The projects that I worked on I started going paperless as much as I possibly can on the construction administration side. The office I work at has a reduntant system of electronic and hard copies and the old timers comfortable with this setup. I'm doing this without any document management software program. I just organize the documents in sub-foders of a dedicated CA folder, similar to how the hard copies are organized into binders with tabs. I'm fairly confident with our backup system if the server fails it is easily retrievable.
We are a small 2D CAD architectural practice that still administer contracts the traditional design bid built model.
Some things I did to reduce paper:
1. Scanning whatever paper document I can into PDF's (submittals/shop drawings, sketches, etc).
2. Field Reports printed to PDF and distributed by email.
3. Never printing out emails to archive or to read.
4. Reply to RFI's electronically. Marking it with Adobe Acrobat tools.
5. Marking up PDFs with Adobe Acrobat markup tools or printing it out, marking it up by hand then scanning it back to PDF.
6. Having a dual monitor.
7. Being disciplined on what to print out.
8. When someone ask for drawings we usually send them PDF.
Feel free to share you experiences or suggestions in becoming paperless.
Anyone seen Project Runway or American Chopper. Looks like their using a stylus to sketch their designs right on the moniter or tablet PC. Anyone knows what kind of software program they are using?
Yeah I noticed Project Runway using tablet PC's... I believe Hewlet Packard gifted those tablet PC's to all of the designers as a kind of product placement...
I think paperless is coming down the pipe, the technology is not quite there, but something like Microsoft's surface (project milan) might transform the way we handle documents in the near future:
It's basically a table / desktop touchscreen computer... you can place your smart phone or digital computer on the desk, move content via the touchscreen surface to your device, etc... I can imagine within the next 10 years from now, you might have your whole drawing set stored on a little handheld key drive you could put in your pocket, and you could "open the drawing set" by just placing the drive on the surface of the table and open up your full size drawing set like browsing an iPhone ap on the table... Maybe we do our redlines or markups right on the sheets with digital pens, etc... So maybe within 10 years our CA stations in architecture offices might just be big digital tables...
so far, since the universal use of CAD, my paper has increased, not decreased. i love the strategies you've laid out above, minimalist8, and i wish you luck. more luck than i've had...
on my last ca project, i moved the office towards a (more) paperless process. we had similar jobs working in parallel to my ca project, and the paperless path produced a far more comprehensive and better organized documentation process than the paper process. i think it opened some eyes. having a good scanner is key. i still marked up paper submittals and sketched rfi responses, but everything was scanned and pdf-ed for distribution. we also use newforma which creates an electronic record of all transmittals and files all of the email that goes in and out of the office for any given project.
During CA, were pretty good about working digitally however, during design the plotter never seems to stop printing....
CAD/3DS/Revit has easially increased our paper usage in the past 5 years...The company we lease our plotter/scanner from actually gives us the paper as part of our lease contract and we pay a flat fee per print which is pretty low.
I'll second the dual monitor bit... I can't imagine how people handle all their documents and work on a single 17" monitor anymore... Or on a 15" laptop screen using a touchpad rather than a mouse for petes sake as I see some people do... If you were to go truely paperless with just a 15" laptop, isn't that basically the equivalent of doing all of your work on a less than 11 x 17 inch desk surface?
But yeah, I just don't think most people can work without paper right now... Paperless, even a pdf is just not that portable and not intuitive enough for most people to use... It takes that much extra time to mark up a document by typing and drawing on screen with adobe acrobat's limited markup tools than it does printing it up and marking it with a marker or pencil and scanning to PDF... Architects also work intuitively by sketching...
The way I see it, tablet PC's are nice, but it is the equivalent of carrying a clipboard... It has its functional use, but it is limited... Wacom tablets are interesting but they are still a glorified mouse for illustrators and graphic designers...
Yeah, I think the wacom with the screen is a bit more intuitive but still it is still a little clunky in that it is a peripheral device for a desktop computer basically... I think the next evolution, in the near future will be fully remote devices and instantaneous file transfer like the Microsoft surface... We will be able to carry a tablet to your computer terminal, and it will immediately interface with the computer without any lag or having to plug in... If you have your phone nearby that will automatically wirelessly link as well... If place the tablet pc on a table or desk surface the content will immediately transfer to your desk surface and content will be manipulated virtually on the desk... It would be sort of the transition from hardware to software... Likely soon with cloud computing, our computer software may even be running off remote servers connected to the Internet and information more virtual than sitting stored on our hard drive so even our computers will not need the heavy hardware requirements to operate... Basically without a doubt within our careers we will see our desktop computers turned into glorified net books... Basically interface devices with a web connection I think... I don't think it will take more than 10 years for this to happen... Just think: the world wide web didn't even exist in it's most basic format until 1991...
I agree that there are lots of things we can do to save paper but I think the huge shift isn't here yet... It needs to be more seamless... The problem is, your duplicate hard copies and printouts of RFIs or submittals or whatever are still serving office work more efficiently than the emailed file... Most people find it difficult to talk at a computer monitor, so they end up printing out PDF attachments anyway if they need to show something to somebody... People still need to work socially and a monitor screen is still primarily single point operated by an operator of a mouse... so it lends itself to a one direction kind of communication and interaction like mail or a power point presentation... The multi touch devices Are interesting because they allow several different users to use the same device at the same time... Even though they may be virtual objects, they are easy enough for somebody who has never used a computer to understand...
I once tried to teach my grandma to use a computer once, she gas never even used a typewriter before... She had great deal of trouble getting her head wrapped around using a mouse... I would tell her to press a certain button on windows, and she would reach out and be pressing her finger to the image on the screen... We understand how the mouse works second nature because we learned the technology since a very young age but I think it's missing the intuitive connection that we understand related to instinct based on physical objects and Natural interaction based on objects like a pen or piece of paper in our surroundings... I think the next great leap in digital technology happens when you can get my grandma to pick it up and talk about it...
Our office also uses Newforma, which with it's Markup Sessions really promotes doing all things electronic, which I am all for. We also follow the op's methods to a T.
My question is, now that we've reduced the paper side of the CA process, what the hell does your firm do with the hard samples/physical submittals? What are the Best Practices to be followed in handling them?
Some send them back (scanning in the relevant material at the copy machine). I've heard their may be legal issues, and that we have have to keep them for 7 years (on that note, what is the general policy of keeping old project information?)
How do you guys deal with them? Personally, I understand their purpose and necessity, but I've always found after they've been reviewed to be a real nuisance, sometimes simply scattered around the office...
As much as I relish (and dream about) the idea of the paperless office (or at least the much paper-reduced office), my attorney continues to tell me that it is a huge risk. The legal system has not caught up to the idea of the paperless world.
The projects that I worked on I started going paperless as much as I possibly can
that's like saying:"I've quit doing crack as much as I possibly can". You are either paperless, or not.
You can not go paperless in a productive office. But you can reduce paper consumption, as you have already done. In the scope of your overall contribution to this planet, your paper consumption is dwarfed in comparison to energy, waste and pollution created in making of building materials.
My biggest concern is paper recycling abilities of my municipality. I have seen great programs that actively encourage recycling every single sheet, and I have seen offices with trash cans filled with paper.
NYC, which has 100's of arch and design offices (not to mention law firms and all kinds of paper pushers), is surprisingly bad when it comes to collecting paper recycling. A shame, really.
If I was an office manager, I'd make all the interns transform all of the waste paper into piñatas filled with packs of cigarettes and mini bottles.
Friday afternoon, I'd get the crabbiest people in the office to commit some hate crimes on the pinatas followed by chain smoking and getting black out drunk.
The Paperwork Side of Architectural Practice
The projects that I worked on I started going paperless as much as I possibly can on the construction administration side. The office I work at has a reduntant system of electronic and hard copies and the old timers comfortable with this setup. I'm doing this without any document management software program. I just organize the documents in sub-foders of a dedicated CA folder, similar to how the hard copies are organized into binders with tabs. I'm fairly confident with our backup system if the server fails it is easily retrievable.
We are a small 2D CAD architectural practice that still administer contracts the traditional design bid built model.
Some things I did to reduce paper:
1. Scanning whatever paper document I can into PDF's (submittals/shop drawings, sketches, etc).
2. Field Reports printed to PDF and distributed by email.
3. Never printing out emails to archive or to read.
4. Reply to RFI's electronically. Marking it with Adobe Acrobat tools.
5. Marking up PDFs with Adobe Acrobat markup tools or printing it out, marking it up by hand then scanning it back to PDF.
6. Having a dual monitor.
7. Being disciplined on what to print out.
8. When someone ask for drawings we usually send them PDF.
Feel free to share you experiences or suggestions in becoming paperless.
Anyone seen Project Runway or American Chopper. Looks like their using a stylus to sketch their designs right on the moniter or tablet PC. Anyone knows what kind of software program they are using?
Yeah I noticed Project Runway using tablet PC's... I believe Hewlet Packard gifted those tablet PC's to all of the designers as a kind of product placement...
I think paperless is coming down the pipe, the technology is not quite there, but something like Microsoft's surface (project milan) might transform the way we handle documents in the near future:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rP5y7yp06n0&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kr1O917o4jI&NR=1&feature=fvwp
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7WIkrQu0-v0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PimbkQNKzb4&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iaKehq6qsdY&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3HGfIy_zCI&feature=related
It's basically a table / desktop touchscreen computer... you can place your smart phone or digital computer on the desk, move content via the touchscreen surface to your device, etc... I can imagine within the next 10 years from now, you might have your whole drawing set stored on a little handheld key drive you could put in your pocket, and you could "open the drawing set" by just placing the drive on the surface of the table and open up your full size drawing set like browsing an iPhone ap on the table... Maybe we do our redlines or markups right on the sheets with digital pens, etc... So maybe within 10 years our CA stations in architecture offices might just be big digital tables...
Basically paper would become unnecessary...?
so far, since the universal use of CAD, my paper has increased, not decreased. i love the strategies you've laid out above, minimalist8, and i wish you luck. more luck than i've had...
on my last ca project, i moved the office towards a (more) paperless process. we had similar jobs working in parallel to my ca project, and the paperless path produced a far more comprehensive and better organized documentation process than the paper process. i think it opened some eyes. having a good scanner is key. i still marked up paper submittals and sketched rfi responses, but everything was scanned and pdf-ed for distribution. we also use newforma which creates an electronic record of all transmittals and files all of the email that goes in and out of the office for any given project.
I saw an episode of American Chopper and i noticed they were using a Wacom Cintiq 21" . Which might be what your thinking of. ?
During CA, were pretty good about working digitally however, during design the plotter never seems to stop printing....
CAD/3DS/Revit has easially increased our paper usage in the past 5 years...The company we lease our plotter/scanner from actually gives us the paper as part of our lease contract and we pay a flat fee per print which is pretty low.
I'll second the dual monitor bit... I can't imagine how people handle all their documents and work on a single 17" monitor anymore... Or on a 15" laptop screen using a touchpad rather than a mouse for petes sake as I see some people do... If you were to go truely paperless with just a 15" laptop, isn't that basically the equivalent of doing all of your work on a less than 11 x 17 inch desk surface?
But yeah, I just don't think most people can work without paper right now... Paperless, even a pdf is just not that portable and not intuitive enough for most people to use... It takes that much extra time to mark up a document by typing and drawing on screen with adobe acrobat's limited markup tools than it does printing it up and marking it with a marker or pencil and scanning to PDF... Architects also work intuitively by sketching...
The way I see it, tablet PC's are nice, but it is the equivalent of carrying a clipboard... It has its functional use, but it is limited... Wacom tablets are interesting but they are still a glorified mouse for illustrators and graphic designers...
@brink The wacom cintiq is actually a screen though. So it is as intuitive as writing onto paper.
i've found one of these to be invaluable during CA; duplex scanning right at the desk so almost everything can be emailed & easily stored.
Yeah, I think the wacom with the screen is a bit more intuitive but still it is still a little clunky in that it is a peripheral device for a desktop computer basically... I think the next evolution, in the near future will be fully remote devices and instantaneous file transfer like the Microsoft surface... We will be able to carry a tablet to your computer terminal, and it will immediately interface with the computer without any lag or having to plug in... If you have your phone nearby that will automatically wirelessly link as well... If place the tablet pc on a table or desk surface the content will immediately transfer to your desk surface and content will be manipulated virtually on the desk... It would be sort of the transition from hardware to software... Likely soon with cloud computing, our computer software may even be running off remote servers connected to the Internet and information more virtual than sitting stored on our hard drive so even our computers will not need the heavy hardware requirements to operate... Basically without a doubt within our careers we will see our desktop computers turned into glorified net books... Basically interface devices with a web connection I think... I don't think it will take more than 10 years for this to happen... Just think: the world wide web didn't even exist in it's most basic format until 1991...
I agree that there are lots of things we can do to save paper but I think the huge shift isn't here yet... It needs to be more seamless... The problem is, your duplicate hard copies and printouts of RFIs or submittals or whatever are still serving office work more efficiently than the emailed file... Most people find it difficult to talk at a computer monitor, so they end up printing out PDF attachments anyway if they need to show something to somebody... People still need to work socially and a monitor screen is still primarily single point operated by an operator of a mouse... so it lends itself to a one direction kind of communication and interaction like mail or a power point presentation... The multi touch devices Are interesting because they allow several different users to use the same device at the same time... Even though they may be virtual objects, they are easy enough for somebody who has never used a computer to understand...
I once tried to teach my grandma to use a computer once, she gas never even used a typewriter before... She had great deal of trouble getting her head wrapped around using a mouse... I would tell her to press a certain button on windows, and she would reach out and be pressing her finger to the image on the screen... We understand how the mouse works second nature because we learned the technology since a very young age but I think it's missing the intuitive connection that we understand related to instinct based on physical objects and Natural interaction based on objects like a pen or piece of paper in our surroundings... I think the next great leap in digital technology happens when you can get my grandma to pick it up and talk about it...
On a related note, of getting rid of CA clutter:
Our office also uses Newforma, which with it's Markup Sessions really promotes doing all things electronic, which I am all for. We also follow the op's methods to a T.
My question is, now that we've reduced the paper side of the CA process, what the hell does your firm do with the hard samples/physical submittals? What are the Best Practices to be followed in handling them?
Some send them back (scanning in the relevant material at the copy machine). I've heard their may be legal issues, and that we have have to keep them for 7 years (on that note, what is the general policy of keeping old project information?)
How do you guys deal with them? Personally, I understand their purpose and necessity, but I've always found after they've been reviewed to be a real nuisance, sometimes simply scattered around the office...
As much as I relish (and dream about) the idea of the paperless office (or at least the much paper-reduced office), my attorney continues to tell me that it is a huge risk. The legal system has not caught up to the idea of the paperless world.
that's like saying:"I've quit doing crack as much as I possibly can". You are either paperless, or not.
You can not go paperless in a productive office. But you can reduce paper consumption, as you have already done. In the scope of your overall contribution to this planet, your paper consumption is dwarfed in comparison to energy, waste and pollution created in making of building materials.
My biggest concern is paper recycling abilities of my municipality. I have seen great programs that actively encourage recycling every single sheet, and I have seen offices with trash cans filled with paper.
NYC, which has 100's of arch and design offices (not to mention law firms and all kinds of paper pushers), is surprisingly bad when it comes to collecting paper recycling. A shame, really.
You say recycling, I say Piñata.
If I was an office manager, I'd make all the interns transform all of the waste paper into piñatas filled with packs of cigarettes and mini bottles.
Friday afternoon, I'd get the crabbiest people in the office to commit some hate crimes on the pinatas followed by chain smoking and getting black out drunk.
The evening would be finished off with a tacate bukkake .
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