Every plan on a job keeps its history. New version adds the next revision with the reason it changed — mistake fixed, field condition, client change, engineering change, permit or inspection — a line on what changed, the date and who uploaded it. Earlier revisions stay viewable to the office, watermarked Superseded; the crew sees only the current one, with its revision number, on their link and signed in with a crew login. A revision can ask the crew lead to acknowledge it, and the plan row says who saw it and when. At closeout, Mark set As-Built flags the current set as the record of what was built. Built only for post-frame and barndominium builders, where a revised truss layout or an office wall moved by the customer is an ordinary week.
Also called: plan revision history · superseded drawings · as-built plans · blueprint versions · revised truss plan · plan version control · drawing revisions · superseded plans · crew acknowledges plan change · as-built set at closeout
Every plan says which revision it is, and why it changed
Try itOpen Plans & documents on Dawson Hoover's shop and each plan is one row: Floor Plan A-101 · Rev 1, Client change, What changed: Office moved to NE corner. The truss layout reads Rev 1 · Engineering change, and under it Seen by Nate Ottinger. Every earlier copy is folded under its own plan — Show 1 earlier version — so the list stays one row per drawing.
Three files called "truss plan" in a folder, and nobody sure which one the crew printed.
The project manager answers "which one is this?" from the row, before anyone opens a file, and the crew stops getting three PDFs with the same name. For the owner, every change carries a reason and a date — exactly what he needs when a customer asks why the office wall moved.
New version keeps the old one — and won't upload without a reason
Try itNew version on the truss layout opens a short form: the file, Why it changed (required — mistake fixed, field condition, client change, engineering change, permit or inspection, or other), an optional line on what changed, and Ask the crew lead to acknowledge it. The button names what it makes — Upload as Rev 1 — and stays off until there is a reason. Rev 0 is kept, marked Superseded.
The new truss plan went in over the old one, and the reason it changed went with it.
The office never digs through email to find what the plan said last month, because nothing is overwritten. And the reason is asked at the one moment someone knows it for sure — months later, when the customer or the inspector asks, the answer is already on the row.
The crew only ever sees the newest drawing
On the crew's phone, the job card lists its plans — and only the current revision of each, with its number: Truss Layout S-201 - Rev 1 · Rev 1, Floor Plan A-101 - Rev 1 · Rev 1. Superseded copies never reach the crew link, and a crew login inside the app gets the same list. Each plan opens through the crew's own link, with no password to remember.
The framer opened the link and the old truss plan was still there, two rows above the new one.
The man on the wall cannot build from a drawing he is never offered, so the wrong-revision mistake stops at the source. He does not have to judge which file is newest — he gets one, and he gets on with the work.
The crew lead taps to say he's seen it
Try itWhen the office ticks Ask the crew lead to acknowledge it, the lead's Today screen opens with an amber card: Plan changed · Rev 1, the plan, the reason and the note — with Open it and I've seen it. The card stays until he taps. Back in the office, the plan row changes from Waiting on the crew lead to acknowledge this revision to Seen by Nate Ottinger, with the date.
The office sent the revised truss plan; the crew lead was on a roof and never opened the email.
The project manager stops wondering whether the change reached the field — a name and a date beats "I texted him". The crew lead is asked, not assumed, and the office can see who still has not looked before anyone lifts a truss.
Old copies are kept — and can't be mistaken for current
Open an earlier revision from the history and it still shows — it is the record of what the plan said — but under a red banner naming the revision that replaced it and why: Kept for the record — don't build from it. SUPERSEDED runs across the drawing itself, so even a screenshot carries the warning.
Someone forwarded the old floor plan from their downloads, and it looked exactly like the new one.
The owner keeps the paper trail he needs if a change is ever disputed, and nobody on the job can mistake it for the drawing to build from. A screenshot passed round a group text still says SUPERSEDED.
Plans open inside the job, labelled
A plan opens in the job's own viewer, not a bare browser tab: Rev 1 · Current, Rev 1 is the current revision — the one the crew sees, who uploaded it, the reason and the note. PDFs and photos show right there; CAD files open in their own app with Open in a new tab. On a phone it fills the screen, with back on the left.
A PDF opened in a browser tab does not say whether it is the current revision or last month's.
The project manager standing on the slab can check the drawing and know it is the one the crew has — the label travels with the plan. No more holding a phone up to a printout to compare dates.
Closed, the card already names the newest revisions
In the project window, Plans & documents shows its facts while it is folded: 5 plans and the two newest, with their revisions. Permits and inspections sits right under it with the next inspection on its tag.
Finding out whether a job's plans had changed meant opening the card and reading every row.
The office sees that a job's plans changed this week without opening anything. The fewer clicks a fact takes, the more often it actually gets looked at.
Wrong file? Remove it and the one before is current again
Remove on the newest revision deletes it from the job and from storage — after a confirm — and the version before it becomes the current one again. Only admins and project managers can add, revise or remove plans; everyone else on the account can open them.
The wrong PDF went up as the new revision, and the only fix was to find the old file and upload it again.
The office fixes an upload mistake in one step, before the crew sees the wrong drawing. And because only the people who manage plans can change them, a crew login cannot pull a drawing out from under the next crew.
At closeout, one press marks the As-Built set
When the building is up, Mark set As-Built flags the current version of every plan on the job as the record of what was actually built. The confirm says exactly that, and that it can be undone per plan from the viewer. A superseded revision can never be marked As-Built.
Years after a build the customer calls about a header, and the office cannot tell which of four truss plans went up.
The owner closes the job with a set he can stand behind, decided once and on purpose. The next time the customer calls about a wall or a truss, nobody has to guess which drawing shows what is really there.
The finished job keeps its As-Built record
Try itEmily Wenger's riding arena: Truss Layout S-201 · Rev 2 · As-Built, its two earlier versions still folded underneath, plus the floor plan and site plan, each tagged As-Built. The card reads As-Built set, and the homeowner's House Book takes these as the final plans.
The homeowner asked for the final plans, and the office sent the permit set — two revisions out of date.
The homeowner gets drawings of the building he actually owns, which is what a good builder hands over. For the business, the warranty call is answered in a minute instead of a day.
- 1On a plan in Plans & documents, New version takes the file and a required reason — and the button names the revision it becomes.
- 2The one before is kept and marked Superseded; it still opens, under a red banner and a SUPERSEDED watermark.
- 3Plans open in the job's own viewer, labelled with their revision and whether they are current; PDFs and photos show inline, CAD files open in their own app.
- 4The crew sees only current revisions, with their revision numbers — on the crew link and signed in with a crew login.
- 5If asked, the crew lead sees Plan changed at the top of his link and taps I've seen it; the plan row shows who and when.
- 6Uploaded the wrong file? Remove it and the version before becomes current again.
- 7At closeout, Mark set As-Built flags the current version of every plan — and the homeowner's House Book uses that set as the final plans.
A revised truss plan replacing the old file silently is how a crew builds from the wrong drawing — and the question that follows, "why did this change, and when?", had no answer, because the old file was gone. Keeping every version, labelling which one is current, making the field see only that one and asking the crew lead to say he has seen it closes the gap between the office and the man holding the drill. The reason on each revision answers the question asked months later, and the As-Built set is the honest record of what went up.
- Old drawings reaching the field after a revision.
- No record of why or when a plan changed.
- No as-built set at closeout.
- No proof the crew lead saw a changed plan.
- A wrong upload with no way back to the version before.
