Outsourcing Facility Data and Drawing Development

Some sites prefer to outsource developing their floor plans and other basic facility data, such as employee lists, department lists, and standards. This is a good strategy if:

Because you can manage all changes in personnel assignment, department assignment, and room attributes from the Archibus Space Console, you only need to update your drawings and data when you are getting started with Archibus or after a renovation. For this reason, many organizations find it most cost-effective to outsource data and drawing development, as it is only an occasional task.

Outsourcing Options

You have a number of options for outsourcing drawing development.

Option Description
Consult your architectural or interiors firm If you are working with an architectural or interior firm for your construction or renovation needs, they will have CAD- and BIM-trained personnel on staff and they will already be familiar with your facility and its drawing files.
Consult your Eptura business partner Most Eptura business partners provide drawing and data development services. If you have a large project, they can connect you with a reputable offshore provider and can ensure that the results meet the requirements for accuracy and consistency.
Consult Eptura Professional Services Eptura provides drawing and development services both from its US-based and overseas offices
   

Data Development

Your consultant can work with you to determine the facility data you already possess and how to best import it into Archibus. For example, you can provide the Archibus business partner or other consultant with Excel spreadsheets of your employees, divisions, departments, tradespeople, and so on, and the consultant can import this data into the Archibus database. Or, your consultant can use Archibus Connectors to import your data from multiple enterprise systems into Archibus.

You may find that you need to develop this data from scratch; in this case, the consultant can work with you to assess your practices and determine the data that must be developed.

As another approach, your site might choose to develop the key facility data using Archibus forms, but outsource the drawing work, as discussed below.

Drawing-development Standards

When discussing drawing development for Archibus Foundations, refer to the topics listed on the Archibus Foundations: Developing Facility Data Overview so that the data developers understand the level of detail needed. Be clear that you need a drawing appropriate for facility management or lifecycle management. You do not need a drawing accurate enough for construction.

Should you ever renovate a portion of a building, at that point, you will commission a survey on that portion of the building, but there is no solid ROI on money invested in more accurate drawings on spec if they do not already exist. This guideline applies to other kinds of information as well. Your provider may offer to collect other information, such as paint finishes, in the same survey. However, unless you have a business function that uses that information, it is best not to collect it right away.

If you or your provider would like more information on what BIM information may or may not prove useful and in what scenario, refer to the Archibus Help topics on BIM Execution Plans. These topics are located in the CAD / BIM User's Guide / Smart Client Extension for Revit section of the Table of Contents in Archibus Help.

Required Drawing Elements

For space planning, in terms of drawn elements you need only:

Desired but not required elements are:

Standards for Drawing Accuracy

Should your provider need to draw new room boundaries or place doors, a +/- 6"or +/-10cm accuracy will do for most facilities. That is, your provider can draw to a snap grid that is 6"x6" or 10cmx10cm and produce a plan detailed enough for space management and planning.

The only exception would be results that are audited. This is the case for spaces that are to be used for indirect-cost recovery. Hospitals that charge space back to insurance carriers or universities that charge space back to government grants find themselves in this situation. In this case, consult the administrator of your chargeback program as to the desired level of accuracy. Typically this is within 1 inch or 2.5 cm.

Do note that organizations that charge back space to leases do not need this higher level of accuracy, as the chargeback is based on the negotiated area of the lease, which does not match the actual areas derived from CAD or BIM.

Drawing-development Approaches

Your outsource provider can take a number of approaches for efficiently creating lifecycle management drawings.

Making Changes to your Project Drawings

There are several ways for working with your provider so that they can produce the drawings you need.

Archibus SaaS

If you have the Archibus SaaS product, you edit drawings locally and publish the SVG enterprise graphics to the cloud.

Using your hosted server

Often, your hosting provider is your Archibus business partner, and they can develop your drawings for a fee. If you have a separate firm doing your CAD or BIM work, you can instruct your hosting provider to grant access to the CAD/BIM Specialist.

Either party can access the drawings on the server in a number of ways:

Method Advantages
Archibus Document Management for Drawings Feature Allows easy download, upload, revisions, and remote publishing of AutoCAD drawings.
WebDav Allows AutoCAD external references (xrefs) and linked BIM models.
STFP Allows AutoCAD external references (xrefs) and linked BIM models.

Using a remote connection

If your IT configuration allows your provider to connect directly to your Archibus project, your provider can make the changes they need, even if they are off site or in another country.

Transferring an entire project

If your provider is off site and cannot connect to your Archibus project, you can transfer your project to them. To do so:

  1. The administrator stops the database and application server.
  2. Use WinZip to create a .zip file of your project subfolders, the same way that you would when making a backup of your project. For instance, if you are backing up the "hq" project, you would zip up this folder and all its subfolders: c:\users\Public\archibus\projects\hq.
  3. Send the .zip file to your provider.
  4. When you receive the updated files from your provider, have them follow the same .zip file process. You can then unzip the new files into your project folder to use their changes. Keep your older .zip file as a backup of the previous state of your data.

Transferring only space management files

You may wish to keep working with your Archibus deployment while your provider is updating drawings. Yet your provider may not be able to sign into the network.

In this case:

  1. Zip up just the set of drawings that your provider is working on from the drawings folder (e.g. from the c:\users\Public\archibus\projects\hq\drawings folder).
  2. Create an extract file of a copy of your space data. Sign into Web Central as ADMIN or AIADMIN, load the System / Add-In Manager / Run Basic Rule Wizard. Choose "Select an existing rule to modify". Choose the BasicRules_TransferOut rule. Press "Next". then press "Test" to run the rule.
  3. Zip up the extracted files. The files appear in a folder named after your username; for instance if you are user "AFM", these will be in the c:\users\public\archibus\projects\users\afm\dt folder.
  4. Send the drawing and data zip files to your provider. They will have any current room information as well as all the validating data they need to work on your space data.
  5. Instruct your provider to send back data in the same form, but to only include data for the drawings they change. In this way, the files they send back will not overwrite any data that you have edited in other buildings or on other floors.

To import their changes:

  1. Expand the drawings they send back to your drawings folder (e.g. c:\users\Public\archibus\projects\hq\drawings)
  2. Expand the enterprise graphics they send back to your enterprise graphics folder (e.g. c:\users\Public\archibus\projects\hq\drawings)
  3. Expand the data files they send back to your data files folder (e.g. c:\users\Public\archibus\projects\users\afm\dt\)
  4. Import the extract files into your database. Sign into Web Central as ADMIN or AIADMIN, load the System / Add-In Manager / Run Basic Rule Wizard. Choose "Select an existing rule to modify". Choose the BasicRules_TransferIn rule. Press "Next" and then "Test" to run the rule.