Construction Drawings & Data

A little over a year ago Friends started a construction project (as is the case with many schools in NYC). I’m interested and excited in ways I can support the project and as I have seen and learned from years and projects past — not being involved leaves countless opportunities for miscommunication and then time and efforts to make something work that is far from perfect.

I asked our Architects and Project Managers for copies of the drawings and scope of work and this is what I received — some light reading…

I took the opportunity to then ask for PDFs of the documents and drawings and started working digitally. My first step into this was the first gen Apple’s iPad Pro 12.9" and Apple Pencil. Worked great and I did a TON of work with it using GoodNotes. A number of months ago with the release of iPad Pro (gen 2) and the 10.5" Pro, I moved to that and it is even better!

I grab the PDFs from our project systems and then import them (I generally keep the PDFs in my Google Cloud Drive) into GoodNotes for annotations, comments, ideas or concerns. This has been working GREAT! I also can mark up notes, agenda items, meeting minutes and drawings and export and email them to the necessary people.

Obviously this saves time, resources (no paper) and provides a flexible method of managing the information (as well as much easier to carry around hundreds of pages on a less than two pound device. Working at home, on the train or in a meeting is a huge advantage and beneficial.

Anyone using anything else, other workflows or suggestions? Let us know.