What is the method you/your firm use to number Sheets?

[pedruccioli]

Hi, all.

I'm updating my firm's Template and looking for a better way to number our sheets.

Our main problem is that most brazilian City Halls and other public agencies require all sheets to have standard numbers (i.e: 01/17) and that is an issue when organizing the project. We often need several batches of 01, 02, 03[...] pages, which creates a chance for errors with manual filling of parameters, such as a custom "Sheet_Number" parameter.

The Alt+157 method on the native "Sheet Number" creates squares when printing the sheets where the blanks are, and is awful for management, since you can't know which titles have one, or two, or whatever many blank characters.

My question is, how do you handle (or would) something like this?

My goal is to find the sweet spot between browser/project organization and task automation, without creating room for human error.

Cheers.

[ToanDN]

Are you asking about numbering views or numbering sheets?

[Simon_Weel]

Good one - there are soooo many ways. Maybe this could be handy?

[pedruccioli]

Sorry, my bad. Sheets.

[pedruccioli]

I've seen this exact article, and it is a great idea when it comes to the browser organization. The problem is we would need to rely on a custom parameter for the printed number (because here, we can't have an "A104" sheet, it is mandatory to be only numbers, as I mentioned on the original post.

What I want is the best of both worlds, where I can have the "A303" and "S102" for the project, but also have the "01/17", "02/17" and so on for printing.

All that as dumb-proof as possible.

I know I'll probably need to compromise at one side, so any advices and experiences are appreciated.

[ToanDN]

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@pedruccioli wrote:

I've seen this exact article, and it is a great idea when it comes to the browser organization. The problem is we would need to rely on a custom parameter for the printed number (because here, we can't have an "A104" sheet, it is mandatory to be only numbers, as I mentioned on the original post.

What I want is the best of both worlds, where I can have the "A303" and "S102" for the project, but also have the "01/17", "02/17" and so on for printing.

All that as dumb-proof as possible.

I know I'll probably need to compromise at one side, so any advices and experiences are appreciated.

---

Are you saying the sheet number on sheet A303 needs to be printed as 01/17 and so on?  Are your detail still referencing A303 or 01/17?

[RSomppi]

Duplicate views as dependents for the duplicate sheets with different numbers.

[HVAC-Novice]

Explain more... do you just need to deal with sheetnumbers, or view numbers as well? How do you have to reference views? 

Do normal projects allow the typical A100 sheet numbering and is this just a government requirement? What are the rules if you add a sheet between 11 and 12? Do you rename all the ones after?  Could you have 2 sheet numbers on a sheet, one for normal people, and one just for the bureaucrats? Like number the sheets the normal way, and then add a parameter to satisfy the government requirement. 

Too little detail in your posts. 

[pedruccioli]

Ok, that's tricky. I would need it to reference the printed number. But then, even with an adequate shared paremeter, I would need to filter multiple sections depending on the printing pack they are in, and that's another set of custom parameters, right?

[pedruccioli]

We need different sheets with the same number, not the same drawing in different sheets. I don't think this approach solves the sheet numbering.

[ToanDN]

I suggest this:

- Use Sheet Title for printed Sheet Number, i.e. 01/17, 02/17 (sheet title can be the same for multiple sheets)

- Use Sheet Number for browser's Sheet Number, i.e. A303, S102

- Use a Shared parameter for printed Sheet Title

- Edit your callout/section/elevation mark families to reference Sheet Title instead of Sheet Number, i.e. 1-01/17, 3-02/17

[RSomppi]

Sorry, I thought you were looking for the same sheets with different numbers.

[pedruccioli]

In order:

Only sheet numbers, the views are ok.
I need it to reference to the printed number.
Yeah, we could have A100 internally and for clients (or at least most of them). The number-only is exclusivelly for government.
Yeah, I guess we would need to re-number all the following ones.
I guess so, we have a firm-titleblock that goes in every sheet for revisions control and copyright notice.

The main problem is having something that works both ways, without having to spend hours filtering Sections duplicates or similar stuff. Thinking right now, maybe one approach would be to have view templates for each type of submittal and batch apply them to views.

Any suggestions are welcome 🙂

[HVAC-Novice]

Do your view references need to reference the government sheet number (1,2,...), or the trade sheet number (A100, A110...)? Or both? If both, I think for such projects it is best you just use the government sheet-naming and nothing else.  

You definitely want to retain the Revit ability to automatically reference the views. So that may limit your options. As soon as you give up automation and introduce manual editing, you waste time and introduce errors. 

I don't know their requirements. But I also would verify if they are serious about this requirement or if that is just a way to make sure they have all sheets. Sounds like all they need to ensure is that if the set has 17 sheets, there are 17 sheets.  A sheet schedule would accomplish the same thing. So we don't talk about sheet numbers in the normal way, more about a sheet-counting. Just throwing this in without knowing details. Maybe check with other professionals in your country how they handle that. I bet you are not the only one wondering how to efficiently do what makes sense, and what the client wants. 

[pedruccioli]

It's just a dumb requirement. There's even a federal legislation trying to push BIM projects (mostly at the public sector), but almost every public agency still work on paper.

I had an idea while reading your reply.

Maybe I could create a Phase just for documentation (so there would be no need for filtering sections, elevations, etc. in god knows how many views) with the necessary sections and other datum elements. Then, keep the sheets with some code number, such as "FP01".

It would require us to remove the "FP" before issuing and inserting it again, but I guess as far as trying NOT to create new parameters and keeping it fool-proof, it's a good option.

Do you agree?

[HVAC-Novice]

You could create a global parameter to control the visibility or the content of some added numbers on the title block family. Like a global yes/no parameter to control visibility of a integer or number that will show the government sheet number in front of the trade sheet number. I don't know how that helps referencing views, though. You also need to show the total number of sheets (1 of 17 etc.). 

I hear ya. I eliminated all paper. In the field I use a tablet to mark up plans and so on. I literally print nothing, ever. 

Only when I submit plans to JHA, I need to print it out in 2 hard copies. 

Unfortunately, the people who still use fax and have their secretaries print out emails for them, are allowed to make decisions for the rest of us.