This article provides information about the Settings/Configuration/Comments Library page. Upload your standard comments and checklists into the Library to provide a resource for your plan review staff. There is no limit to the number of records that can be uploaded to the Library.
Prerequisites:
Configure Groups for Permitting and Design Review Lists.
Configure Review Types for Permitting and Design Review Lists (as needed).
Configure Comment Sources for Permitting and Design Review Lists.
Configure Categories and Sub-categories for Permitting and Design Review Lists.
Gather plan reviewer checklists and standard comments.
Verify that the comments to be uploaded are correct and accurate.
In this article:
Understanding the Comments Library
Standard comments uploaded to the Library can be inserted into plan review projects.
When records from the Library are inserted into a project, the record's Group, Source, Review Type and category/sub-category values are inserted as well.
Comment records can be batch uploaded into the Library via the Sample Spreadsheet template CSV or XLS format.
Comment records can be manually added/edited to the Library.
Comments flagged ‘in-active’ are not visible to users for plan review.
Where applicable, comment records should be associated to a Group and Review type, Comment source and Checklist name.
Comment records are associated to either For Permitting or For Design Review purpose.
Batch update features allow selected records to be:
Marked as active or in-active.
Copied as ‘New’ comment records.
Deleted.
About Category and Sub-category lists
Client's who want to generate project correction report/deficiency reports that are grouped by headings and/or sub-headings should enter those values as Category and Sub-category list types.
For example:
Standard Comments can be associated to a 'General Requirements' category and a 'Building Envelope' sub-category.
The Sort Order value of those list records is then used to control the sorting on the correction reports.
Preparing Comments for Batch Upload
Follow these best practices to prepare standard comments for batch upload:
Start by downloading this SampleStandardComment.csv
Using Microsoft Excel add your standard comments to the sample SampleStandardComment.csv
During upload, data mapping is based on the Row 1 labels. Do not rename the column headers.
Export your standard comments as DOS comma separated values (csv)
On Windows Excel "Save As" "CSV (MS-DOS)(*.csv)
On Mac go to File > Save As... MS-DOS Comma Separted (.csv)
Data that maps to any List Type is validated by the list item Label or Abbreviation as shown in the screen shot below.
For each comment being uploaded, provide either the entire item label or the entire item abbreviation to populate these columns in the spreadsheet.
Click here to download the CSV template for comments
Uploading to the Comments Library
From the Comment Library page, download the CSV template using the Download button (
). Enter the standard comment into the CONTENT column.
Complete the other columns as described below, validating that the Purpose, Review Type, Sources, Categories, Groups have matching Label or Abbreviation values.
Set 'Active' to False only if the comment should be unavailable to users.
If desired, use the 'Checklist Name' field to enter reference text (something like "Joyce's Checklist" or "Administrative Comments") that the comment owner will use as an additional filter option when searching for standard comments. Unlike other fields, checklist names do not need to be preconfigured in e-PlanREVIEW® (EPR) as a List Item; instead, these filter options are populated from the user-supplied data within this upload form.
Save the file in CSV or XLS format.
Select the Batch Upload button (
) on the Comments Library page.
Required Column Values
These column values must be provided in order to uploaded standard comments into EPR successfully:
Purpose - Either "For Permitting" or "For Design Review".
EPR will only make standard comments available when they match the purpose of the Project the user is working on.
Content - The comment text to be included (max. 8,000 characters). Remove any HTML formatting prior to uploading to EPR.
Optional Column Values
These column values are optional, but provide two helpful functions:
They can be used as filters when plan reviewers search the Standard Comment library.
Some fields, such as Category and Subcategory, can be used to sort comments in the Corrections Report letter prepared for the applicant.
Review Type - If used, this field must match an existing Review Type value configured in EPR.
If an agency does not expect to have multiple assignments/review tasks under a single Group, then Review Type is generally not used.
As an example, Review Type would be configured if an agency has a "FIRE" group and requires individual review tasks done for "Fire Life Safety" and "Fire Sprinklers". In this scenario, "Fire Life Safety" and "Fire Sprinklers" would need to be configured as Review Types.
Sources - If used, this field must match an existing Source value configured in EPR.
Typically refers to a Code base or Code source.
Example: "2016 CBC" or "2019 IBC".
Categories - If used, this field must match an existing Category value configured in EPR.
Most often, checklists have standard comments grouped into sections and then subsections.
A "Category" is roughly equivalent to a main comment section heading.
Example: A Structural checklist may have sections specifically for comments about "Concrete" or "Steel". Alternatively, a large checklist may have sections in Parts, as shown below.
Subcategories - If used, this field must match an existing Subcategory value configured in EPR.
Most often, checklists have standard comments grouped into sections and then subsections.
A "Subcategory" is roughly is equivalent to a comment section subheading.
Example: A Structural checklist may have a Steel section with subsections (subcategories) for "General" and "Cantilevered Column" comments.
Groups - This field must match an existing Group value configured in EPR.
Examples: "Building" or "BLDG" or "Fire" or "FIRE" (abbreviation must match EPR configuration).
Checklist Name - This field is an extra filter that can be whatever text string the user wants - it does not need to match anything in EPR.
Examples: "John's Checklist" or "Plumbing Checklist 2019".
ACTIVE - Refers to comment status.
Set to "TRUE" or "FALSE", where "TRUE" means the comment will be available to reviewers/plan checkers during their reviews.
Typically, any new standard comment uploaded to EPR will have ACTIVE = TRUE.
Formatting Comment content after uploading
Comment content may have lost some formatting after loading. Click on the pencil icon to open the Edit Standard Comment form.
At the end of each paragraph, hit the ENTER key to create a new line, then apply the desired formatting to the selected text, as desired.
Correction reports will honor this formatting.
