How can I review technical drawings faster?

Sometimes you just need to open a drawing.

You are not going to edit geometry or produce a new design. You want to zoom in, inspect a detail and understand what you are looking at.

Franklin lets you open supported technical drawing file types directly in your browser and navigate the drawing without moving into a specialist CAD authoring workflow.

This is particularly useful for project managers, development managers and other team members who need information from drawings but are not responsible for creating them.

Can I open a DWG file without AutoCAD® software?

Yes. There are several ways to view DWG files without AutoCAD software, depending on what you need to do with the drawing.

Franklin works with DWG files as a supported file type and is designed for project teams that need to review, inspect, measure and compare technical drawings rather than edit them.

A drawing often raises a very simple question: How far is it from here to there?

For a project manager, checking that should be a quick task.

In Franklin, you can use measurement tools directly on the drawing. Select the relevant points and check the measurement in its drawing context.

Instead of opening specialist authoring software - or asking someone else to check a simple dimension for you - you can investigate the question yourself.

This does not replace design verification. It gives you a faster way to understand what is in front of you and decide whether something requires further attention from the design team.

Distances are only one part of reviewing technical drawings.

You may need to understand the area of a space, identify the exact location of an element or check its coordinates.

Franklin brings these everyday inspection tasks into the same browser-based drawing environment.

That means fewer situations where a simple project-management question turns into: "Can someone with CAD software check this for me?"

The purpose is not to replace the specialist tools used to design buildings. It is to make the information already contained in technical drawings easier for the people managing the project to access and understand.

A new drawing arrives. The revision has changed. The filename may be slightly different. There may even be a note explaining what was updated.

But the question you actually need answered is: What changed?

In Franklin, select the two drawing versions you want to compare.

Franklin analyses the drawings and highlights the differences between them, helping you focus on the areas that have changed instead of manually switching back and forth between two versions.

What can I see when comparing drawings?

Drawing comparison helps you distinguish between information that has remained unchanged and areas where differences have been detected.

You can then inspect those areas in their original drawing context.

The goal is to move from "There is a new revision" to "These are the changes I need to understand."

Knowing that two drawings are different is only the beginning. The real project-management question is whether the difference matters.

Franklin highlights identified changes so you can move directly to the relevant areas of the drawing rather than searching the entire drawing manually.

Inspect the change. Look at the surrounding geometry. Compare it with the previous version.

Then decide whether it is simply a drawing update or something that requires action from the project team.

Sometimes reviewing a drawing gives you an answer. Sometimes it gives you a new question. And sometimes it reveals something that someone needs to do.

In Franklin, you can add an issue directly to the relevant location on the drawing. Instead of describing the problem separately and asking the team to find the right place themselves, the issue stays connected to its drawing context.

Add the issue, describe what needs attention and assign it to the relevant team member.

The issue then becomes part of the project workflow in Franklin's Project Management module, where the team can follow responsibilities and actions.

This connects two activities that are often separated: reviewing project information and managing what happens next.

You find something on the drawing. You create the issue where you found it. You assign the action. The team can follow it through the project workflow.

CAD software and Franklin solve different problems.

Architects, engineers and designers need sophisticated authoring tools to create and edit technical drawings, develop geometry and produce design information.

Project and development managers usually interact with those drawings differently. You may need to:

• open and inspect a drawing
• find a specific detail
• measure a distance or area
• check a location or coordinates
• compare two drawing versions
• understand what changed
• flag an issue on the drawing
• assign an action to a team member
• verify information before making a decision

Those tasks do not necessarily require the same workflow as creating the drawing itself.

Franklin is built around that distinction.

Designers create drawings. Project teams need to understand them and act on what they find.

Franklin works with commonly used technical drawing and document file types, including DWG files and the DWG file format.

This allows project teams to work with information coming from existing design workflows while using Franklin for everyday review, comparison and project-management tasks.

Support and available functionality can vary by file type, so always check Franklin's current supported file types when working with a specific format.

Technical drawings should give you answers, not more admin

Opening a drawing should not become a task in itself. Neither should checking one measurement, finding one location or understanding what changed between two revisions.

And when you do find something that needs attention, that information should not disappear into another email, screenshot or meeting note.

Franklin connects the drawing to the work that follows.

Open. Inspect. Measure. Compare. Understand. Act.

And when a question really does require the architect, engineer or another specialist, you can involve them with a much clearer understanding of what actually needs attention.

Got a drawing you need to check? Ask Franklin.