Specification References

  • Specification References

    Posted by Doug McLean on July 8, 2024 at 4:33 pm

    Who has seen this on their drawings recently?

    Architects now (occasionally) using a callout box with a reference to a specific location in the Spec’s.
    I’ve always had a bit of trouble figuring out the best way to link the drawings to the specs when I see this?
    Normally I end up creating Places in the specs and then doing a semi-manual hyperlink via Search.

    There has to be an easier way to do this.

    Dwane Lindsey replied 3 months, 2 weeks ago 7 Members · 10 Replies
  • 10 Replies
  • Carl Wegman

    Member
    July 8, 2024 at 4:39 pm
    Points: 816
    Rank: UC2 Brainery White Belt III UC2 Brainery White Belt III

    I have not seen that type of reference / link.

    Links to sections or details on other pages in the same document are appreciated!

    In your example, I’d like a link to jump to the door schedule…

    • Doug McLean

      Member
      July 8, 2024 at 8:22 pm
      Points: 14,735
      Rank: UC2 Brainery Blue Belt IIII UC2 Brainery Blue Belt IIII

      That would be another use case for sure

  • Doug McLean

    Member
    July 8, 2024 at 8:24 pm
    Points: 14,735
    Rank: UC2 Brainery Blue Belt IIII UC2 Brainery Blue Belt IIII

    So I tried going backwards a little.

    I started in the Specs and had the drawings open. Did a search through All Open Documents.

    Works the same, I just don’t have to create Places

  • Vince

    Member
    July 9, 2024 at 2:08 am
    Points: 13,416
    Rank: UC2 Brainery Blue Belt III UC2 Brainery Blue Belt III

    I see this a lot with one of our main contractors but haven’t really looked at the linking process.

    Having just had a quick play with this, I find my way of creating an index page for the specification kind of helps although this relies on the details all being on separate pages within the specification.

    Have the specification open on a separate tab and just select the detail that you want to go to from the index page.

    Not the perfect solution but maybe a work around in some cases?

  • Roye Arie

    Member
    July 9, 2024 at 8:48 am
    Points: 3,199
    Rank: UC2 Brainery Orange Belt I UC2 Brainery Orange Belt I

    I haven’t encountered such reference. I think there’s great potential in it to strengthen the connection between plans and spec, But unless an automatic tool is designated to make that connection, I think it will be very timely on a full scale project.

    If it’s more of a limited scope, it may be more feasible.

    In my opinion, it’s more important to use the same text in reference on the drawings and spec so it’s consistent and easier to search.

  • Troy DeGroot

    Organizer
    July 9, 2024 at 11:10 am
    Points: 23,319
    Rank: UC2 Brainery Brown Belt III UC2 Brainery Brown Belt III

    I wonder if they are housing all the specs in Revit so the references are live. I would think it would be a nightmare to manage. Seems helpful.

  • Isaac Harned

    Member
    July 11, 2024 at 8:22 am
    Points: 7,918
    Rank: UC2 Brainery Purple Belt II UC2 Brainery Purple Belt II

    Is there a reason you can’t flatten them and run Batch hyperlink? It should not flatten permanently, so you should be able to unflatten afterwards.

    • Doug McLean

      Member
      July 11, 2024 at 2:31 pm
      Points: 14,735
      Rank: UC2 Brainery Blue Belt IIII UC2 Brainery Blue Belt IIII

      that’s actually worse

      You’re limited in how you can use the Batch Hyperlink function.
      If you chose a page region in your specification documents, its going to look in that spot on every page of the Spec docs, to match to every page in the drawing set.

      This would work if each spec actually had its own page in the Spec book.

      Hopefully I explained that right

  • Isaac Harned

    Member
    July 11, 2024 at 3:13 pm
    Points: 7,918
    Rank: UC2 Brainery Purple Belt II UC2 Brainery Purple Belt II

    Why not File Name?

    I know this takes setting up bookmarks ahead of time, which are hardly ever correct downstream, but you could simplify the bookmarks and have Bluebeam Split the Doc by Top level, with naming dependent on the Bookmark. Obviously this would probably take more individual files, but using callouts for this kind of info (Noticed it with RFI’s too) is definitely becoming a thing.

  • Dwane Lindsey

    Member
    July 16, 2024 at 10:07 am
    Points: 717
    Rank: UC2 Brainery White Belt II UC2 Brainery White Belt II

    Usually, those notes (Keynotes) aren’t related back to the actual spec book, those are usually related to a Keynote sheet within the drawing set (usually in the beginning of the set) that calls out what each Keynote actually is.

    So the 09 97 00.PL11 Keynote references a certain note and instead of writing the note, they put this number sequence. The number is the spec section/spec item number (Finishes in this case), then the .PL11 is the specific note.

    UNLESS, these notes are material references, then those are usually tied back to the actual Spec Book.

Log in to reply.