Managing the Document Management for Drawings Feature

As a CAD Manager, you need to administer the Document Management for Drawings feature so that CAD users can check out drawings for editing and check in their changed drawings to a central location (the Web Central Drawing Files folder).

Note: Document Management for Drawings is not available in Archibus SaaS deployments.

Typically, you will need to perform the tasks listed in this topic. Additionally, you may need to initially enable and configure the Document Management for Drawings feature. See Administrating Document Management for Drawings (System Management Help).

Establish Backup and Redundancy

The shared Web Central Drawing Files folder acts like a common drawing folder that you would share on your LAN or WAN, only users can check drawings in and out from anywhere that they can access Archibus over the Web. As such, you should establish the same kind of redundancy and backup that they would have for a shared drawing folder. For instance, you may wish to use a mirrored drive or nightly or hourly backup.

The system stores the latest version checked in by any user. It does not store the revisions of each drawing, but rather, replaces the current drawing with the new version that the CAD Specialists check in.

Add Drawings to the Web Central Drawing Files Folder for the First Time

If you are upgrading to a new version of Archibus that includes the Document Management for Drawings feature, it is likely that your documents are already registered with Archibus and appear on the Drawing List. You now need to add these documents to the shared Web Central Drawing Files folder.

After an Archibus Administrator (or you) enables and configures Drawing Management for Documents following the instructions in the above-referenced System Management topic, you need to copy the CAFM drawing files to the Web Central Drawings File folder. This folder is specified in \web-inf\config\drawing-management.properties, such as:

drawingManagement.drawings.folder=$Path{WebAppPath}/projects/hq/drawings

By default, the single-user installation configures this folder to be the HQ project folder, so anyone who wants to use the sample HQ project needs to edit the afm-proejcts.xml and change the Document Management for Drawings project preference.

Once you copy the files, all CAD specialist users will see on the Drawing List that all drawings show a blank or “available for check out” status.

Delete Enterprise Graphics

The System / CAD Manager process offers a series of "Drawing Changes by..." reports for viewing the history of drawing check-in. Each of these reports has the following buttons for managing enterprise graphics:

Delete All Enterprise Graphics
Delete Unused Enterprise Graphics

When Document Management for Drawings is enabled, the Publish Enterprise Graphics command publishes all enterprise graphics to the central location (the Web Central Drawing Files folder). You may periodically want to clear this location of all enterprise graphics or unused enterprise graphics. (An enterprise graphic is unused if the drawing from which it was published is no longer in the Drawing List; that is, it has been renamed or deleted.)

To do so, simply select the appropriate buttons at the top of each report.

Review the List of Changes for a Drawing

You may wish to review the list of changes made to a drawing and who determine who was responsible for the change. If you have a question about a particular change to a drawing, you can note which user made these changes and review their comments. Perhaps their comments will resolve your question.

You can review changes by drawing, building, or user. For each of the reports you drill down and select the drawing; the system then shows the drawing's Versions table which stores key data about the check-in or check-out action, such as user, date, time, and comment.

Use these tasks (located in the System / CAD Manager process) to review your drawing changes:

Task	Description
Drawing Changes by Drawing	Find drawings by drawing name. Choose a drawing, and in the right pane the view presents the Versions table with a log of who changed the drawing and their comments on each change. At the top of the report, review the total of how many edits were performed on the drawing.
Drawing Changes by Building Location	Locate your drawing by drilling down from sites to buildings and floors. Once you locate your drawing, the report presents information similar to the above report.
Drawing Changes by User	In the left column, choose a user. In the top right panel, you will see all drawings edited by that user. Select a drawing and your can review its log of changes

Task

Description

Drawing Changes by Drawing

Find drawings by drawing name. Choose a drawing, and in the right pane the view presents the Versions table with a log of who changed the drawing and their comments on each change.

At the top of the report, review the total of how many edits were performed on the drawing.

Drawing Changes by Building Location

Locate your drawing by drilling down from sites to buildings and floors. Once you locate your drawing, the report presents information similar to the above report.

Drawing Changes by User

In the left column, choose a user. In the top right panel, you will see all drawings edited by that user. Select a drawing and your can review its log of changes