Drawings

The conformed set of project sheets: finding and downloading drawings, setting up records, and keeping the set current.

Overview

The Drawings module maintains the conformed set of project sheets. Each sheet has a permanent sheet record — such as A-101 — and one or more uploaded files as its versions.

Everyone on the project uses this page's first half: finding and downloading sheets. Users with document-management permission also set up and maintain the set — that's the second half. Specifications works the same way, and ASIs are how revisions arrive during construction.

Find and download drawings

The newest version of each sheet is shown by default; expand a drawing to see its prior versions. Filter the list by trade, set, issuance, or date, select multiple drawings to download them together, or use the export action to prepare a current set. Check the revision and issuance information before relying on a downloaded sheet.

Video: Find and download drawings (~30 sec)

Filter the list, open a sheet to see its version history, and download a selection as a set.

How the conformed set works

LiveArch does not store the conformed set as a package that someone assembles and re-uploads each time the drawings change. It stores each sheet as a sheet record with its own version history, and the conformed set is what you get when you ask for the current version of every one of them.

Four records — sheets A-101 and A-102 and specification sections 03 30 00 and 09 91 00 — each with its own stack of file versions. Older versions are marked superseded and the newest of each is marked current. Arrows run from each current version down into a single Conformed set band, described as the current version of every record, assembled the moment you download it. — The set is always the current version of every record, so it is never out of date and never needs re-publishing.

Two consequences worth knowing:

The set is current by construction. Uploading a revision to a sheet record changes what the set contains immediately, with no separate publish step.
Nothing is lost when a sheet is revised. Superseded versions stay on their sheet record, marked as superseded, and stay downloadable — so a question about what was issued in March still has an answer in December.

The conformed set spans Drawings and Specifications together. Both modules work the same way, and both feed the same set.

Sheet records and file records

The most useful thing to understand about this module is that the sheet record and the file record are related, but they are different objects. A-101 is a sheet record — the permanent identity of that sheet on this project. Every PDF file you upload is a version of the sheet, recorded as a file record.

Three stages of the same sheet record. First, the sheet record A-101 is created with an empty dashed slot reading no file uploaded — it shows in the list but has nothing to download. Second, the first PDF is uploaded and becomes the sheet's first file record, Rev 0, marked current. Third, a revision is uploaded: Rev 0 becomes superseded and the new Rev 1 becomes current — both file records on the same A-101 sheet record. — A sheet record created ahead of its files is a placeholder — visible in the list, but not yet a usable document.

Creating sheet records before the files exist is a normal and useful way to work: it lets the project agree the sheet list up front, and it makes a missing sheet visible as a gap rather than as an absence nobody notices. A sheet record with no file records is a placeholder — it appears in the list, and there is nothing to download from it yet.

Warning

When a sheet is revised, add the new file as a version of the existing sheet record. Do not create a second sheet record such as “A-101 Rev 1”. A duplicate sheet record splits the sheet's history in two, and the conformed set will carry both as though they were different sheets.

Set up the project's drawings

Setup is for users with document-management permissions, and the order matters: a sheet record has to be filed under a trade, so the trades exist first, then the sheet records, then the files.

Trades first

A trade is the discipline or work category a sheet is filed under. Trades are defined per project rather than drawn from a global list, so each project describes its own set of disciplines — in Trade Management. Getting them right up front is worth the few minutes: trades drive how the list filters and groups for everyone on the project for the rest of the job.

A tree with Project Drawings at the top branching into four trades — Architectural, Structural, Mechanical, and Electrical — and each trade holding its own sheet records: A-101, A-102 and A-201 under Architectural, S-101 and S-201 under Structural, M-101 and M-201 under Mechanical, and E-101 under Electrical. — Trades are created in Trade Management before any sheet record can reference one.

Match the discipline breakdown the drawing set already uses, so the sheet prefixes and the trade names agree.
Prefer a handful of clear trades over many narrow ones. A trade with one sheet in it filters nothing.
Agree the list with the project team before importing sheets in bulk. Renaming a trade later is easy; re-filing a hundred sheets under a different one is not.

Then the sheet records

In Drawing Management, create each sheet record with its number, title, and trade — verify all three before saving. Upload each file as a version of its sheet record, and associate design-phase versions with the appropriate document set when the project requires it.

Bulk import for a full set

For a full set, work in the same order as a single sheet — sheet records first, then files — but do each half in one pass. A CSV template creates the sheet records; the upload screen then matches your files to them.

Bulk setup in three stages. First, a CSV template is filled in with a number, title, and trade per row. Second, importing it creates one sheet record per row, each still marked as having no file. Third, on upload each selected PDF is matched to the sheet record whose number its filename carries, shown as A-101.pdf matched to A-101 and so on. A warning band advises importing four or five rows first and checking the result, because a wrong trade or a mistyped number in a large import has to be corrected record by record. — The import creates the sheet records — number, title, and trade. Files are uploaded in a second pass and matched to their sheet records by filename.

The upload screen reads the filenames you select and pre-fills the sheet record each one belongs to, so associating a batch of files is a review step rather than a lookup per file. Name files with the sheet number and the matching does the work for you. Check the matches before submitting, because a filename that does not carry a recognizable number will not resolve on its own.

Uploads are batched, so expect to submit a full set in groups rather than all at once. The issue date and document set apply to the whole batch — group files that share them.

Warning

Test the process with four or five drawings before importing the full list. Confirm that trade names, sheet numbers, titles, and set assignments appear correctly. Correcting a large, inaccurate import can require significant manual cleanup.

Video: Set up sheet records and upload files (~30 sec)

Create a single sheet record, import a batch from the CSV template, then upload files and confirm the sheet record each one attaches to.

Update the conformed set

During design phases, add a new version to the existing sheet record and associate it with the appropriate set.
During construction, add revised drawings through an ASI when that is the project's required issuance method. Issuing the ASI updates the associated drawings in the conformed set.
A drawing attached only to an RFI does not automatically update the conformed set. Add it manually or capture it through the project's approved issuance procedure.

Key terms

Conformed set: The maintained collection of current drawings and specifications, incorporating approved or issued revisions while retaining access to prior versions.
Sheet record: The permanent identity of a sheet, such as A-101, independent of any one uploaded file. Each uploaded file becomes a version of that sheet record.
File record: One uploaded file — a single version of a sheet record. The current file record for each sheet is what the conformed set contains.
Trade: A discipline or work category (e.g. structural steel, plumbing) used to organize sheet records and reviewer assignments.
Document set: A named grouping of sheet or specification-section records (e.g. a bid set or permit set) used to organize the conformed documents.

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