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CAD Forums => CAD General => CAD Standards => Topic started by: StykFacE on May 31, 2011, 09:45:45 AM

Title: Best approach for a massive collaborative job??
Post by: StykFacE on May 31, 2011, 09:45:45 AM
Hello all. Some good news: we landed our biggest project in the 60 years my company has been open for business. The bad news: It's scheduled to be complete in six months.  :-o

Here's the scoop, it's a $15 million mechanical job for a food processing plant. The place is huge and has been gutted, utilizing the existing structure. We are the contractor who is doing the HVAC, piping, and plumbing using AutoCAD MEP. I will be working on site in our own office trailer, and the other CAD designer will be in our main office. We will be working crazy hours and it will be a fully coordinated BIM job as well. Good thing we're still hourly. ;)

Here's a key plan that shows the areas: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/4989089/wwf.jpg

So here's my idea for the approach, and hopefully I can get some feedback from some of you pros in here. I'm going to be setting up a Project and in the Project Navigator I will set three levels: 1st Floor, 2nd Floor, and Roof. Then I want to make a Construct for each zoned area (Area A, B, C, etc). The thing I have a question on about this, is Divisions. Should I make each zoned area a Division? Or should I keep them as separate Constructs? Another thing is this: I will be on site, the other designer will be in our main office. Has anyone ever worked remotely using a Project Navigator? I have a laptop and I already bounce site to site sometimes, and I have a VPN Client. When I'm at home, it works perfectly on my home internet connection versus the Sprint 4G Hotspot when I'm out on site sometimes. I guess it depends on the upload speeds of my main office's connection which is something I'll be talking to our I.T. Admin about when he gets in this morning.

Thanks for your time to read and discuss in advance.
Title: Re: Best approach for a massive collaborative job??
Post by: Krushert on May 31, 2011, 12:47:29 PM
Congratulations for both the good, the bad and the ugly that is gong to come with the project.  :-D

Our first food processing project is finishing up with the construction phase and the shake down phase is already under way.  We are ramping up the design for a second project for the same client.  The first project we cut our teeth with team based project standards even though everyone was talking and not listening and we are talking 15 firms working on this.   Well it was not that bad but at times I thought it was worse.  The second project is going a lot better because there are agreed upon standards with agreed upon penalties if blatant disregard for those standards. 

My only suggestion because you are BIMing it and we mostly 2d our these projects; is that you need to have sit down meeting(s) with the boss, project manager and the cad manager from each firm to discuss "team based project standards".  Every firm had to xref everybody's else base xrefs and the first project for us was a really nightmare. 

Good luck and enjoy the OT pay.  I am hourly but we had decent schedule so no OT pay for me.