Renaming/Organizing Plan Pages
Posted by: allie.g
Hey everybody! I have THE WORST time keeping plan pages organized. I used to use the autoname function which worked for most of the pages. But I found that I was still having to fix titles and page numbers. So when initial plans come in and they get uploaded, I manually rename each and every page.
Here is what my page names look like:
A201 CH 7.10 Elevations
Obviously you have the page number, but then I also include the building type (because page numbers sometimes repeat when there are multiple pages), next is the most current date on the plans, and lastly is a description of what the page is.
I date every single page because sometimes I get 10-15 addendums and bulletins and rfis for one project and I haven’t found a better way to keep everything organized. This way of renaming also helps when I go to do overlays, so I know for sure I’m grabbing the right page.
So now I’m here, hoping to see what systems other people use to keep their plan pages organized. We use the following types of pages:
- General
- Architectural
- Civil
- Structural
- MEPs
Comments
Reply by: STACK_Brenda
Another option may be to create folders for each new group of addendums you receive. Name that folder with the date (example: 11112025 - Addendum). You could create a folder for each discipline type ( Arch, Civil, etc..) if you want. The sheet numbers should already be recognized but according to your post, you may want to add additional detail to the page name.
When you go to Plan Overlay it shows you the folder level when searching so you know you are pulling the correct addendum from the correct date.
Reply by: allie.g
I do organize with folders for sure! It’s a life saver. I generally do have one for each discipline as well. However, there are 2 problems I’ve ran into putting new plans into a dated folder. 1 - not all my gc’s send over a full set of plans, some of them only send over the pages that have changed. 2 - when I have multiple buildings on one project, I sort everything into folders by building.
Reply by: craig.parker
Yeesh - you sound like me trying to get my takeoffs organized. I think I’ve finally got it figured out - at least until a scenario pops up that blows my method out of the water…
What if you had a folder for every discipline but had dates on the plan names themselves, or used some other method to mark version numbers on them? I just learned (literally - between typing paragraphs you can drag plans around to different folders. If you can screen shot your plans tab in a project, with everything expanded, I can stew on it and might think of something. My other career is IT (taking a break for a couple years), so I’d be looking at it the same way I’d be looking at getting ready to design a database.
Please sign in to leave a comment.