File Structure for Civil 3D

[htothethird]

Hi there,

We are still relatively new to Civil 3D and we are having issues getting everyone on the same page with our "file structure"  To start, here is a breakdown of our current struture.  Root Folder is the job folder name, within that is the _Shortcuts folder, Folders for Construciton sheets, and still within the main job folder are all of our "base" drawings.  These include pipe network drawings, surface drawings, parcel drawings, etc.  Then with in the folders for Construction Sheets, we break down preliminary and final. 

All of this works fine until we move from Preliminary Engineering to Final Engineering.  We ofter do not have approved preliminary drawing prior to moving forward with Final.  But if I were to update the finish grade surface drawing to be in a final engineering status (located in the original main job folder) it would update it in the Preliminary engineering construction sheets as well.  

We've had issues in the past once we get to constrcution that crews wouldn't relize where the correct files were located and build things in the wrong location.  (aka they didn't see that there was a design change perhaps to the original approved final enginnering)  To solve this, we've ajusted our file structure to have all the "base" drawings in the root directory, so as to avoid any confusion about what is the most current. 

Anyone have any ideas or examples of their file structures that could aid us in a modified structure.  We need to be able to work in and modify files for final engineering with out the risk of damaging the prelim files if they are not approved.  Anything helps, Thanks!

Holli , EIT

Design Engineer

[Kevin.Spear]

What you're doing doesn't sound out of the ordinary. The one aspect that has to be addressed is the need to have separate active working preliminary and final drawings.

Most places will etransmit the project at each delivery step to capture the project at that moment. But, if you need to work on each phase at the same time, then there will always have to be 2 versions to work with requiring any preliminary changes duplicated in the final documents.

That scenario to run preliminary and final document editing in a parallel process as opposed to in seriesmay be costing more money than the time saved. So, either the PM or the project clients maybe driving those decisions.

Hope i helped. But I don't think I did.

Kevin

[htothethird]

We do etransmit files at all "critical" points in the project timeline.  ie submittals, major changes, etc, but in looking at our work load, about 60% of our clients have us move into final without prelim approval so we still need to figure out a way to make it work.

So far we are testing the idea of having separate Preliminary and Final folders, each with their own _Shortcuts files.  The designers and drafters just have to be cognizant of which file they are referencing.

Does anyone else do this?  Any issues with it?

Thanks,

Holli