Questions that arrive in your inbox
An RFI sent as an email is one more message among two hundred. It has no deadline you can filter on and no place where the answer is kept with the question.
For architects and engineers
Answering RFIs for architects
The design team is where RFIs wait. A question comes from the field, the answer is owed by a date, and the person who asked is counting days. This page follows the answering side in Fidrel: finding what is assigned to you, reading the question against the right drawing, publishing an answer and what happens to the RFI afterwards.
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What slows an answer down
Which drawing was this about?
A question about the detail at the corridor, with no sheet and no revision, takes a call to understand. By the time you have the sheet, a newer revision may exist.
A reply that settles nothing
A one-line answer that raises a second question leaves the RFI neither answered nor closed, and the field team does not know whether to proceed.
Who can answer, and who sees what
Only the person an RFI is addressed to can answer it, and a project administrator can answer for them, which the answer shows; the person who asked never answers their own RFI, and once sent the question is locked and the asker adds a clarification instead. A member who belongs to a party reads another party’s RFI only if their own party stands above it in the tree or the question is with them; administrators, the client’s side and members without a party read all RFIs. An RFI can only be addressed to a member of the project, so a consultant outside it has to be invited first. A draft RFI is visible only to the person who wrote it and to administrators, which is why it tells nobody.
Reviews, RFIs & issues
How lateness looks from your side
An RFI is late when it is open, or sent back as Action required, and the day of its deadline has passed. You will see the flag in your Assigned to me list and in the RFI list. Late is worked out from today’s date each time the list opens, so answering clears it; nothing is stored about how late the RFI was.
Answering an RFI in Fidrel
Step 1
Find what is addressed to you
Assigned to me on your home page lists the open RFIs addressed to you, each with its due date and an Overdue flag when the day has passed. You are notified in Fidrel when an RFI is opened to you; a draft tells nobody.
Step 2
Read the question against the drawing
Open the RFI and read the Question / description, the Linked drawings and documents and the Attachments. If it came from a markup, Open drawing and markup takes you to the spot, and a notice appears if the drawing has a newer revision.
Step 3
Write the answer and publish it
Type the answer in the Answer field and press Publish answer. An RFI cannot be marked Answered with an empty answer. Use Add comment for a clarification that is not the answer, and Attach file for a sketch or a marked-up sheet.
Step 4
See what happens next
The person who asked is notified of the answer. They can close the RFI, or send it back as Action required if more is needed, which puts it in your list again. A closed RFI can be reopened as Open if the question comes back.
What answering does not do
No email is sent per RFI event; you and the person who asked are told inside Fidrel, and one gathered email a day per person lists what is due or new. Answering does not change a drawing: a revised sheet goes in as a new revision, and the RFI only points at it. An answer that needs a change in scope or cost is an RFI for the project team to turn into a change order; Fidrel does not do that on its own.
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For architects and engineers
Frequently asked questions
Anything else on your mind? We are happy to help.
Talk to usYou are notified in Fidrel when it is opened to you and it appears under Assigned to me on your home page with its due date. A draft is not sent and does not appear there.
Yes. The RFI page works in a browser on any device, with the question, the linked documents and the Answer field, so a quick answer from a site visit can be published on the spot.
No. An RFI cannot move to Answered with an empty answer. You can attach a sketch or a marked-up sheet to go with the text, but the answer itself has to be written.
The person who asked read the answer and needs more. The RFI goes back to you with that status, appears in your list again and counts as late if its deadline has passed.
The RFI shows a notice when the drawing has a newer revision than the one it was raised on, so you can check your answer against the current sheet before you publish it.