Submit Your Suggestions for Viewpoint for Projects

For years before I ever used VfP, particularly when using eB or systems of my own design, I made full use of the ability to 'tag' one document in the entry of another, and in some way state in which way the other document related to the current one being viewed.

 

For instance,

You might have a container of "DCR - Design Change Requests" - example contents:

DCR-0001 - Change of CCU dimensions

DCR-0002 - Removal of requirement for reinforcements

DCR-0003 - Alternative concrete mix 

 

You might have a container of "EWN - Early Warning Notices"

EWN-0047 - Clash of CCU as specified with partition to store room ABC123

EWN-0048 - Concrete settlement issues 

 

You might have a container of "CLI - Client Instructions"

CLI-0052 - Substitute Hansui GRT-8100/51/7U CCU for GRT-8100/51/4D

 

What companies using other systems often mandate (as I often did when putting in my own systems when having the opportunity to do so), was that when one of these documents are uploaded and they have been created in response to a previous document, then that previous document is added as a 'Related/Supporting Document' and an option chosen as to how it relates.

 

e.g. The Site team would have asked the Commercial Team to upload EWN-0047, then the Design Team would request the client to change the specifications for the item causing a problem in EWN-0047 and tell the system:

 

DCR-0001 | Requested due to | EWN-0047

 

Then the client would upload:

CLI-0052 |  As requested on | DCR-0001

 

Similarly when adding a relation one way, the reverse relationship would be added the opposite way, e.g. when looking back at DCR-0001 you would see:

DCR-0001 | Requested due to | EWN-0047

………………..|  Requested …………| CLI-0052

 

And looking back at EWN-0047 you'd see

EWN-0047 | Prompted …………| DCR-0001

 

So in other words, what you have for each document entry is a field made up of an array of two columns - one column being "Relationship" and the other column being "Document Name".  The Document Name field value would contain a link to the named other document.  Multiple relations could be added over time.

 

It would be a much better way of seeing the interplay between documents in one container and the documents in other containers that precede or succeed it, than just seeing an anonymous paperclip icon that tells you to open up the Document Properties then scroll through 3 pages of text in a tiny window to see what's linked, and added to this the items you see linked in Properties also includes Tasks, Transmittals (including Matrix Transmittals which, if you have daily Matrix Transmittals set up, creates a huge long list of entries that can be disregarded and hides away the one or two entries that are useful).