Excitech has become Symetri
In January 2020, Excitech was acquired by Addnode Group, the owner of Symetri, Europe’s leading provider of software and services for design and engineering activities.
Excitech has now become Symetri, operating as one company since the beginning of January 2021. Please rest assured it is business as usual for us and your service experience will not be impacted.
ISO 19650 Compliance Doesn’t Have to be Difficult
Symetri
The former British Standard (BS 1192) for the collaborative production of Architectural, Engineering and Construction information has now been incorporated into the new International Standard for construction data management known as ISO 19650.
But what does data management mean in this context? Put quite simply, it’s the management of everything from a project start date, to the names of external contractors, to drawing information such as floor level, etc. All this data can amount to tens of thousands of documents across a single project. Standardisation of the way we organise and manage this data across the construction industry makes collaboration far easier and is a keystone of ISO 19650.
Symetri recently held a webinar to explore the changes between BS 1192 and ISO 19650 and specifically how a company can use Document and Drawing Management software to help support compliancy with ISO 19650 and remove manual labour and risk from many of the surrounding processes. Wouldn’t it be easier if software took the headache away?
Excitech DOCS is a product produced by Symetri based upon the highly successful Document Management system M-Files. The system gives complete and easy management of:
1. ISO 19650 naming conventions e.g. HH01-EXC-XX-ZZ-DR-S-0001
Whilst the ISO 19650 naming convention remains largely unchanged from BS 1192, the subtle differences can catch people out, so Excitech DOCS allows you to select the BIM standard for the project safe in the knowledge that your staff can’t now get it wrong, and that all files, not just drawings are named correctly.
Figure 1 - an example of ISO 19650 Naming Conventions
Figure 2 - Excitech DOCS Metadata, bidirectional with title block
2. ISO 19650 workflow and internal approval requirements
ISO 19650 requires adherence to a reasonably strict approval process as seen in Figure 3. This approval workflow is also inherited from BS 1192 and dictates how a drawing or document moves from a Work in Progress (WIP) state internally, to an external issue state such as Shared or Published.
Excitech DOCS maps and guides the user through the process and prevents mistakes. For instance, documents will need to be approved before they can be Published or Shared.
Figure 3- Full workflow automation as per ISO 19650
3. ISO 19650 Suitability Code and Revision management
The product includes BS 1192, ISO 19650 document naming & workflows, along with many more. You can also create your own. Once you have selected the naming standard for the project, all documents created will immediately adhere to the document naming and workflow procedures defined by the standard. For example, if you select the BS 1192 standard, you will see the D Codes at WIP to Published. However with ISO 19650, these codes no longer exist, and you will not be presented them as an option. Easy, right?
Figure 4 - before, BS 1192 D Codes
Figure 5 - after, ISO 19650 codes has D Codes removed
These standards not only define the names of documents, but also what should appear on the title block at various stages in their life, and how the file name should change when their purpose has been defined. For example, when ‘publishing’ documents, you will need to assign a suitability code which should appear on the title block and in the file name. This, and changes to the revision, which is similarly affected by these transitions, are fully automated by Excitech DOCS so that you can get the job done quickly and without errors.
All of this means that your business can be confident of the ‘quality’ of work presented to others. And by quality, that includes: the reduction of small mistakes, failure to check and approve, naming inconsistencies and incorrect revision numbers to name a few.
4. Extranet upload to common extranet sites such as BIM 360, Viewpoint and Asite
Finally, when you’ve added the relevant codes, revisions, names and approval - all made easy through Excitech DOCS – you may need to upload them to an external collaboration site such as BIM 360 by Autodesk, Viewpoint for Projects, etc.
Excitech DOCS will remember the connection details for each project (location, username, password) and can automatically upload them and their metadata to the extranet saving you considerable time and effort. If you are using more traditional methods, it can zip the files for you and slip it into files that are small enough for the recipient’s email system.
Figure 6 - Extranet Upload from Excitech DOCS to BIM 360
In Summary
Adhering to these standards can be a huge headache but with a modern document and drawing management software like Excitech DOCS you can both remove the headache and gain significant time back to spend on more productive things.
Find out more about our document and drawing management software here.
