, we have to plot the files for review and then scan the drawings after review. Not a cost free exercise. Additionally, how to you differentiate between contract review comments and AE review comments? Most projects, we see the GC using unless blue or green markers. We then use Red for our markups. If the submittals have to be looked at later to see “who shot who”, the colors make determination of who marked up what very easy. Most scanning and plotting is Black and White (since color plots are VERY expensive); this looses the advantage of color markups. Ruppert Rangel, AIA CCS Senior Member Username: rangel Post Number: 9 Registered: 08-2006 Posted on Monday, February 05, 2007 - 03:49 pm:    Samples will always need to submitted. But if you start with drawings and other printed submittals in pdf, all markings and by whom are tracked and shipping costs are almost eliminated. For some additional propaganda, see http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/pdfs/GoodFulton_Farrell.pdf Mark Gilligan SE, CSI Senior Member Username: markgilligan Post Number: 131 Registered: 05-2005 Posted on Tuesday, February 06, 2007 - 04:23 am:    Electronic submittals have a number of disadvantages, the first being the need to print out copies. This just shifts the printing costs to the design professional. There is a book titled "the myth of the paperless office" by Sellen and Harper published by the MIT Press. They explore how people interact differently with paper and computer displayed docuements. You will often identify things on a paper document that you would not see on a computer screen. The larger field of view and the ability to lay paper documents out on your desk also make a difference. Currently we are receiving a lot of RFI's as e-mail attachments which is causing similar problems. In my experience I could typically respond to fax RFI's quicker than I can respond to electronic formatted ones. In response to the comment regards the cost of color copies, it is possible to get red and black copies made at close to the cost of non-color copies. On some projects we receive just two copies of shop drawing submittals. We use one copy for our working set and in some cases our record copy. The additional copy is marked up using red pen and then red and black copies are made for distribution. This saves us the cost of transfering comments to multile copies and speeds up the process. Bob Woodburn Senior Member Username: bwoodburn Post Number: 157 Registered: 01-2005 Posted on Wednesday, February 07, 2007 - 12:12 pm:    Does anyone require that RFIs, shop drawings, product data and other submittals (other than samples)--perhaps change order and substitution requests, applications for payment and other communications as well--be submitted only in pdf, and only with the redline capability enabled, allowing direct markup by the reviewer(s)? Would this be desireable? And can a Contractor convert all its paper submittals etc. to redline-enabled pdfs, so all its subs and suppliers don't have to purchase Adobe Acrobat Professional (which is pretty expensive software)? Nathan Woods, CCCA, LEED AP Senior Member Username: nwoods Post Number: 167 Registered: 08-2005 Posted on Wednesday, February 07, 2007 - 12:32 pm:    Any basic generic PDF file is "red line enabled", provided that you have the PDF software that has the red line capabililties. In other words, there is no special pdf creation software neccessary to make the generic PDF file, but you will need special software to add red marks to it. There are a host of free PDF solutions that allow red marks. There are also a number of professional PDF packages out there, that are less expensive than Acrobat. Bluebeam is a commonly used PDF solution in the AEC world, and it works quite well, at a fraction of the cost of the higher level Acrobat packages. My office does not require PDF submittals at this time. However, I almost always only mark up one set, and PDF back to the GC that one annotated set via PDF. In my preconstruction meetings, we work out arrangements that anything that can be submitted on 11x17 or smaller, should be. An if submitted 11x17 or smaller, I only want 2 copies (unless it's a color brochure or things of that nature). Full size submittals (shop drawings over 11x17 are still reviewed the "traditional" way, with multiple sets of large format drawings. All my RFI's and most other 8x11 documents are received as PDF's, and I like it that way. Helaine K. (Holly) Robinson CSI CCS CCCA Senior Member Username: hollyrob Post Number: 262 Registered: 07-2003 Posted on Wednesday, February 07, 2007 - 06:02 pm:    Looks as if I just missed this free webinar: Featured Sponsor Adobe.com Streamline workflows for architects, engineers, construction professionals, and facility owners and operators Discover new Acrobat 8 Professional and Acrobat Connect™ Professional - Free eSeminar on Feb. 7th at 1:00pm Eastern. Architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) firms' workflows present many challenges — widely dispersed team members; multiple operating systems; and myriad document formats such as CAD drawings, spreadsheets, and business forms. Let our experts show you ways Adobe Acrobat 8 Professional and Acrobat Connect Professional can help you succeed in the fast-paced, highly competitive AEC environment. Attend this free eSeminar to learn how to: Enhance communication and collaboration by extending electronic feedback and commenting capabilities on an Adobe PDF document to anyone on the project team. Accelerate the RFI cycle, protect confidential information, ensure document authenticity, reduce costs, and increase ROI. Allow multiple team members to collaborate in real time via web conferencing with Acrobat Connect or Acrobat Connect Professional personal meeting rooms. Cut back on your travel needs and reduce your carbon footprint on projects by using Acrobat Connect Professional, recently named a "Top 100 Product Pick" of 2006 by Buildings Magazine. Register for this eSeminar today. http://www.adobe.com/cfusion/event/index.cfm?event=detail&id=767969&loc=en_us Mark Gilligan SE, CSI Senior Member Username: markgilligan Post Number: 132 Registered: 05-2005 Posted on Thursday, February 08, 2007 - 11:28 am:    I agree that we need to stream line our workflows. From a sub-consultants point of view one of the biggest problems is that each firm has unique requirements for formatting documents and transmitting information. In many cases this varies from individual to individual in a given firm. Wayne Yancey Senior Member Username: wyancey Post Number: 274 Registered: 05-2005 Posted on Thursday, February 08, 2007 - 01:08 pm:    AIA A201 3.12.5 and .6 requires submittals be reviewed and approved by GC complete with their stamp. Would this not require the GC to scan one copy to PDF; the A/E to print the PDF to place their stamp; followed by another scan to PDF; and finally returned as an e-mail attachment. I have received RFIs prepared with Excel. Easy for me to reply in the space provided using the GC's Excel file, but I made a hardcopy for my signature and date, created a cover memo, scanned each to PDF, and e-mailed the lot back to the GC. Wayne Russ Hinkle, AIA, CCS Senior Member Username: rhinkle Post Number: 16 Registered: 02-2006 Posted on Thursday, February 08, 2007 - 01:15 pm:    There is a $15 program called Nitro that allows you to make pdfs and has a stamp feature. Stamp can be customized to what you want. Pretty easy to use. I assume bluebeam and others do the same. Nathan Woods, CCCA, LEED AP Senior Member Username: nwoods Post Number: 173 Registered: 08-2005 Posted on Thursday, February 08, 2007 - 01:20 pm:    Wow Wayne, that seems like a lot of work. Personally, I HATE excel based RFI's, far too restrictive in formating and response length. I like the native PDF verions better. I draft my response in Word using the color and font of my choice, then I just cut & paste it into the PDF using Bluebeam or Acrobat (full version). At the same time, I paste that same answer into my logging & tracking software. Then I just email back the updated RFI pdf, and print out and file hard copies of the PDF'd RFI and the email as my transmittal. I set my email to RichText format because attachments are shown as identified icons when printed out. Not counting figuring out the answer, I can log in and respond to pdf'd RFI's in 2 or 3 minutes. Bob Woodburn Senior Member Username: bwoodburn Post Number: 159 Registered: 01-2005 Posted on Thursday, February 08, 2007 - 02:34 pm:    Nathan, is your "logging and tracking software" available off the shelf, or custom-written code? Also, is it primarily for use with RFIs, or do you use it to manage submittals as well, or even the whole CA process? Nathan Woods, CCCA, LEED AP Senior Member Username: nwoods Post Number: 174 Registered: 08-2005 Posted on Thursday, February 08, 2007 - 04:08 pm:    It is a custom developed (in-house) database driven application that handles all of the architectural CA functions. I love it.