What benefits do existing information management systems offer the engineer ?
Drawing office procedures have developed as an aid to managing and controlling engineering design. Evolved over time, they are tried and tested and they work. Based on drawings, they include facilities to plan, authorise and sign-off design work, log revisions, maintain master copies of information and record drawings sent out and received. Electronic Drawing Management Systems (EDMS) use todays technology to deliver these facilities in an efficient way. EDMS systems are currently being extended to provide electronic design environments. Lockheeds TIMS system and the EDIFACT based CONDRO/CONDRA software can be considered to be state of the art in this respect. In conjunction with current drawing exchange file standards such as DXF, these systems offer tangible benefits to user engineers and other AEC professions. • Electronic transfer of drawings • Electronic storage, location and retrieval of drawings • Remote office collaboration, checking and sign-off of drawings The concept of usin
