Best Practices - Revisions

[Sahay_R]

I have been reading a lot of discussion threads on this topic - and some of them are pretty old.

Since we are in the process of re-examining our conventions, I am interested to know how you record revisions, bulletins, addenda, bid packs, bid dates, on your sets. One of the concerns that I have heard voiced is that of repetitive entry of information on sheets. Are there any new features in Revit 2017-2018 that would reduce redundant and repetitive tasks to record this information on sets?

Illustrations would be most welcome! Thank you!

[SteveKStafford]

A very generic response...

I've always thought that Revisions work pretty well at documenting revisions but not nearly as well as for issuing documents. Most of the complaints I get have to do with numbering them and that's improved a bit in recent releases. Then there are more subtle things about the actual clouding of revisions, specifically the task is onerous (like making changes is too) and involves everyone being diligent and agreeing on what constitutes a revision.

There seems to be some disagreement about where clouds and tags should go. I think the slight majority opinion is they go on sheets, I think that's reasonable. The logic is the sheet is the document and revisions alter documents. That logic could change pretty quickly for projects where a model is the document. Using a revision color scheme could make it easier to parse revisions visually, more efficiently too perhaps. If all elements are stamped with a date (start date) it can be easier to identify when they were changed between date stamps (each revision end date stamp).

I believe the argument against revisions on sheets hinges on the separation between the task, clouding/tagging on the sheet, and the elements being changed. That's because it is easier to keep track of changes if you cloud them as soon as you complete a change and you're still in a view, probably.

A revision tracking watchdog tool that helps go through sheets and flag things that have changed since the last official milestone data would be helpful to do the clouding/tagging. I think the Revision + Cloud Manager delves into some aspects of this. There are several other 3rd party app companies offering revision related features too.

I think that the myriad ways firms and clients expect to document revisions and sheet issuance is providing a ready excuse to avoid revisiting (comprehensively) Revit's own approach to solving it. It is difficult to please everyone so opting to please the simplest of requirements is where we are.; relying on external apps to cope with the more unique requirements.

[ToanDN]

---

@Sahay_R wrote:

One of the concerns that I have heard voiced is that of repetitive entry of information on sheets.

---

What do you mean?

[Sahay_R]

@ToanDN @SteveKStafford. Thank you, gentlemen.

The current concern is documenting issue dates, miliestones etc. Our current practice is to have a single date which is modified at the end of SD, DD, CD, Bid Docs, etc - this makes us different from other firms which turn out something like this - 

The concern that I have heard voiced has been about how to display the highlighted items on each sheet - and if it involves putting a revision bubble on each sheet - and this is the part that has been eliciting very very loud screams of protest. 

My question is - how do you accomplish this? Do you do this at all? Is there a Revit-Revision-ish way to add this information to the titleblock with only a mouseclick or two?

As of the end of day yesterday, I have been playing with adding generic annotations for milestones to our titleblock family, and then controlling the date value of each with a global parameter in the project. To my mind - simple and time efficient, but subject to there being a simpler and more time efficient way. Please do put me out of my misery!

[ToanDN · Accepted solution]

You don't need to add clouds for the revisions to show. Download the xrev addin and you can assign milestone issuances to multiple/all sheets by one click. If you use 2018.2, simply expand all sheets tree in browser and click on Show Revisions in properties to do the same thing.

[Sahay_R]

We use 2018.1 so far. @ToanDN thank you for the heads up as I start to make noises for 2018.2.....

[Viveka_CD]

Hi @Sahay_R

I'm hoping we will have some updates on revisions pretty soon! I'm scanning the roadmap team to confirm.

[art.a.tecture]

Will the updates on revisions include the difference between Addendums and Bulletins/ proposal requests?

[syman2000]

I have a different way to organized revision. I would split them into 2 table. One is for issue & the other is revision. Whenever a project get issued, it will be issue 1. Any revision come after that, it will be 1.1, 1.2. I use the same concept as software update. Whenever we received iOS 11 update, it is consider major release and 11.01 is consider minor update.

[Anonymous]

okay - that makes since.  But in I could have a revision for an Addendum and a Proposal Request/ Bulletin.   Those both could have the same number  #1 Addendum, and #1 Bulletin.   How can I separate them?

[syman2000]

If it is Addendum & don't fall under other Issued or revision condition, I would use Alphanumeric like A1, A2 & A3. Bulletin I would use B1, B2, & B3. I would use other letters for other conditions. Just make sure they are consistence so it is easy to follow & track. This of course will fall under the revision table.

[jmqrsq]

 which parameters are you using in order to use A1 and B1 @syman2000 ? I have done the same thing in the past but used the To or For built in parameters of the revision schedule to fill out that info in my tags. I am curious if there is a better place to use that alphanumeric tag info.

[syman2000]

You have to use Issued to or Issued by column

That way you can mix and match whatever value that makes sense to your project.