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Knowledge › Project and stages

Stages, releases and decisions

A project runs along the stages its contract commissions. At the end of each stage a release (Stand) is signed: every model kept at the change it had then, with its DIN 277 areas. Decisions with the client are recorded on the way, and after the permit every deviation from the permitted state is listed.

Setting up the stages

  1. In the project settings, under Stages and contract, tick the stages the contract commissions, with their planned start and end and their fee share (empty: the scheme's share), and save. Only the project lead changes them.
  2. Choose the Current stage under General in the same settings.
  3. The project's Overview says in one line under its name where it stands: the current stage, what ends it and how soon. Click the line for the stages as a band, each as wide as its fee share, hatched where not commissioned. A project lead lands on the overview when opening a project, whoever has work on site there on its Site area, everyone else in the editor; the project card offers the other way.

The work list of a stage

  1. Under Work, each stage lists what the fee scheme asks in it: the HOAI Grundleistungen, with the exact wording one click behind. Tick an item when it is done, or mark it not needed with a reason.
  2. The project lead gives an item a responsible person and a due date, and adds Besondere Leistungen the contract includes, or items of the project's own. Overdue items show on the overview.
  3. That person or the lead records progress. Items still open count as one check when the stage is closed.

Closing a stage with a release

  1. On the overview, choose Close stage…. The dialog checks what it can (a model exists, rooms are placed and enclosed, a section from LPH 3, the parcel in LPH 4, the work list; in LPH 2 and 3 that the variants are decided and the chosen one merged into main; from LPH 2 on that the Kostenschätzung is within the budget plus the tolerance the lead set under the budget).
  2. Freeze shows each model's main branch at its change now, with BGF, NUF and the rooms.
  3. Sign: give the release its name and, if the client confirmed it, how. With a check still open, name the reservation it is signed with. Then Sign release.
  4. Signing needs the right to approve: a project lead ticks May approve for the person under Members in the project settings. Owners need it ticked too.

Looking back

  1. Under Releases, Open as it was opens a model in the editor as the release froze it, read only for everyone. The Release chip in the editor's path switches between the current state and each release.
  2. Compare with now keeps the model editable and draws on the plan what the release had that is gone or changed, dashed, and what is new or changed now, highlighted.
  3. When you change a model after the newest release, a bar in the editor asks whether the client asked for it: Record as change request… opens a decision about a possible change order; Not a change request puts the question away.
  4. A release of LPH 2 offers Vorplanung document…: one PDF exactly as the release was signed, with the areas and key figures, the room program, the Kostenschätzung, the stage's decisions and the open points on A4, then the plans of the storeys ticked, on the paper and at the scale you choose (1:200 until you choose another).

Decisions with the client

  1. Under Decisions, New decision… records a question, its context, who decides, a due date, the office's recommendation and the options.
  2. Make a variant forks a model's main branch for an option, so it can be drawn; its BGF and NUF show against the main branch. Choosing an option never merges a branch: merging stays a step of its own in the model settings.
  3. In the editor, Compare with in the path shows a variant (or main) beside the branch you are on: Overlay draws the other branch's own elements in rust over this one, Swipe puts a line across the plan with the other branch left of it and this one right of it; drag the line, or move it with the arrow keys.
  4. Make a link… gives a link to send to the client, shown once and valid 14 days. Whoever has it reads this one decision without an account and answers it once: an option with a binding agreement, or a question back.
  5. A link made keeps each variant as it is at that moment, so the client agrees to what they saw; Pin as sent does the same for variants shown in a meeting. A variant drawn on afterwards says "changed since" on the decision and in the editor, with Compare with what was sent; once decided, the decision says whether the choice is what was sent.
  6. A lead can protect a model's main branch (Protect the main branch in the model's settings). Then only the lead draws on it directly, each change marked "direct" in the history; everyone else draws on a branch of their own and asks to merge it. Taking a decision on a variant asks for it to be merged by itself: under Merge requests on the overview, Compare shows the main branch as it would be once merged, and someone who may approve approves it, which merges it, or rejects it with a reason.
  7. The answer never decides by itself: Take over as the decision records it, or Record decision… records one taken in a meeting, by letter or otherwise, with its evidence. A recorded decision is final; a change of mind is a new decision that supersedes it.

Minutes of talks

  1. Under Talks on the overview, New talk… writes down a talk with the authority, the client, a specialist engineer or others: date, place, who exactly, the subject, the attendees and what was discussed.
  2. Each result is a line of its own, with who does it (a person of the project or a name typed), a due date and the decision or approved requirement it touches. Tick the decisions and requirements the talk discussed, and the project's documents it refers to; they open in the documents viewer.
  3. The minutes stay a draft until the project lead or whoever wrote them chooses Close…. Closed minutes never change: what is wrong or missing goes into an Addendum below them, dated and named. Results can still be ticked done; open and overdue ones are listed on the card.
  4. PDF makes the minutes on the office's letterhead, to send to the attendees by your own mail.
  5. Closing minutes of a talk with the authority in LPH 2 offers to mark work item f), "Preliminary talks with the authority", as done with them as proof. It is never ticked by itself.

The schedule

  1. Under Schedule on the overview, Add step offers the usual steps of design and construction (building application submitted, permit expected, start on site, shell construction, completion and handover …), each once, or Own step… with a name of your own. A step is a milestone with one date or a span with a start and an end.
  2. Type the dates in the step's row; each is saved at once. The project's editors keep the steps, everyone in the project reads them.
  3. Under the band of stages, the stages' planned dates and the dated steps appear as bars along time, a milestone as a diamond, today as a line. On a phone the bars scroll sideways.
  4. Once a step is dated in LPH 2, the card offers to mark work item h), "Schedule of the main steps", as done. It is never ticked by itself.

The permitted state

  1. When the building permit arrives, record it on the release it was granted for, with the permit date and the authority's file number (Record permit). A project lead who may approve does this.
  2. Permitted state on the overview then lists every building element, such as a wall, opening, slab, room, stair or roof, that is gone, changed or new since; lines, dimensions, notes and furniture don't count. Each comes with Show in the plan. Mark each Unimportant or Needs a Tektur.
  3. An element changed again is "not looked at" again. A Tektur granted later is recorded on its own, newer release with Record an amended permit (Tektur)…, and replaces the permitted state.