This article will attempt to explain why sheet numbers are necessary for EPR's Partial Intake feature

In this article:

About Partial Submittal/Intake

Partial submittal/intake is the process where an applicant uploads a partial plans set - usually consisting of just new and/or changed pages - instead of providing another full plan set during a resubmittal. 

Partial Submittal ON Relies on Sheet Numbers

Partial submittal/intake relies on EPR being able to read sheet number information from each incoming document page to do one of the following:

• If sheet number MATCHES an existing page sheet number, EPR links the two pages. EPR then updates the current version to use the latest version (from new submittal) in the aggregate document.

• If sheet number DOES NOT MATCH an existing page sheet number, EPR adds the page as new to the end of the aggregate document and displays the sheet number.

• If sheet number is missing or cannot be identified, EPR adds that page as new to the end of the aggregate document without displaying a sheet number (it shows the page number only).

How EPR Identifies Sheet Numbers

During the document render process, optical character recognition (OCR) runs to try to identify sheet numbers automatically. While OCR technology has limits, three main factors affect whether EPR can identify a sheet number properly:

1. Location and Page Rotation
2. Font Style
3. Sheet Number Pattern

Location and Page Rotation

To reduce the potential for errors, EPR focuses on the lower right corner of the incoming page to try to identify the sheet number (as highlighted in red below):

LANDSCAPE	OR	PORTRAIT

Example sheet number detection:

CORRECT ROTATION		VS	INCORRECT ROTATION
SHEET NUMBER: S-01	SHEET NUMBER: S-06		SHEET NUMBER: ?	SHEET NUMBER: ?	SHEET NUMBER: ?

Default Sheet Number Pattern Detection

Out of the box, EPR uses a default sheet number pattern (based on best practice sheet numbering formats) to check incoming pages for potential matches. If a value matching the pattern is identified in the correct location, EPR will set that value as the page Sheet Number. To reduce the potential for mismatches, the default sheet number pattern follows these rules:

GOOD EXAMPLES

The sheet number is written in a large, clear, True-Type font with adequate space around each character and follows the pattern rules:

BAD EXAMPLES

Sheet number has bad font style or breaks pattern guidelines:

3+ Letters in a Row	4+ Numbers in a Row	Inadequate Space Around	Compressed/Stacked Fonts	Uses "Of" Format

Hollow or Outline Fonts	Non-standard and Not Continuous (Broken) Fonts	Overlapping or Handwriting Fonts

How Sheet Numbers Are Used

EPR checks a specific zone within incoming document pages to try to identify a sheet number that matches a predefined pattern. If it finds one, it will use the information one of two ways:

• When Partial Submittal is OFF, any sheet numbers found may be displayed on the page thumbnail on the Review page, but are not used for anything else.
• When Partial Submittal is ON, however, sheet numbers are REQUIRED since they are used to link pages from the newest submittal version to the previous one. If a sheet number does not match an existing page, it is treated as new and added at the end of the document. (This order can be changed later.)

Proper linking of page versions using Sheet Numbers allows EPR to automatically migrate markups (both comments, sketches, etc.) to the latest version of a document page, even when resubmitted plans consists of only new and changed pages instead of the full set.

Document Page Linking

Partial Submittal OFF (Default)		Partial Submittal ON
With Partial Submittal OFF, sheet numbers are NOT required to link pages. Instead, EPR will link pages by the page position within the document. Limitation: Subsequent submittal versions CANNOT have fewer pages than the previous submittal version.		With Partial Submittal ON, sheet numbers ARE REQUIRED and EPR will link pages by the sheet numbers provided. This means subsequent submittal versions CAN have fewer pages than previous version.
			Comments are moved from version to version by the sheet numbers provided. In the example on the left, Submittal 1 has S2 as page 2 but then S2 is the first page in Submittal 2.  This is okay because we are able to identify each page by their sheet number, so comments and other markups can be moved to the matching page.