[Doug McLean]

That’s going to depend on what you’re doing.

Are you going to be using something like Revit or viewing 3D PDF’s?

If you are, is the lack of productivity worth the lesser machine?

There are many times the F150 is the right choice, but sometimes you need the Ferrari.

[Doug McLean]

I personally LOVE working in Sets.

The primary reason is that the file size you’re actually working with is WAY smaller. You’re dealing with one page as opposed to many.
When you’re working from the cloud, file size is everything.

One of the other reasons is Discipline. Sets will easily allow you to separate your drawings by discipline. In Millwork, we will sometimes need to work with Architectural, Interior Design, Structural, Electrical, AV, Fire, Mechanical (you get the point.. 🤣) and combining all those together makes for one very large drawing package.

Sets also allows Slip Sheeting in, what I think, is a better way than if you just do it on a full drawing package.

As for your file structure, we’ve found that it really doesn’t matter too much. Our Estimating team works in the could (SharePoint) while our Project Management team is working on a server. We have drawings in the Set on both and Revu doesn’t seem to care.

We do add a tag for which drawing package that it is, Bid Drawing, Addendum 1, ITC.. etc. which does help, but its not mandatory.

Sets and Studio though… that’s a whole other issue. That’s like Word and Excel. In the same family, will talk to each other, but only really tolerate each other… lol

Feel free to ask away on Sets @lizlarsen

[Doug McLean]

Dealing with locked PDF’s is one of the best parts of Revu (and one more thing that sets it apart from other PDF readers)

First see if you can break it into individual files, sometimes you can, sometimes you can’t. More often than not, if you can do this, the signature is only on one page and the doc is open.

If all else fails, as has been mentioned, open it in Chrome and then Print to PDF. Google algorithms destroy all security. I’ve done this several times with multiple documents. Works like a hot damn

[Doug McLean]

@mechave would be your best source on this one

[Doug McLean]

Hi Austin, welcome to the Brainery.

In answer to your question, probably not directly, but its more than likely doable.
You’re first going to have to figure out exactly how data will get imported into your software.

As David said, you’ll probably have to wash it in Power Query or something to get it exactly correct.

You can look for my post about my XCON presentation on the message boards, it walks you through all the steps you’re going to need to do first in order to do what you want.
If you like, you can jump on Studio and join Project 971-801-391. Its my presentation with the full Power Point and a bunch of step by step instructions.

Cheers

[Doug McLean]

I just looked and there is a Get PDF Form Data connector in Power Automate.
Its put out by Encodian.
I’ve never used this, but I’m sure with a little digging, we could figure it out pretty easily.

[Doug McLean]

It seems going from PDF data to Excel is fairly easy, but going the other way is almost impossible.

I would still explore the use of Power Automate though, might be the easiest way

[Doug McLean]

Change Orders are never simple, especially in Millwork. You think they are, but they’re not.
Sometimes a simple change of a few inches results in needing completely different core materials.
Metals right now are crazy because we can only get certain sizes, what’s worse is that it varies from week to week, month to month on what’s available.

For this one job we’re doing right now, we were able to get 3 x 10’s of Bronze sheets when we bid the job, but now that we’re getting to build it, we can only get 4 x 10’s. It changes the whole takeoff and order process. We might even have to revise the shop drawings because where we would have needed to put a seam in a 39″ wide opening (because we would have needed 2 panels), we can now do in one panel. We also now have a lot more waste to contend with.

[Doug McLean]

This is probably how I’m going to do this.
I already have a list of our standard vendor’s, with subjects, will be really easy. The trick will be making sure we actually update the column accordingly once we’ve won a bid.

As for the Power Query, it won’t touch these columns, because the BatchConfig export file only includes for specific columns.

[Doug McLean]

Something along those lines.
My thought process is to show what was included at bid time by what vendor, and then to track those changes as various RFI’s, CCD’s, CO’s, revisions work through the project.
A lot of the time, what was asked for at bid time is not what ends up as the final product, mostly due to buildability issues worked out during the shop drawing phase.
I’m hoping it also becomes a tracking system as well to ensure that the vendor has repriced any and all changes.

And yes, it will also show what is what area to everyone, which has a whole range of benefits in terms of production requirements.

[Doug McLean]

Not necessarily, but that could grow from this workflow.

I’m looking at something like, what vendors are in this area and what is their scope? Then hopefully keep track of something changes between bid time and order placement.

Something to track the changes to their scope of work.

[Doug McLean]

Updating the Set is actually quite easy. It’s the same procedure as creating it.

As an end user I like it because I can easily see the changes from a previous revision. It’s actually saved us a few times because we can show the changes easily.

I do find them easier to work with because I’m working with a single page PDF rather than a large file. I also have my preferences set up so that when I click a link it opens a new tab with the new page. It just beats having two copies of the whole file open.

Now saying this, you don’t NEED a set to do this. You can do the same process by just using the linked drawing index page.

[Doug McLean]

RIGHT?!?!?!

[Doug McLean]

Yeah, sometimes you do something and you get an unexpected result.
One simple line of code can change something that’s worked for years. You don’t even realize what you’ve done.

[Doug McLean]

If you need any help, just let me know