- So, how do I get from that single PDF file
that I opened earlier
that had 93 sheets in it
to something that looks like this?
And to do that we're going to exit our sample project
by clicking here on the dropdown arrow
and we're going to go start a new project.
We're just going to leave it the default name of My Project.
So, when I start a new project in BIM 360 docs
I get a screen that looks just like this.
I've got a couple of file containers
one's called Plans
and one's called Project Files.
Now Project Files I can use to store things
like the spec book, contract documents,
basically any document file that I want,
but for now let's stick with plans.
So, under the Plan container I can do things
like add more subfolders.
So we'll add one called Design Docs.
And we'll go ahead and add another one called Shop Drawings.
And again, this just helps us organize our drawings.
So let's go ahead and upload those design drawings
by clicking on that folder,
it tells us the folder's empty.
We don't have any drawings here yet
so let's upload them.
I click on upload and navigate
to the same set of drawings I looked at earlier,
Construction Management Sample Drawings.
Click it once and then click on open.
Now the screen's going to tell us
what the process is for getting these drawings
into BIM 360 Docs.
I'm just going to click on OK
and walk you through that process in detail.
At this point you can see
it's uploading that individual file.
So our file is now uploaded
and I'm going to leave this as no template
because this is the first time we've used this program.
We're going to create a template in a minute
that tells the software
where to find the title block for the drawings.
But for now we're just going to leave that as no template
and click on Continue.
Now at this point it says it is processing my documents
and anytime I see a dialogue box like this
that says you can safely navigate away from this page
using the above arrow,
it tells me, along with this progress bar,
that this is going to take just a little bit of time.
Several minutes to really quite a few minutes
if this was a large set of drawings.
So we're going to let this process
and, actually, at this point,
if I were to leave and go out and do something else,
BIM 360 Docs would actually send me an email
when it's done with this process.
So, all of this processing
is being done in the cloud by the system.
It's not being done on my machine
which is why I can just leave and go do something else.
So we're going to let it process and come back
and continue on once it's done with this step.
And, for your reference,
that was about a two or three minute process
to complete that portion of the processing
and that takes us to a screen
that's going to ask us to define where the title block is
on the set of drawings.
So we're going to click on Define.
And it's going to take us to a screen
where it opens up the first sheet in our set of drawings
and asks us to tell it where the title block is
but this is my title page
I don't really have a title block,
so I'm going to click here,
select another sheet,
it's going to open up a pane on the left side of the screen,
I'm going to go here to sheet A-001,
which is really my first plan sheet
that has a typical title block.
I'm going to click on the X to close that pane.
I'm going to use the scroll wheel on my mouse to zoom in.
Hold down the scroll wheel to pan over
and get a good view of my title block
and it says use the Image Crop
to select the title block area
and I'm going to click on the Image Crop tool
and use the crosshairs to just simply draw a box
around the entire portion of the title block
that contains my sheet name and sheet number.
So I'll hold down the left mouse key while I draw that box.
I'm going to let it go,
I'm happy with where that box is so I'm going to click on Next.
At this point,
I'm just going to call this my...
Basic Title Block
and I'm going to click on Title,
and I'm going to use that Image Crop tool again
to just really define where it can find the title
to this drawing sheet.
So, once I draw that box, I let the mouse go,
and you'll see it's taken this text
and put it in this box.
"Design Criteria Abbreviations...
"General Structural Notes."
So, it found the title.
I'm going to click on number and do the same thing
by drawing a box around the sheet number.
And you'll see again it pulled sheet A-001
right into the sheet number box.
So, perfect. We're happy with that.
We click on Save...
It's going to save that information
and then it's going to go onto the next step
where it's going to start extracting all of that information
off of each sheet in our drawing set
so that it automatically assigns
the sheet name and the sheet number that we'll use later.
Now were going to let this process and, again,
this is a process that can take quite a few minutes,
so we're going to do that and come back when it's done.
Okay, and for your reference,
that was about a five minute process to get to this point
where it's extracted all of that information
and I now see a screen
that gives me thumbnails of all of the sheets
in my drawing set.
So see drawing A-001, A-101,
and for the most part you see here
it's done a great job of extracting that information for us
as far as sheet number and sheet name.
But, just to be sure,
I can go ahead and scroll through all of my plan sheets
and make sure that it's all correct
before I publish the final version for everybody to use.
So, for example, I did see
that it didn't quite pick up
the right information from this sheet
because the title block was a little bit different.
So, here's where I could click to edit the title
and just for the sake of doing this quickly,
I'm just going to enter the sheet number
and say this is sheet C-401.
I can see that down here on the screen
and when I click on enter,
it's going to go ahead,
it didn't disappear, it just moved it down
to the rest of the C drawings in my set.
So, again, once you're satisfied
that all the sheet names and numbers are correct,
you're ready to click on Publish.
So, we're going to click on Publish All
and at this point it's going to finish the processing.
It's going to start creating those hyperlinks
to cross sections and details that we looked at earlier
and get ready to publish these for us
to use out in the field.
Now this process can take quite some time
and this is another one that you can just close out,
go do something else and they'll email you
when the process is done.
So we're going to let this process,
and we'll be back
just as soon as the processing is complete.
The processing is complete,
we're ready to click on Show to see what happens.
So at this point it's loading up those thumbnails.
Again, I'm in thumbnail view
and I can toggle between thumbnail view and list view
whichever you prefer.
We'll go ahead and stay in thumbnail view.
And here are all 93 sheets in my drawing set separated out
with the sheet number and sheet names all ready to go.
Let's go click on the foundation plan.
And perfect! We see it's opening
and loading up just that single sheet,
the foundation plan.
And I have some hyperlinks already added for me.
So if I want to see the bottom foundation wall detail,
detail number one on sheet A-506,
I can just click on the hyperlink
click to view sheet A-506,
and I can scroll in and find detail one,
bottom of the footing,
click Return when I'm done.
So let's close that,
go back to our thumbnail view,
now here,
I used the web-based piece of software that was free.
I put in all my drawings on the desktop,
I got automatic hyperlinks to sheets and details,
and I can use the built-in tools that I showed you earlier
to add some simple markups and measurements.
BIM 360 Docs also has companion mobile apps
so everything I just did on the desktop
can be viewed on my phone or tablet
by just downloading the free app
and then logging into the same account
that I used on the desktop.