This article provides intake instructions for manually uploading plan review documents in PDF format and supporting attachments in any format, to a Project.

Incoming plan review documents will undergo an inspection via our PDF Scout tool.

For instructions on evaluating plan review documents for compliance, see Electronic Document Submittal Requirements. (TODO)

Prerequisites:

An open project record exists. See Add a Project record, Step 1.
Plan review documents in PDF format and supporting documents, in any file format, are accessible to the user.
Navigate to the Projects page and select the Documents tab.

In this article:

Step 2 - Upload Documents

Click the upload icon on the bottom of the Documents tab.
Browse and select the PDF’s for plan review and supporting attachments (in other file formats).
1. Drag PDF’s not meant for plan review to the ‘Attachments Here’ panel.
2. Confirm that the plans and supporting documents are on the correct panels.
3. Select the Process button to launch Scout to inspect the incoming plan review files for compliance.

After Scout completes, inspection results are displayed on the REVIEW PROCESSED DOCUMENTS tab, shown below.
1. For files flagged with a warning icon or X status,
  1. Select the eye icon to see the Scout results.

Delete plan review files marked with an X status,
- PDF's that do not pass inspection will not proceed to plan review.
For plan review files that pass inspection, flagged with a checkmark:
- Select the FINISH button to complete the upload process.
- The documents will be uploaded to the server.
The INTAKE tab will become visible.
Attachments/supporting documents will be visible on the ATTACHMENTS page.

Step 3 - Intake

The Intake Page Described

The Intake page (below), will display a thumbnail image of all plan review files that have yet to be assigned.

After assignments are created, the document thumbnail is removed from the Intake page and made visible on the Documents page.

PRIOR: Expands the right panel to show a list of plan review documents previously assigned for review.

PREVIEW: Open the PDF for viewing/download.

Prior Submittals: List of plan review files that have already been assigned for review.

Submittal: Your Document Cycle list, sorted by the Order number.

Document Versioning

The filename of the incoming document is checked against previously uploaded files to look for other files with exactly the same filename.

If a matching document does not exist for the project, the new file is assumed to be a 1st submittal.

When a matching document is found, the new file is assumed to be the next submittal.

Select the 'Prior Submittals' dropdown to associate the new document to an earlier document when the filenames do not match.

Workflow Distributions

In addition to the filename being important for managing document versions, it is also evaluated to determine whether preconfigured workflow distributions are triggered to preload assignments on this Intake page. See Workflow Distributions.

In the image above, the document ARCH_Floor Demolition Plan.pdf triggered the autocreation of assignments for the Fire and Building groups because a workflow was configured to create these assignments for documents prefixed with 'ARCH_'.

The user may choose to accept the distribution records, or modify them as desire.

Best Practices

It is critical that incoming documents are properly versioned from 1st, to 2nd, to 3rd, etc.

This is because reviewer's markups and comments are carried forward from prior versions to the latest version automatically, significantly reducing the effort needed to complete plan review.

Creating Assignments for the 1st Submittal

Click on the first document thumbnail image.
A checkmark will be turned on indicating that assignments should be created for this document.
1. Turn off the checkmark to prevent assignments from being created until a later time. Documents can sit in the Intake page until you want to handle them.
Select the appropriate Group from the dropdown.
1. Optionally, select a Review Type.
2. Optionally, chose a specific user as an Assignee.
Repeat these steps for the remaining documents that you wish to process for assignment.

Best Practices

Choose a Review Type when you want to provide additional information about an assignment. For example, create one assignment to the Building department with a Grading review type and another assignment to the Building department with a Landscape review type. This allows the same department/group to approve or deny a document for different reasons.

Creating Assignments for the next Submittal

When an incoming document filename matches to a prior plan review document, or when you have manually selected a file from the Prior Submittals dropdown to make that association, assignments that were previously handled, whether they are closed or still in process, will be pointed to the latest version.

Although you cannot change the Group/Review Type/Assignee for these records, you may set a Due date.

Setting Assignment Due Dates

Use the calendar control to set a future due date, as desired.

Select 'SET DUE DATE' to choose a future due date that you wish applied to all assignment records, or to records which have an empty due date.

Step 4 - Create Assignments

Before continuing, confirm the following:

Does each document you intend to assign have a checkmark?
Does each document you intend to assign have the correct Document Cycle (Submittal)?
Does each document you intend to assign have the correct Groups, and optional Review Types and Assigned user?
Does each document you intend to assign have the correct Due Date?
Select CREATE ASSIGNMENTS to process these documents.
1. Files that do not have checkmark will be ignored.

Intake is now complete.

Deleting a Document from the Intake Page

Select the ellipsis menu to the right of the PREVIEW button to delete a document from Intake.

Uploading Documents