Project Management Strategy

[tchomes]

I would like to know how medium firms (5+ users) are handling their project management with Chief Architect.  We have been using our own system for 20 years, but with X18, maybe there is another method that is easier that has passed me by.  Specifically, our files are shared between our designers in our office, as in multiple people may work on them at any given time (not at the same time).

 

Our current system:

 - We use a network drive (16 TB) to store our Chief Architect files (.plan & .layout)

 - We version our designs during the design process by keeping the .plan and .layout file in sync and using a "letter" to denote version number. 

       Example - Smith Residence a.plan  &  Smith Residence a.layout.

           We will create a .pdf with the version letter, Smith Residence a.pdf to share with the client along with 30-50 snapshot renderings all labeled with the "a" designation.

 - When a customer requests a revision, we save as the .plan and .layout to a new letter and relink.  

       Example - Smith Residence b.plan & Smith Residence b.layout   - and a new "b".pdf and "b" renderings

 

I realize this keeps multiple copies of both files throughout the project, but occassionally, our clients will want to go back to a previous revision or they want pieces of a previous revision and we can open the previous .plan and .layout file.  I realize we could use the "Archives" for this, but the archives are only controlled by time (Date/time stamp) and not by the designer.  Our designers might create two versions in the same day if they did some edits in the morning, submitted to the client, and the client requested additional edits in the same day and the designer was able to work them later in the day and resubmit.  With the "Archives", which we have set up as daily, we would not be able to go back to the previous revision.

 

We keep track of revisions as that is how we know internally, where the project is and our clients are allowed so many revisions before we start charging for more.

 

This system has served us well for over 20 years and 1,500 projects, but now with X18, when we do a save-as, Chief automatically goes in and updates every view.  We export a lot of Vector Views.  We do not use the live views.  This allows us to do line view edits to clean up views.  However, with the automatic update, it is killing our process because we may have 50 views that are being updated (elevations, sections, cabinets) and we do not want those automatically updated as we do not know what changed.  It is a liability to our construction dwgs.

 

We have not used Chief's Project Manager, as it did not seem like a good fit for us and the qty of files we work on with multiple people.  On average our .plan files are about 100Mb and our .layout files are about 20Mb.  This is without exporting all the "library, texture & image" files each time, which is how I understand the Chief Project Manager works.

 

I am an old dog, but always open to process improvements as efficiency is king in our business.

 

Please share your method for versioning projects.

Thank you for your time.

Tracy's Custom Home Designs

 

[JonathanK]

I think this will be a very interesting thread, so thank you for starting it.

We operate similar to you, but the difference is, is that we have about 25 users of Chief that operate in varying capacities.  But it is deeply engrained in our day-to-day operations...from Sales to Design to Project Management.

When the Project Management module first was released, we were encouraged that it would not work well for us and our system, so we've mostly stayed away from it.  But there appear to be so many cool features that we cannot utilize because of this.

Right now our process is similar to yours.  We utilize OneDrive for all our file storage, and we have onsite servers that are simply for archived records.

Our plans are saved in job folders, along with all pertinent sales and PM information.  The only difference is that we work backwards through the alphabet on our plan names.  So the initial draft is Z.plan, and any significant revision is a new letter.  If we start getting close to the end, we start utilizing double letters so that we don't lose the sorting.  This signals to the rest of the team that the top plan is the most current plan...no matter what.  No questions.

I would love to see Chief implement something that would allow "larger" firms to work together and collaborate easier.  But it needs to be done right...and executed well.

That's a lot of words I typed...and probably most of it was "meh...", but just know that you aren't alone in wanting to improve the process.

[CharlesVolz]

3 hours ago, tchomes said:

We version our designs during the design process by keeping the .plan and .layout file in sync and using a "letter" to denote version number. 

       Example - Smith Residence a.plan  &  Smith Residence a.layout.

 

I would suggest not renaming the .plan and the .layout files as a routine. This requires relinking, as you mentioned. That system is more error-prone the more plans you have linked to the layout file and the more users involved. Better to save your versions by saving the project using "File> Backup Entire Plan ..." while in layout, saving it as a zip file and naming those zip files in a meaningful archival way.

 

This also keeps all your materials and referenced files together which is helpful if you are not using Project Management.

 

 

[Edit: Sorry Bob! We replied together...]

 

Best,

Charles

Edited Thursday at 02:51 PM by CharlesVolz

[joey_martin]

Just turn project management off and use the system that has worked for 20 years.

 

EDIT: I don't say that to be flippant. I have 4 interior designers and they each have a design coordinator, so I think we have 10 seats and I have tried to implement PM since it first came out and it just simply isn't better then the system we currently have in place. Rene will say otherwise, but I can say with 100% confidence that we have tried it, and using Shaperpoint as our PM method simply works better for us. 

 

Edited Thursday at 06:18 PM by joey_martin

[JonathanK]

I hearted your post @joey_martin.

I've always appreciated your straightforward approach, so thank you!

I am very curious...with the exception of Rene, has anyone deployed PM Method effectively for use with multiple seats?

[tchomes]

Thanks everyone!  Glad to know that i am not alone.   I have requested for Chief to turn off the automatic view updates when relinking a file to save us time and liability for views being updated that we don't necessarily need or want to be updated.  I am ok with check box that states "Update all linked views" and the user can choose to check it or not.

 

Charles, I understand your approach, but that would create "thousands" of unnecessary files.  As we get to the sixth or more revisions, we would have six copies of a tile image and every other image/material that we used in the plan, which could be hundreds.  Then there is the mess of working with zip files and opening them.  I do feel this is the best way to export the "full" file and all materials, but we place all of our materials on a general folder on our server that Chief can hit when it opens so that each user has access to any custom materials that were created.

Thanks to everyone for their replies.  I don't peruse Chief Talk as much as I used to years ago, but glad that it is still a supportive community.

[CharlesVolz]

2 minutes ago, tchomes said:

Charles, I understand your approach, but that would create "thousands" of unnecessary files. 

 

1. Hard drive space is cheap.
2. Nothing says that you have to keep every old version.

That is my preferred approach. But I understand it may not be everyone's preference.

 

Best,

Charles

[para-CAD]

I’m a solo business, so I’m just spectating on this because if collaboration and project management are ever to work together, they do need some fine tuning. Project management works excellent for a single user.
 

It could also work if you had multiple people and each one worked only on one project each and once they were done, they could export the Caproj file back to the central server. it would take coordination so that there would be a signed out feature where everyone else would see that that file has been signed out by Smith, and once Smith returns it with its changes, then whoever was waiting on it would get some kind of pop-up toast message
 

There would be no multiple people working on the same project in different pieces and there would be no leaving the file on SharePoint and just working on it live  

[richoffan]

Once a project file is made (and that comes from a master project file template) In the folder "drawings" a subfolder with the current date is created. In that folder go the new pln and lo files from a template named with the job # client name and current date ie: 2675 Morris 26.09.10. That NEVER changes unless the project is scraped and rescoped in which case it is getting a new job# ie: 2682 Morris  26.10.03 and the new pln and lo start there. Then, each time the file is worked on the subfolder gets copied and pasted in place. The copy is renamed with the new date (could be date and time) When done working on the file for the day, a pdf of the lo is made and named with job # date and RECORD. On any day while working on file anything no longer needed - old renderings, imported data etc. can be deleted, it is always saved in the dated folder from when the info is current and can be copied into the newest folder if it becomes relevant again. This works for me and in my case when others are working on the same file it is backed up and it is shuffled around by dropbox with a time stamp and initials, 

[Renerabbitt]

fun fact, the templates I sell are project management based. When you include the number of distributed copies multiplied by the number of revisions, patches and updates, testing, these project files have been effectively installed over 10,000 times. 
There is no better method for distributing projects than project management... it simply takes less management, less instructions, and less networking. 

Method is simple, in project management, name your project yymmdd-street/client name-version-technicians initials, such as 260910-Clancy-V1-RR.
Done with your work, select your project, hit the delete key, Then this pops up

Click Export and Delete
Export it to your NAS/Cloud etc.
When the next person needs to work on it, they just go to the cloud location and double click it to open it

It's a single file that contains all assets. It also can contain additional information and multiple design iterations.

• There is also no easier way to create a design iteration which includes a layout pre-linked with populated views, but independent from the design it originated from
• 
• Which results in:
• 

Just to reiterate about how to share with a team...you get to press a button(delete key), then click a button(export) to store a single file (with all of its incluuded images assets/pdfs/design iterations/other files) on your favorite cloud service for the next person to work on.
The only complicated part about the inter-office sharing part of this, is training people to unlearn the complicated things they were doing before PM was created. If people want to learn about the more complex things you can do in project management, such as creating warehouse detail plans, complicated link swapping, reference file swaps, and pre-loaded linked layout templates etc. PM can do some crazy things, but sharing across a team is not a complicated part of PM, its just ..
Delete...click...done.

 

Edited Friday at 05:45 AM by Renerabbitt

[Renerabbitt]

Distribute this graphic to a team

Edited Friday at 08:41 PM by Renerabbitt

[DIMENSION]

This is definitely an interesting topic. I think your best route would be to sign up for a software like Slack and upload the .plan file every time it’s updated.

It seems like it is tedious, but unless you have a multi user license for chief Architect, I am unsure if you can access the same files.

 

There is also another solution you might be able to do for free…’m assuming your company has one main server so when one employee saves the file on that server, another employee from the company should be able to access that exact file if you can’t do that then sending updated. .plan files either through slack or another CRM is the way to go.