Tom,
ADT has the capacity to use tags and relationship tables that will point
to spec sections. Linking the set definitions to a database can be done
but I can not justify the time and programing expense to pull the parts
together. A key word lookup from a set of documents will give you the
beginning index and the unedited sections.
The decision process is the problem - do you use standard gyp sheathing or
another product? At some point the specs have to be edited. I begin the
specs during the DD phase - cut sheets etc. Every thing grows from the
early decisions and the editing is completed during CD's.
If I use the Manuf web site or Sweets or Thomas Reg or industry group
standards or gov standards or etc I have to look it up. I make a link at
that time on the drawing to be a reference to myself, not for the
bidders. Web sites come and go and change too much during the course of a
project to be useful to bidders as raw information sources. Now if
manufacturers would standardize their specs and take out all the
proprietary verbiage that might help.
I have used a spec service in the past as an owner requirement. The specs
were voluminous without adding clarity. The spec writer allowed his bias
for products overcome budget considerations. In the end I had to write
the specs as any project architect should.
I would prefer to add links to details from symbol markers and make
coordination a simpler matter.
At this time the biggest impediment to changing specification writing and
presentation is the CSI. The idea that the drawings and specs are
separate and equal is a through back to ink on vellum.
Larry
Tom Momeyer wrote:
> Larry, (and Dean),
>
> Generally looking for ideas related to automating the production of
> specs from drawings. One process that has been used to date has been
> to spread a set of plans out on a table together with a master spec
> table of contents. Review the plans and then go through the spec
> table of contents marking each section that is applicable to the
> project and noting any new sections that you need to add. This is the
> "manual method".
>
> There is a company at http://www.e-specs.com/index.html that automates
> the process; their advertisements say that they scan cad drawings and
> then create the spec... so they must be picking up the notes on the
> drawings. They are "automating" the process of creating the specs.
>
> And over in the Adt3 newsgroup there was a message from Rob Starz
> recommending the use of Adt's Property Set Definitions tagged to AEC
> objects and to plain autocad blocks and utilizing Excel to get out to
> the specs. This method is "linking" the spec to the drawings in a
> fashion that automates spec production.
>
> Larry, you brought up another more direct meaning for "linking
> drawings to specs" when you describe the hyperlinks possible in
> AutoCAD. I've seen the sample drawings where you can click in acad on
> an elevator (or whatever) and it takes you to a mfr's web site... that
> sounds neat, but where's the fee/money coming from to set it all up?
> And, I'm not sure if I see any benefit or payback for developing
> hyperlinks between specs and drawings... sure that sounds neat to
> click from a material in the drawings to the spec section or vice
> versa, but our fees ain't gonna get bigger to do that, right?
>
> Tom Momeyer, AIA, CCS