Plans for the future: is your archive ready for a repeat client, a lawsuit, or posterity? - practice

Residential Architect, May, 2003 by Cheryl Weber

Most architecture firms use a repertoire of methods for transferring files, controlling access, and tracking the latest versions. Swanke Hayden Connell uses e-mail for the exchange of simple drawings, an FTP site for packs of drawings, and, if the project warrants it, an Extranet. FTP sites require the architect to devise a tracking system. By contrast, a project Extranet offers document-management services, and it's a more visual venue that allows participants to make changes right there, rather than downloading and uploading files. An Extranet is typically run by an application service provider (ASP)--such as Autodesk's Buzzsaw, Citadon's Project-Net, or Bentley's Viecon--or self-hosted by an architectural firm running its own software, Cohen says. The Spector Group, for example, has developed its own Web-based project-management software. Consultants and clients can go to the Web site via secured access and stay in touch with the day-to-day operation of a project without having to attend weekly meetings.

The most seamless method of document sharing is a peer-to-peer network, such as Napster, where the files stay on people's own computers but are linked together. Because you are simply sharing your local files, version control is automatic. The disadvantage, Cohen says, is that you get none of the built-in document management services such as file viewing, check-in/check-out, and work-flow history that the ASPs give you. There are, however, free file-view applications available for CAD files, such as Volo View Express, that allow team members to view, print, and mark up CAD files. "Groove Networks is the best peer-to-peer system, and it's free up to a point," Cohen says. "Peer-to-peer would be a good choice for relatively small projects such as developer housing, and where everyone on the project team is relatively computer-savvy."

information keepers

Regardless of the tools architects use to traffic information flow, their most important task may be to educate themselves and their clients on the comparative usefulness of electronic drawings versus plain old paper.

"Suddenly, because everything is electronic, clients want to see everything," Rizza says, whereas before they didn't want to deal with all that paper. "Sometimes electronic media will speed up and enhance the process, other times it won't. But people think that because you're not delivering something totally editable, you're hampering the process."

Some of those same issues must be visited at the end of a job. What type of archival media should you give to clients? And how do you prevent its misuse?

For a client who insists on a CD-ROM of as-built drawings, the obvious solution is to copy them as read-only files. Regardless of the medium, architects need to make sure that every page of their drawings is dated and copyrighted, says Kathleen Hunter, Hunter Law, Cohasset, Mass., and that the client signs a disclaimer releasing them of liability resulting from someone's additional work.

Cottle Graybeal Yaw Architects, based in Aspen, Colo., occasionally gives nonmanipulable CAD files on CD-ROM to its retail clients for reference during tenant moves. A few years ago, the firm developed a CAD-file release form with help from its insurance carrier. Essentially, the letter states that use of the information for any other purpose is prohibited, and that the client must agree to hold CGY harmless for any damage, liability, or cost, including the costs of defense, arising from changes made by anyone other than CGY, or from reuse of the information without the prior written consent of CGY.