When a drawing is reissued, BuildersAI compares the new sheet with the revision before it and tells you what it found, where on the sheet, and who it affects. It is there so nobody builds from the old one without knowing.
The words, and the lines. BuildersAI compares the words on the two sheets: notes, labels, schedules, door and window marks, dimensions written as text. Each change in the words is listed as New, Changed or Removed. It also draws both revisions and compares the lines, and marks each place where the drawing looks different: a wall added, a detail moved, a revision cloud drawn.
A place marked is what we think has changed, not a certainty. It may be a line drawn a little heavier rather than a real change, and a change may be missed. So it says “looks different”, never “changed”, and it does not say what is in the place: look at the sheet. Every comparison says underneath what was compared. Always check the drawing itself.
When only the words are compared. The lines are not compared for a schedule, a scan, a sheet that looks redrawn or has too many changes to list, two revisions with a different number of pages, or a set of more than 20 pages, nor for revisions uploaded before this existed. The note underneath then says lines and shapes were not compared.
Where you see it:
- Revision History. Under the new revision there is a What we found box: how many changes and from which revision, such as “5 changes from Rev P2”, then where the drawing looks different, such as “3 places the drawing looks different”, a sentence summing up the words, and the first few changes. Each is marked with a word as well as a colour. Where the drawing’s revision table gained a row, its words come first, marked Revision note: the designer’s own account of the revision
- On the drawing. Open the new revision and a strip across the top says how much changed, with one button: Show changes
- On your home page, in a browser and on the phone. The line asking you to read a reissued drawing says how much changed, and opens it with the changes showing. On the phone it goes as soon as you open the drawing, with or without signal
Seeing the changes on the sheet:
- Open the drawing and press Show changes, or press See all on the drawing in Revision History
- The list opens beside the sheet in a browser, and at the foot of the screen on the phone. In a browser each one has a number, and the same number is on its box
- Each is boxed on the sheet: a solid amber outline for changed words, a dashed green one for new words, and a dotted violet one, marked Looks different, for a place where the drawing looks different
- Press one in the list to go to its page and its box
- Words that were taken off are in the list too, and say which revision they were on
- Press Hide changes, or close the list, to put the boxes away
The boxes are not markup. Nobody can move or delete them, and they are never saved onto the drawing. On the phone the sheet holds still while the list is open; close it to zoom again.
Before and after: A place where the drawing looks different comes with two small pictures: the same part of the sheet on the earlier revision and on the new one, so you can see both without opening the old drawing and finding the spot.
- In a browser the two pictures are under the place in the list, each named by its revision, such as “Rev P2” and “Rev C1”. A wide patch puts the earlier one above the new one. Press them to open both larger
- On the phone press Before and after under the place. The earlier revision is above the new one
- The dotted outline on both pictures is where the drawing looks different
- The pictures show you the two sheets. They do not say what changed, so read them as you would the drawings
- On the phone the pictures need a connection the first time you open them. After that they open with no signal
- Some places have no pictures: reissues compared before this existed, and the odd sheet that could not be drawn. The place is still listed and still boxed on the sheet
- Anybody who can open both revisions of the drawing can see the pictures. Nobody else can
- A place may also say what the difference looks like, such as “Looks like this adds a door”. That is a guess made from the two pictures, it always begins “Looks like”, and it can be wrong, so check the drawing. A place only says this when the difference is clear; otherwise it says only that the drawing looks different
Not a change? Some of what is found will not be a real change: a line drawn a little heavier, a note laid out differently. If you have looked at the sheet and one is not a change, take it off the list.
- Open the list of changes on the drawing
- Press the X beside the one that is not a change
- It goes from the list, from the count and from the sheet, for everybody on the project
- To undo it, open marked as not a change under the list and press Put back
- Project admins and members can do this. Followers cannot, and are not told what was taken off
- A project admin can put back anything. A member can put back what they took off themselves
- The list keeps who marked each one and when
- It works on the phone with no signal, and catches up when you are back in range
- There is no tick. BuildersAI never asks anybody to confirm that a change is right, and marking one as not a change does nothing to the drawing itself
- If everything found is taken off, it says “Everything found here was marked as not a change”. That still does not mean nothing changed, so check the drawing
Who this affects:
- Under the changes, Who this affects lists the tasks that still have an earlier revision of the drawing attached, which revision each one has, such as “Still on Rev P1”, and the people on them with their trade. Press a task to open it
- Project admins also see who has not opened the new revision yet
- Admins and members see this part. Followers do not
- It only appears when there is something to say
What the other messages mean:
- “Checking what changed”: the comparison is still being made. It usually takes a few minutes after the upload
- “Checking the lines on the drawing”: the words are done and the lines are still being compared
- “No change found in the words on this sheet”: the words are the same on both revisions. It does not mean nothing changed: the lines were not compared
- “No change found in the words or the lines on this sheet”: both were compared and nothing was found. It still does not mean nothing changed, so check the drawing
- “The drawing looks different in too many places to mark”: more than 20 places differ, so none are marked. Check it against the earlier revision by eye
- “This sheet could not be compared”: no words could be read on one of the two revisions, which is usual for a scan. Check it against the earlier revision by eye
- “This sheet looks redrawn”: a third or more of the words are different, for example a sheet that was redrawn, or a different drawing filed as a new revision. Check it against the earlier revision by eye
- “Too many changes to list”: more than 60 things changed, though most of the sheet is the same, for example a setting-out plan where every coordinate moved. Check it against the earlier revision by eye
- Nothing at all: a drawing’s first revision has nothing to compare with, and revisions uploaded before this existed are not compared. Demo projects are not compared either
Asking SiteBot: Ask “What changed on A-101?” and SiteBot answers from the same comparison, with the same note underneath. It leaves out anything marked as not a change, as the list does. It tells you on which pages the drawing looks different, never what is in those places, because it cannot see the drawing. It will not guess at changes it has not been shown.
Where to find more:
- Adding a revision and what each one is called: the “plans” topic
- Zooming, moving round a sheet and measuring in a browser: the “measuring_drawings” topic
- A task that says its attached drawing has been replaced: the “working_on_a_task” topic