Preliminary drawings that look final
Once printed, a drawing issued for comment looks exactly like one issued for construction. If the title block still says Preliminary while the cover note says Construction, the site follows the cover note.
Construction issue
Construction issue drawings: when a drawing is fit to build from
A construction issue is the revision of a drawing that the site is meant to build from. Everything issued before it, for information, for coordination or for comment, may still change. The difficulty is rarely the definition. It is the discipline: making sure that only drawings which have been reviewed and accepted go out for construction, and that the site can tell the difference at a glance.
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How the wrong drawings reach site
A status nobody owns
Anyone on the job can write Construction on an issue sheet. Without an agreed rule on who decides that a drawing is fit to build from, the word means very little.
One revision, several purposes
The same revision goes out first for coordination and later for construction, and afterwards nobody can say which recipients had it under which purpose.
Issued for construction, for information or for comment
Most UK teams distinguish at least three purposes of issue: for information, where the recipient reads but does not act; for review and comment, where a response is expected; and for construction, where the recipient builds. Fidrel’s transmittals carry one of six suitabilities: For information, For coordination, For review and comment, For stage approval, Authorised for construction and As-built record. None of the six lets a work-in-progress or archived revision out, and the last two are stricter still, taking only construction issues and as-built records respectively.
Common data environment (CDE)
Who decides that a drawing is fit to build from
In Fidrel that decision sits with project administrators and document controllers. Only they can set Accepted, Published for construction or As-constructed record, and the database refuses the change from anyone else, however it is attempted. Every change lands in the revision’s status history with the date, the person and an optional comment, so the question of who released a drawing for construction always has an answer.
From work in progress to a construction issue
Step 1
Share it for review
A new revision starts as Work in progress and stays inside the project. Set it to Shared or For review and comment when the design team should see it, and start a review if comments are needed.
Step 2
Accept it
When the comments are dealt with, an administrator or document controller sets the revision to Accepted or straight to Published for construction. A review closed with an outcome can also write that outcome to the reviewed revisions’ status.
Step 3
Issue it for construction
Start a transmittal with the suitability Authorised for construction and pick the drawings. Only revisions that are Accepted or Published for construction can go in; any other is highlighted in the dialog and refused again by the database on issue.
What the site sees
In the browser on a phone or tablet, the documents list shows each drawing’s current revision with its status beside it, so a site manager can see whether a drawing is Published for construction before working from it. The list can be filtered to one status, and several documents can be given a new status together with Change status.
A new revision does not inherit the construction status
Uploading a new revision under the same number starts it again at Work in progress, while the previous revision keeps Published for construction in the history. Because a transmittal always takes a drawing at its current revision, the drawing cannot go out for construction again until the new revision has been accepted, so an unchecked revision cannot be issued for construction by a transmittal.
Limits of the construction status in Fidrel
A status in Fidrel does not change the file itself: if the title block of an uploaded PDF says Preliminary, it still says so whatever status the revision carries. Fidrel does not judge whether a drawing is fit to build from; the status records the decision of the person who set it. The six suitabilities are a fixed list that a project cannot extend, and Fidrel makes no claim of conformance with any information management standard.
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Construction issue
Frequently asked questions
Anything else on your mind? We are happy to help.
Talk to usThat the drawing has been released for the works to be built from it. Drawings issued for information or for comment may still change and should not be built from.
Not in Fidrel. A transmittal authorised for construction accepts only revisions with the status Accepted or Published for construction, and the database refuses any other at the moment of issue.
Project administrators and document controllers. Other members with edit rights can set the remaining statuses, such as Shared or For review and comment, but not the accepted ones.
The new revision starts as Work in progress. The old one keeps its status in the history, and the drawing cannot be issued for construction again until the new revision is accepted.
Yes. The documents list in the browser shows each drawing’s current revision and its status, and it can be filtered so that only one status is listed.