The SketchUp Workflow for Architecture: Modeling Buildings, Visualizing Design, and Creating Construction Documents with SketchUp Pro and LayOut

Chapter 3

Project Management

Unwavering, relentless organization is essential to a successful project. Just like a messy desk, a messy PROJECT folder can cause miscommunication, lost work, and ultimately cost you time and money. The techniques illustrated in this chapter will help you organize your design projects. Keep in mind that this is not a rigid system; the suggested workflow is flexible and can be tweaked to meet your specific needs. In other words, feel free to modify this method any way you see fit to meet your project type and office standards.

Folders and Files

Approaching folders and files the same way every time will help your team collaborate efficiently. First, you need to understand some standard ground rules regarding how to organize PROJECT folders. Then you can apply the logic of this system to your PROJECT folders and further develop your own set of standards.

Naming Standards

Take a moment to invent an identifying acronym. This shouldn’t be too hard; architects and designers do it all of the time—for example, HOK, RNL, and SOM. Your identifying acronym will be used to name files and many other things that you create in the digital world. This is important, not necessarily from a marketing point of view, but from an organizational point of view so that everyone knows who made the file. The acronym used for the examples in this book is BIC, which stands for Bright Ideas Consultants. Anticipate replacing the “BIC” with your own identifying acronym as you complete ...