Drawing management system is the backbone of the construction industry. Drawings can be seen everywhere from the punch list to site plan and from site plan to detailed call outs. They represent the reality of the design concept. These are then transformed into life by the project teams working on the construction project.
A construction drawing is a written representation of the construction. It includes details such as wall color, floor space, furniture, outlets, material details, equipment, lighting, etc. written as specifications in the documents. The engineers make drawing the basis of further development. These include the working drawings to establish the way the construction is to be carried out and how it would look.
The dimension in a construction drawing displays the position of the component. Fundamentally, the construction drawings are created for the renovation of existing buildings or newly constructed buildings. It varies from 10 to 100 pages depending on the project type.
Construction drawings are prepared in four different parts: architectural, structural, mechanical, and assembly drawings.
The constituents of the drawing are:
- Complete view of construction with all the dimensions
- Sectional view and elevation view from all the sides
- The sectional view of all the walls
- Details of materials of every part, e.g., materials of door and window can be of wood, steel, plastic, iron, etc., the roof material can be of wood, concrete materials, asbestos, cement, etc.
- Manufacturer details (such as phone number, name, etc.) of the paint colors used for furniture painting, wall painting, etc.
- Materials, Furniture dimensions, space occupancy, finishing, etc.
The contractors depend on the design drawing management for different projects – large commercial project or small residential project. These drawings are prone to changes during the construction process. Hence, there should be a system to manage these drawings. Manual drawings have been the practice for long. As against the manual drawings prepared in the past, the digital tools come with a unique feature – drawing management system.
By default, the user is shown the recent set of drawings revisions, always.
#1. Procore
Procore is drawing centric construction management software for the builders. It minimizes the printing costs otherwise spent for drawing revisions, and hours on the standard distribution of new drawings to the team members. It is developed on three fundamentals: vendor listens to customer problems, develops easy to use solutions and makes sure the client can utilize the products instantly.
The OCR technology of Procore offers a seamless construction drawing management system. It helps to upload, organize and view revisions and drawings quickly. Filters are available to find the drawings easily. Keywords too can be used to see a particular drawing. It helps in selecting one or more set of drawings. Procore organizes all the construction drawings into one set.
Furthermore, Procore saves name and number of the individual sheets automatically. It ensures the project teams are working on the latest drawings, always. The units can review and mark up the drawings or approve changes, text comments and send the updated plans to the entire project team within a few minutes.
The construction document management process, Procore provides unlimited collaboration. The vendor even provides reliable customer support. The drawing management software is available for both Android and iOS platforms.
Price: Request a demo. The price is available on a quote basis only.
#2. Projectmates
Projectmates is cloud-based construction management software with a drawing management system which is developed to understand the requirements of project managers and handle the deficiencies of the construction process. Other features include workflow, document management, scheduling, capital planning, bid management, project dashboards, and program reporting.
Projectmates allow the authorized users to access the latest drawings from anywhere. Projecting management is essential. The online design drawing management software ensures that all its clients can log in from their mobile device, desktop or tablet to accept the alterations, approve the designs and do so much more. The project teams can view and exchange any file such as CAD files, PDFs, spreadsheets and more. It supports X-refs for drawings. It is available for both the platforms – Android as well as iOS.
Price: The price is available on a quote basis. The user can contact the vendor for the purpose.
#3. SkySite
SkySite is a cloud-based drawing management system for the construction industry. It is mobile, cloud-based software to help users with a centralized location. They can store, mark up, organize, share, sync, and track all the project documents. It is a perfect tool for construction, design, and closeout.
It enables the user to view and markup drawings, organize them in folders, and share with the project team members. It offers a central repository for all the different drawings and gives them as and when needed in the construction of commercial, residential or other projects. The construction managers, subcontractors, and contractors can have the information as and when they need it from any device from anywhere. The user can view and also mark up on the go.
The markups to the drawings can be seen in real-time. It, in turn, improves communication in the construction industry. The auto-indexing ability ensures that the drawings are automatically indexed based on the sheet number. Filters can be used to search a particular drawing. It makes the search easier. It enables adding hyperlinks to search for a specific drawing. The tie-in to reprographic services ensures that the hard copies can be delivered to a particular address.
Price: Free trial is available. Also, the amount varies with the number of users.
SkySite ProjectLink
1-10 Users – $20/user/month
11-50 Users – $12/user/month
51-100 Users – $8/user/month
101+Users – $5/user/month
RapidStart – $245 One Time Fee
SkySite Infolink
1-10 Users – $25/user/month
11-25 Users – $18/user/month
26-50 Users – $12/user/month
51-100 Users – $10/user/month
101+ Users – $7/user/month
#4. VPOcloud
VOP is drawing management system developed to support the engineering and construction companies. The latter can organize and manage the workflows via a web-based interface. It is loaded with simple tools or features which make it extremely easy to operate.
VPO helps in sharing drawings by uploading any digital drawing to your system. All the team members can have access to these from here. A central drawing revisions log assists in monitoring the details of all the drawings. This helps in preventing any confusion in the team members. A drawing files repository is managed online. E-mail notifications can be sent automatically to the team after the revision is submitted. Drawings are available offline, and they can be accessed through the handheld devices. The project members can mark up drawings by commenting, redlining, adding text and stamping approvals. A new version is created as soon as a change is made to the drawing. One can perform it offline or online. The offline changes sync automatically when you have internet access again.
The cloud-hosted drawing management system supports Android and MAC.
Price: VPO provides a subscription-based enterprise pricing plan. It can be customized as per the project details. A free trial is available.
#5. CMiC
CMiC is a construction project management and financial software developed for specialty and general contractors, project owners, heavy contractors to improve various levels of business analytics and to handle multiple aspects of a project lifecycle such as bidding, procurement, and budget management.
VPO helps in managing the different versions of various drawings among the different teams. It provides seamless communication between engineers and architects through the office, home and project site teams. The user can connect the third party management applications already in use as CMiC has built-in integrations with the central drawing management systems. With the Construction ERP system, the user can upload all the diagrams at one go and also manage them efficiently. It enables project workflow with in-built drawing management ability. It provides the latest version of the drawings and can be accessed by all the authorized users. The on-site and office teams will get to view completely updated and reliable drawings. It is embedded throughout the enterprise system. It offers an advantage of third-party integration as well. The user can see BIM/3D models in the browser.
Price: CMiC’s price information is available only on request.
Summing up
The drawing management system has their set of inefficiencies. One will risk a full project if these are not managed appropriately. The reviews of the five best construction drawing management systems highlight their best features to help you make your project a success.
Author’s Bio
Ronald Thaxton is a super-connector with AYC Web Solutions who helps businesses find their audience online through outreach, partnerships, and networking. She frequently writes about the latest advancements in digital marketing and focuses her efforts on developing customized blogger outreach plans depending on the industry and competition.