Not sure what governs YOUR field but, in mine, it's AISC.
According to
Code of Standard Practice for Steel Buildings and Bridges, March 18, 2005 (AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF STEEL CONSTRUCTION)...
Revisions to the Design Drawings and Specifications shall be made either by
issuing new Design Drawings and Specifications or by reissuing the existing
Design Drawings and Specifications. In either case, all Revisions, including
Revisions that are communicated through responses to RFIs or the annotation of
Shop and/or Erection Drawings (see Section 4.4.2), shall be clearly and
individually indicated in the Contract Documents. The Contract Documents
shall be dated and identified by Revision number. Each Design Drawing shall
be identified by the same drawing number throughout the duration of the
project, regardless of the Revision. See also Section 9.3.
Commentary:
Revisions to the Design Drawings and Specifications can be made by issuing
sketches and supplemental information separate from the Design Drawings and
Specifications. These sketches and supplemental information become
amendments to the Design Drawings and Specifications and are considered new
Contract Documents. All sketches and supplemental information must be
uniquely identified with a number and date as the latest instructions until such
time as they may be superseded by new information.
When revisions are made by revising and re-issuing the existing
structural Design Drawings and/or Specifications, a unique revision number and
date must be added to those documents to identify that information as the latest
instructions until such time as they may be superseded by new information. The
same unique drawing number must identify each Design Drawing throughout
the duration of the project so that revisions can be properly tracked, thus
avoiding confusion and miscommunication among the various entities involved
in the project.
When revisions are communicated through the annotation of Shop or
Erection Drawings or contractor submissions, such changes must be confirmed
in writing by one of the aforementioned methods. This written confirmation is
imperative to maintain control of the cost and schedule of a project and to avoid
potential errors in fabrication
Got a similar Code of Standard Practice?
The way I interpret it (though loosely) is that Revisions are just that (the broadest definition of
change)... and can be made to existing documents with properly sequential/dated revision numbers. These don't happen without going back through the Engineer of Record/Architect, generally... who eventually facilitates the release of a revised document package. Sketches and Bulletins would be
types of revisions that get classified as NEW drawings, supplemental to the existing design document package. They're used when it possible to convey
change(s) in a simpler format (not requiring a lot of deletions/substitutions/revisions to the original documents).
I'm accustomed to seeing sketches and bulletins in addenda packages, which are supplemental.
