What drawings /survey reports should I ask for?

[BotusBuild]

We are now in the position of having an Architectural Engineer who my wife thinks I'll get on with ? and so we have asked them to provide their services. They are different from the Architects who worked with our land vendor to get the FPP that exists.

 

We are seeking to get hold of the editable drawings from the original Architects for which they want a large sum of money. So, I want to make sure that we get every last thing from them that will help the Architectural Engineer to make the changes to the plans that we would like to get through the planners.

 

What information - drawings, surveys etc. should I be asking for the original Architect to supply in exchange for the large sum of money? The AE is going to provide a list as well, before anyone asks.

 

Thanks

Stuart

Edited August 1, 2019 by BotusBuild

[Carrerahill]

Just full the ".dwg" format drawings for CAD or whatever software they may have used. Assume just standard CAD drawings and not 3D models etc.? 

 

Also, do you have the drawings in PDF format?

 

If it was me I would just take the PDF's and convert them to CAD and not bother paying them for them.

 

Assuming you have already paid for their services they are now just being thiefs and making you pay a premium as the realise you are going elsewhere now. 

Edited August 1, 2019 by Carrerahill

[Jilly]

I assume you mean the CAD drawings? 

 

Assuming all Local Authorities are similar, all the relevant documents to a planning application are public, online and are uploaded (about 35 on ours) onto the website and can be read and printed off easily. There is professional etiquette to for architects to 'ask' permission when a client asks them to take over a case, but if the property has been sold, this may not be applicable as you are a new client. 

 

I doubt very much you will be able to get the editable version as they own the copyright. I just had to pay £1500 to have drawing repeated by another architect to submit a slightly changed version (to my eyes!). I have discovered firstinarchitecture website where you can download some free CAD software and so I am busy seeing what I can do myself for free as more needs tweaking! 

 

 

[Carrerahill]

1 minute ago, Jilly said:

I just had to pay £1500 to have drawing repeated by another architect...

 

 

 

I hate to tell you this, but I bet the architect just took the original PDF's and just converted them to CAD format - tweaked some line-weights and added their own title-blocks and charged you for the privilege.

[Carrerahill]

3 minutes ago, Jilly said:

I assume you mean the CAD drawings? 

 

Assuming all Local Authorities are similar, all the relevant documents to a planning application are public, online and are uploaded (about 35 on ours) onto the website and can be read and printed off easily. There is professional etiquette to for architects to 'ask' permission when a client asks them to take over a case, but if the property has been sold, this may not be applicable as you are a new client. 

 

I doubt very much you will be able to get the editable version as they own the copyright. I just had to pay £1500 to have drawing repeated by another architect to submit a slightly changed version (to my eyes!). I have discovered firstinarchitecture website where you can download some free CAD software and so I am busy seeing what I can do myself for free as more needs tweaking! 

 

 

How minor are the changes you need done?

 

[Jilly]

Windows and floor layout, the building is about 80m2 and a very small extension. I got incorrect information at a planning meeting, the whole thing can be very frustrating...

 

Edited August 1, 2019 by Jilly

[Carrerahill]

Just now, Jilly said:

Windows and floor layout, the building is about 80m2. 

 

Are we talking a couple of walls and a window - 10 minutes work or multiple walls and windows and taking into consideration all the relevant details that may need tweaked - couple of hours?

 

If it's a 10 min tweak, then mark up your paper copy, send me that and the PDF (or if you have the DWG file even better), and assuming it converts OK I will change them. 

[Jilly]

I'd like to learn to do it, did you buy the software?

 

[ToughButterCup]

2 hours ago, Carrerahill said:

[...]

If it was me I would just take the PDF's and convert them to CAD and not bother paying them for them.

[...]

 

As I understand it, it is possible to both flatten all the layers in a pdf, and then lock the file. So it may well not be possible to convert the layers, or even get access to them: they might have been destroyed.

[Temp]

Ask the new one what format he wants the drawings in.

[Carrerahill]

13 hours ago, AnonymousBosch said:

 

As I understand it, it is possible to both flatten all the layers in a pdf, and then lock the file. So it may well not be possible to convert the layers, or even get access to them: they might have been destroyed.

You are entirely correct - and they certainly do do this sometimes.

 

I would say, in all honesty, I rarely find a locked-down drawing. A long term project we do for a major UK retailer involves getting drawings of all their sites, we probably get drawings in from scanned line drawings dating back 30-40 years to PDFed CAD drawings from whatever the facilities team can find for us and drawings are from all sorts of sources - I think so far I have maybe come across 2 or 3 out of around 800 sties. 

 

The layers are almost always flattened when PDFed but they only help the person working on the drawing, by the time they are printed off or PDFed again it makes no difference to the appearance of the drawing if the whole thing sits on a single layer 0. It just makes editing difficult if it is major. 

 

 

[Carrerahill]

17 hours ago, Jilly said:

I'd like to learn to do it, did you buy the software?

 

I am a partner of an engineering consultancy so I have access to CAD etc.

 

Autocad LT (light version) is about £300 per annum and the full version is £1350.00 per annum.

 

It takes a while to learn, I think the easiest way to learn it to use it and find all the problems and then discover the solution. CAD is one of the most powerful pieces of software I can think of and I reckon most people only use about 10% of it's capabilities. The thing with CAD is that although it has lots of pretty buttons, everything is command driven, hammer in a couple of letters or a word and you have a tool or function that there isn't even a button for.

 

Ideally you need a mentor. Everything you learn from guides is great, until you load a drawing that comes in with UCS on a 18.3° rotation and a wonky looking cross-hair! It's at time like this you need someone next to you to help. I was lucky that when I started out in consultancy I sat next to our teams CAD technician - on day one I knew how to draw a line and a circle and a rectangle! By pestering him for about a year while on the job learning I reckon I became an above average CAD user for an engineer. Mainly because everyone just sent stuff to the CAD department, but I used to do all my own drawings and publish my own drawing packages as I saw it as a faster process - i.e. direct from my mind and straight onto the screen, others would mark drawings up on paper and issue them to him... didn't see the point. 

 

It paid dividends too, when I moved firm it transpired their CAD knowledge was very poor. I was able to help take that business from being CAD newbies with very basic drawing templates and no automatic data take-off or legends to fully automated CAD drawings and standard auto fill title-blocks etc.

 

An option for you would be to pay a 1st year architectural student or something to provide basic draughtsman services. 

 

As I say, if it's a 10min job then I will do it. 

 

 

 

Edited August 2, 2019 by Carrerahill

[Onoff]

I learnt on AutoCAD 2000 / 2000i. Did 3 years at night school paid by the firm. Year one we were made to take copious dictated notes (that I still have) which at the time seemed laborious but it's stood me in good stead. I remember being told there were 11 ways to draw an arc and thinking why, I'll never use them? I reckon I've used them all since then!

 

Damn pity they're making Draftsight paid for only soon. Closest thing I've found to an AutoCAD clone.

[BotusBuild]

15 hours ago, Temp said:

Ask the new one what format he wants the drawings in.

I have already done that. The question is posted here so I get as much input as possible ?

[Ferdinand]

Discussed here

 

 

 

and here

 

 

And in several other places.

 

F

 

 

[peter eade]

In order to submit a planning application you will require 1:100 scale drawings of the proposal, these would be the four elevations of the house and floor plans of each proposed floor. In addition you will need site and location maps showing where you intend to build the house. Subject to where you are located you may also need a design and access statement. If there has been an earlier planning application made and you do not intend making any significant changes to the design it's probably easiest if you copy and paste the plans off of the planning website and then get your architectural designer to redraw the whole thing. This redraw would not take more than eight hours to complete, so the cost would be whatever your designer charges for a days work. The location plans and maps can be downloaded from get mapping or similar websites. I notice you say you are engaging an architectural engineer... in my forty years of construction experience I've never heard of such a job title.