Best Practices on Creating Note Sheets

[VTSE]

Not a technical engineering question, but I thought maybe a firm represented by you all may have a better process.

I think my firm produces note sheets rather inefficiently, and I can't believe other firms don't have a quicker/better way of creating them. The following is our process:

[ul]
[li]Write up the notes in Word. These notes are formatted correctly and are on a 8.5" wide x 22" long page. Each 8.5x22 is saved as a different .docx. If a section (Foundation Construction Notes) is more than what will fit on a 8.5x22 sheet, we make more .docxs to cover the section. [/li]
[li]Copy each of the 8.5x22 sheets over to ACAD. Scale the width of the sheet (in ACAD) to 8.5" and specifically place each 8.5x22 sheet in the correct location on the ACAD layout. [/li]
[/ul]​

There are a lot of issues with this process. The main one being that if a section doesn't fit on one 8.5x22 page, the following section will have to be shortened to make up for it (which can cause it to spill over to another page). For instance, Foundation Construction Notes has two .docx. One of a 22" length, the second of a 6" length. This causes the subsequent Concrete Construction Notes to have a 16" length (to fit under the 6" Foundation Construction Notes). The issue is all of this needs to be determined and completed manually. Sometimes we place short-form specs on the drawings in this format which can make this process timely. How do you all create full sheets of notes?

 

[jayrod12]

We just have one giant docx file, you go and digitally edit out/in whatever you want to change. The drafter then copies the entire thing into AutoCAD and formats as required to fit on the sheet. I would be extremely frustrated if I had to go through multiple docx files.

 

[VTSE]

Is your docx file specifically formatted or does your drafter do the formatting through AutoCAD?

 

[Ron247]

My system is different because I am also the draftsman. If I had someone else who did the grunt work, I would do similar to Jayrod.
My notes sheets are already in AutoCad as scale factor 1. I edit them in Autocad as needed. I keep standard notes separated from Standard Details to make it easier on me.

For those using Word, you may want to look into Templates and AutoText. I had a fairly elaborate reporting system I used years ago but no longer need because I no longer do that particular work. If I wanted to try to use if for Project Notes I would create a Template for Project notes. Then for each of VTSEs .docx file, I would make the entire file a single Autotext. AutoText is when you start typing "For Whom It..." and all of a sudden Word throws in "For Whom It May Concern" for you if you want it to. These Autotexts are saved with a "code name". Then entire Foundation.docx could be saved as an "Fdtn11" and only called into the file when needed. All of the files could exist in one template. If I had a metal building, I could type "PEMB14", hit F3 and the entire PEMB document would fall into my current document. I would then edit out what I did not need. If I did not need PEMB, I would not call it down. You can also subdivide Foundations into several AutoText entries. I had several thousand entries but I also knew how my codes were created. Each entry was probably the length of this post. Saved me a lot of typing and proofreading. And finally, you can create standard foundation notes for an Retaining Wall only job and save them as another AutoText. The upfront time is spent coming up with a reasonable coding system to make recall easier.

Autotexts can be anything from 1 word to multiple pages. They are saved with a code you create that is not usually part of what you type normally. It is not AutoCorrect, it is AutoText. To make full use of Word, you need to have the "Developer" tab available and it is not clicked to make it accessible by default, or at least it used to no be.

 

[jayrod12]

Formatted how? There's title's for each section in the docx file. there's numbered lists as well. They all copy-paste into AutoCAD fairly seamlessly. There is some formatting that happens in AutoCAD, but personally I find the formatting in AutoCAD almost easier than in word. I attached a screenshot of a portion of our word document.

 

[BUGGAR]

In the very early days, drafting drawings was more expensive than writing words so the drawings were used only to show pictorially what couldn't otherwise be described verbally. Now we have come full circle and it is harder to put our designs into words.

 

[Settingsun]

One file for all notes. Your manual system is an attempt to beat MS Word at the very game it was designed to play (and you're losing by a big margin as you noted yourself).

Simplest way for me is to have all notes in a master document and delete unneeded ones. The same as Ron247's method but in reverse. I don't see the benefit of the autotext system tbh.

 

[Agent666]

If you are tied/locked into the word way of doing things, then just have a single file. Create a macro that splits the text based on the content into the separate files required. Once you know the exact requirement in terms of lines at a certain width its fairly academic procedure to split the files based on the width of your font. The beauty is you retain the original, if you change anything update the files and carry on.

I was under the impression you could directly xref in the word file content (I know you can do it with Excel for example?).

My personal preference is just to have an autocad/revit template with the notes in there, anything job specific gets its own notes sheet, or a specific block that can be swapped out (things like different concrete cover tables suit this approach well), or are covered specifically within a separate specification where more specifics are required. The aim is to minimise changing the base notes that are common to all projects, this is especially important if your organisation is the type where people copy things from old projects, inheriting obsolete or inappropriate requirements along the way.

Always work from the latest version each time whatever you come up with.


EDIT - conceptually for the width of the font approach see this post