Non-Applicable Detail Column in Schedule

Jer,

Would you please elaborate on the "otherwise" part. We'd prefer it to say "N/A" rather than "/" if possible. Thanks.

Seaweed

Seaweed,

It is a wishlist item on the radar to add the ability to input a custom text string as a detail's location, instead of actually assigning a detail. The point of this wishlist item is to allow the user to specify a detail on another consultant's sheet. With that, you'd also be able to specify "N/A". It's not developed yet, though.

-Amanda

Oh. Okay Amanda. Thanks. BTW, I watched your Plant Highlight Power Tip. Great JOB!!

Thank you! That means a lot! 

Amanda,

Has any progress been made to your above conversation with Seaweed?

Is there a chance that the code can be written so that the "N/A" appears instead of just the "/"?  The whole point of these schedules is so we don't have to go in and modify the block.  I understand Wishlist items are not a priority by this would be extremely helpful.

Thank you.

Wes

Wes,

This is still in development. I'll have a look at the priority of assigning a third-party detail reference.

-Amanda

Hi Y'all,

We've got a situation. The City's boiler plate includes their standard details. They want us to reference their detail ID's in the planting and irrigation schedules. Does anyone have an idea as to how to do this? 

LandFX Wizards. Back in September 2019, I suggested that there could be an option for the user to add a comment that would supersede the detail ID/SHEET. I suggested that this could be used for placing "N/A" so that the plan checker would not identify this as an unintentional omission. This same option to add a superseding user inserted text would solve this issue too. Can we still expect this option to be available to us soon?

And for now, I assume that adding text that may have to be modified when the schedule is modified and regenerated. Obviously this leaves distinct possibilities for user errors.

Again, any helpful suggestions?

It would obviously be easy to make the detail assignment an editable text box.

The issue is, you know that some users would "fix" a detail reference by just editing it.  Fast forward, and on a large project, you have no ability to tell the difference between detail references that are being automatically linked by Land F/X, and those that were edited by a user. A real mess.

So that is the challenge -- how to allow a custom detail references, but done in a way that can still be audited, and not tempt users to just use it instead of using the detail system.

--J

Hmm. Yes. That is a "Challenge". Your team is probably up to such an effort. Am I wrong? How about if there is a column in the detail manager that identifies the details that are overridden?  That would allow for the managers and other, more educated, staff to to identify, "Re-Fix"and educate where necessary.

That wouldn't even catch it.

A user will be editing plants or refnotes, and will mistakenly manually correct detail references when editing those items. The plant schedule and refnote schedule will dutifully display the errant reference.  A manager would need to run a detail report, which would need an additional section, of Unknown Detail References.  Some of them would be correct, accurately referring to city details.  But some of them would have type-o's, some of them would be entirely incorrect, but the effort required in verifying each one would be too much, and the plan would just go out the door.

So in thinking that through... it seems the more correct way to do it, is to somehow set up these Outside Land F/X Details within the detail manager in some fashion.  Ideally in a manner that can be validated.

Which all comes back around to.... it seems it is necessary to save the city details into the system.  Then, tell me if this will work:  Create a sheet, called City Standard Details, and when placing their details onto this sheet, enter their preferred Detail ID as the detail number.  That should result in the detail reference correctly indicating their detail ID, while also allowing the use of the detail Preview and other tools to confirm the detail reference is accurate.  Would that work?

--J

Jer,

I'm pretty sure that I don't understand. Remember that these City details are not ever going to be on a sheet. They will be included with the specifications in their native PDF format. Are you suggesting that we still create a LandFX detail of each of the City standard details which will be referenced and place them on a plan sheet called City Standard Detail? That way when we run a schedule it will be referenced correctly? Is that what is being proposed. Again, I probably don't understand. If that's really what you are suggesting (and I don't think that it is) then I think that we'll stick with our current bad solution which is significantly more efficient. We'll add text manually adjacent to the schedule (not edit the schedule). And then when the schedule is regenerated, if we remember we'll make sure that the accurate text is still aligned. In my opinion, neither are even okay solutions. I'm sorry.

Again, why can't their just be a box to click next to the Assign Detail button that would allow for user input? The user just clicks the box and inputs text where the detail ID would be. Maybe the user types NA. Maybe the user types I-1/SD to represent the City's Standard detail.

Again, I'm sorry for not understanding this one.

I'm just trying to come up with something that would prevent the following:

- user meant to type I-1/SD but accidentally typed I-11/SD

- user entered 3/L-4 because they didn't want to bother with placing and assigning a detail, but then later L-4 changed to L-5

So I'm trying to come up with a way, where you could configure all the City Standard details, so that the user could still use the interface, preview, and everything else, without the error-prone manual entry of a detail.

Which makes me think it is not about making the detail reference editable, it is about being able to configure an External Detail Sheet in the Detail Manager.

--J

Jeremiah,

I understand that you are wanting to reduce user error of typo's, but we are currently modifying the schedules to add the N/A as well as removing the title headlines when there are changes to area or amenity.  The unfortunate thing is you cannot make this 100% fool proof to user error.

I agree with Seaweed, we don't want to have additional sheets for City Standard detail when the contractor has the city spec book that we are referring to. 

Could the option to edit the detail be done in the meantime while you figure out your overall idea?

Wes.

Jeremiah,

Thank you for explaining it that way, I hadn't thought of setting up an additional sheet to be used like that.

Wes

Jer,

As I stated in my June 4th post, I didn’t think that I understood. I was right. But like Wes, now I do.  It’s just a blank detail with a title and a file name which we would place in the agency’s folder structure, not our standard CSI folder structure. The plan sheet is also never printed. It’s just a drawing with these blank details placed on them. In fact, this fake sheet could be saved as a master so that it could be used for any project done in this agency’s jurisdiction. 

And yes. It seems that we will have a standard sheet called “A” with one detail on it called “N”. 

So now I do understand how we can deal with the agency standards, and the non-applicable details. I like it a lot.

Thank you Jer. This may make a great power tip. 

Seaweed

Ok.... Now we have all of the city's standard details (well, really just templates with detail titles) set up as LandFX details. We have inserted all of the details on a sheet defined as CTY. STD. in our project manager.

Now what? Sure. We created this sheet in LandFX. It took a bit of time inserting almost 100 details in the sheet. So, while we haven't run the new schedule, I assume that it will work. ... for this project. But what about the next project? Will we have to go through the process of inserting the details into the detail manager and inserting them onto a sheet every time we work in this agency? Probably not. But I'll reach out to you to enlighten us as to how this sheet can be saved (and where to save it) so that we don't have to reinsert the details every time. We've already considered saving the project as a template, but for just this sheet? Maybe.. Thanks for your suggestions.

Okay Community,

This only works if we are allowed to add multiple detail references for a single element as has been requested on THIS THREAD. Because when we're working with City standards where we have created a fake detail sheet that is never printed so that the schedule can read as "XX-X/CTY. STD." we can't use the bubble to reference the other detail (since the City standards are printed with the bid specifications, not the plans). So now what? For instance, with the main and lateral lines, how do we reference their standard thrust blocks and trenching details? And what about the staking and tree slope planting? AUGH!! What to do? Maybe I'll just wait until I print out mylars and dust off the old Kroy machine. Many of you probably don't know what either of those are.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Response was posted HERE.