Issued at 5.55 on a Friday
The tender package has to go out by six. Thirty sheets are exported. A senior architect flicks through them. They go. On Monday the contractor rings: the revision on the roof plan is C, but the revision table only shows B; three sheets still say 'Preliminary' rather than 'Tender'; one sheet has the previous project's name in the title block; and a detail labelled 1:5 is plotted at a size that is clearly not 1:5.
None of this is design error. It is the kind of mechanical slip that a tired person misses at the end of a deadline, and it makes the practice look careless.
Why simple errors survive
Quality checks before issue are real in most practices, but they are done by people under time pressure, and people are good at design review and poor at checking thirty title blocks for consistency. Many errors are the same each time: status not updated, revision table not matching the revision, a template left from another project, a viewport scale changed without updating the label.
- The final check happens at the last moment.
- Title block and revision details are checked by eye.
- Templates carry information from other projects.
- Scale labels and viewports can disagree.
- The same errors recur because nobody records them.
What avoidable errors cost
Reissues and correction emails, confusion about which sheet is current, and contractors or consultants working from sheets with the wrong status. None of it is dramatic, but each one erodes confidence in the package and takes time to fix. And the check that did happen was time spent on the wrong things.
Automated checks before every issue
- We agree the checks with your team, based on your standards and the errors you see most, and record them as rules.
- Before issue, the exported PDFs, and where available the model's sheet data, are run through the checks.
- Title blocks are read and checked for project name and number, drawing number format, status matching the purpose of issue, date and revision.
- Revision letters are compared with the revision table on each sheet, and with the drawing register.
- Scale labels are compared with the sheet's scale data where the model provides it, and inconsistencies are flagged.
- A short report lists each sheet with anything that looks wrong, for a person to confirm or dismiss.
- Recurring issues are counted, so templates and habits can be fixed at source.
The checks are mechanical. Whether the design is right, coordinated and buildable is for your reviewers, who now have more time for it.
Because the checks are automatic, they can be run at each internal review as well as at the final issue, so problems with templates or title blocks are fixed early in the stage rather than at the deadline.
A pre-issue report
| Sheet | Check | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Roof plan | Revision matches table | Revision C, table shows B |
| Sections | Status matches purpose | Says Preliminary, issuing for Tender |
| Details sheet | Project name | Different project name found |
| Ground floor plan | All checks | No issues |
Illustrative report format.
Checks that free up the reviewer
Mechanical mistakes are caught in the minutes before issue, not by the contractor after it. The senior architect's check can focus on the design, coordination and the things only a person can judge. And because recurring issues are counted, the practice can fix the template or habit that causes them.
Recognise these slips?
- Drawings have gone out with the wrong status or revision.
- Title blocks have carried another project's details.
- Pre-issue checks happen at the last minute, by eye.
- The same mistakes recur across projects.