Document management for engineering and construction

Q: Is M-Files an EDMS for engineering and construction?

M-Files is a document management system, and we set it up for engineering and construction projects: document classes for drawings, specifications and correspondence, the project as the record everything is filed under, the issue workflow and the retention rules. Drawings are filed as documents with their revision and purpose of issue. Which CAD or BIM tools you draw in is a question for the scoping meeting; tell us which you use, and we will say how the drawing files would be filed.

From design to handover

The whole project in one record

Revision and purpose of issue

Each drawing carries its project, its phase and its revision, with the issue date and the purpose of issue. Superseded revisions stay in the history behind the current one.

Issues with a name and a date

Every issue is a recorded step, with the approver and the date. The same step can tell the people who need the drawing that it is out.

Correspondence

Emails and letters are saved with the project and the document they concern. A search finds them again years later.

Every project filed the same way

Someone who joins a project finds their way as they did on the last one, because every project has the same kinds of document and the same fields.

A team in Teams for each project

CtrlTeams, from our development partner CtrlDocs, creates the team and channel from the M‑Files project, with its members, folders and templates.

Kept after handover

You decide how long each kind of document, or a whole project, is kept. It stays until that period has passed.

Drawing issue register

A drawing issue register kept by the workflow

Your projects may issue drawings differently. The states, the approvers and the notices are set up to match, and a view that lists each issue with its purpose of issue, approver and date is the project's drawing issue register.

In progress

Designer

The drawing is revised as a new version of the same document.
Issued for review

Reviewer

The reviewers are told, and the issue date is recorded.
Issued for construction

Approver

The approval is recorded with name and date, and access can widen to the site team.
As built

The final revision stays with the project, with the earlier revisions in its history.

See a drawing issued for construction

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On site

Site teams and subcontractors

The people who need the current drawing are seldom at a desk in the design office. The same vault is open to them on the web and on a phone, and to invited partners through a hub.

Web and mobile — The site team opens the same vault in the web portal or the mobile app and sees the current revision first, with the superseded ones behind it in the history.
Access that widens at issue — When a drawing is issued for construction, the workflow can widen access to the site team at that moment, so they see it as soon as it is out.
Hubshare for invited partners — With M‑Files Hubshare, selected drawings and documents are shared with invited clients and subcontractors, who see only the hubs they are invited to.
Edit a document with a partner — CtrlShare, from our development partner CtrlDocs, opens one document for an invited partner to edit with you. They are invited by email and confirm with a code, there are no public links, and the finished document returns to M‑Files as a new version.

The version history of a drawing in M-Files: five versions from revision A to C, who changed each and whether it was listed for approval or approved, beside the drawing's metadata card

Integrations

Project correspondence and specifications are made in Outlook and Office. M‑Files files them from there, and drawings that still sit on a file share are shown without being moved.

Outlook

Emails about a drawing or a change are filed from Outlook under the project and the document they concern, with their metadata, and M‑Files can pick up the contact from the email.

Word, Excel and PowerPoint

Specifications, method statements and reports are saved to M‑Files from Office with their metadata. The document number, revision and status can be inserted into the document itself and kept up to date.

Teams

Open M‑Files content and search the vault from Teams, and CtrlTeams and CtrlSync tie a team to its project.

Network folders and SharePoint

Connectors show drawings and documents that still sit on a network folder or in SharePoint Online inside M‑Files without moving them, so a migration can wait.

ERP and project systems

Lists such as projects, clients and suppliers are kept in sync with your ERP or project system, so a drawing is filed under the project number everyone already uses. We do the integration work.

Electronic signature

With the DocuSign or Adobe Acrobat Sign integration and your own subscription to that service, signed handover documents and agreements return to M‑Files automatically.

Microsoft Teams

For projects that live in Microsoft Teams

CtrlTeams and CtrlSync, add‑ons from our development partner CtrlDocs, tie each team to its M‑Files project.

A generic project template in M-Files with its document templates, folder structure and folders such as General, Reports and Templates

Every new team starts with the same folders

CtrlTeams keeps your standard folders and document templates as a project template in M‑Files. Connect a project, and its team or channel is created with its members, folders and template documents.

M‑Files permissions decide who can view and edit each team and channel.

The same project's documents in a Microsoft Teams files tab and in M-Files, with an arrow from Teams to M-Files — The same project documents in the Teams files tab and in M‑Files.

What the team writes in Teams is kept in M‑Files

CtrlSync keeps a copy in M‑Files of the documents from a team, a channel or a SharePoint site. Every later change saves a new version, and the documents stay in M‑Files when the team is deleted.

One full-text search covers the documents from every synchronised site.

See both at ctrldocs.com

Next step

Have the answer when someone asks years later

Book a demo and ask about drawing revisions, issues and Microsoft Teams. If you would rather look around on your own first, there is the free 30-day trial.

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What a document controller will ask

How is the revision of a drawing recorded?

Revision, issue date and purpose of issue are metadata on the drawing, next to the project and the phase. M‑Files saves every change as a new version of the same document, so superseded revisions stay in the version history.

What does the drawing issue register record?

Each issue is a state in a workflow. The state records the approver and the date, the purpose of issue is metadata on the drawing, and the workflow can notify the people who need the drawing and change who has access. A view that lists the issues of a project with purpose of issue, approver and date is the drawing issue register. The states, approvers and notifications are set up to match how your projects issue drawings.

How are documents from different projects kept alike?

Every project uses the same document classes and the same metadata, so documents from different projects are found the same way.

How do documents from Teams get filed in M‑Files?

CtrlSync derives the metadata from the folder a document sits in and from its name, so documents arrive in M‑Files with metadata. CtrlTeams and CtrlSync are products of our development partner CtrlDocs, and they run on every M‑Files edition, in the cloud or on your own servers.

How is the retention period set?

Retention rules are configured as workflows that archive or delete documents after a set time, counted from a date such as handover, per document class or for the whole project. A workflow can notify someone or ask for a review before anything is deleted, and a deleted document is hidden rather than destroyed until a separate destruction step.

Can the site team and subcontractors see the drawings?

Your own people open the vault in the web portal or the mobile app, and the workflow can widen access to the site team when a drawing is issued for construction. Invited clients and subcontractors see selected documents through M‑Files Hubshare, or edit one document with you through CtrlShare from our development partner CtrlDocs.

Can we use revision letters instead of version numbers?

Yes. Every change is a new version of the same document, and M‑Files can run your own versioning scheme, such as revision letters A, B and C. The purpose of issue and the issue date are metadata on the drawing either way.

Is M‑Files an EDMS for engineering and construction?

M‑Files is a document management system, and we set it up for engineering and construction projects: document classes for drawings, specifications and correspondence, the project as the record everything is filed under, the issue workflow and the retention rules. Drawings are filed as documents with their revision and purpose of issue. Which CAD or BIM tools you draw in is a question for the scoping meeting; tell us which you use, and we will say how the drawing files would be filed.

Know which revision applied at the pour