Better Faster Specifications
Architecture Week, February 20, 2002
by Evan H. Shu, FAIA
When it comes to developing project specifications
in this new technology world of ours, you will find a mixed bag of
choices. The choices mirror the myriad ways architects have traditionally
approached writing project specifications.
While some practitioners carefully craft
their specifications from the beginning of the architectural design
process, many more of us see them as a last minute requirement that
must be thrown together during the final stages of bidding or contract
documents. We want our specifications fast and yet, knowing their
critical importance, we want them accurate and comprehensive.
The Office Master
"The specification route for most of the
profession is the 'office master,'" says Mark Kalin, FAIA, FCSI, a
well-known specifications guru. By "office master," he means that
master specification "bible" that has made it through countless project
iterations in the office history — red-marked with revisions for each
new project.
Unfortunately, such a process often leads
to what might be called "fake specs" that perpetuate errors and lack
currency. A recent Engineering News-Record survey found that
84 percent of contractors believed project specifications to be deficient.
ENR also found that six out of seven product failures were
due to improper selection of materials.
Word processing has perpetuated the prevalence
of "fake specs" — but how else are we to begin? "The key for most
architects is getting to 90 percent overnight," says Kalin. Project
architects are usually willing to take care to customize the final
10 percent, but to start from scratch is too mind-boggling for most.
Now there are better options for getting to 90 percent other than
falling back on the old office master.
Traditional Guide Specifications
Many architects rely on various "guide specifications"
to create their office master or to serve as their major resource
for specification sections. These guide specifications, such as MasterSpec,
CSI Manu-Spec, or SpecText, are offered in word processing format
to aid the cut-and-paste work required.
A number of master specifications can be
downloaded for free from the Internet. For example, the State of New
York, publishes online their complete master specifications.
The National Institute of Building Sciences
(NIBS) offers their Construction Criteria Base, an electronic collection
of over 10,000 documents used in building design and construction,
including guide specifications, manuals, handbooks, regulations, and
reference standards. You can download up to five documents for free
before a subscription charge is assessed.
Individual product specifications and product
selection software are only a few clicks away at such sites as Construction.com,
Sweet's, 4Specs Construction Products, and Building Team, which are
all based on the Constructions Specifications Institute (CSI) 16-division
system.
Intelligent Guide Specifications
Increasingly, master guide specifications
have introduced software to make the "cut and paste" work of dealing
with massive amounts of text more "intelligent."
For example, MasterWorks and Linx software
works with MasterSpec to automate some of the editing and production
work so that deletions are made structurally. This means if a certain
reference is removed in one section, it and related sections can be
removed automatically throughout the document. These systems also
offer an interactive question-and-answer methodology to working with
MasterSpecs.
BSD SpecLink edits by selection rather than
by deletion and uses internal links to coordinate the specification
text so that mutually exclusive options cannot both be selected. Also,
suggested omissions in related sections may be shown in highlighted
text.
Purchase and/or subscription (because they
are regularly updated) to the most comprehensive and "intelligent"
of these master guide specifications can easily run in the thousands
of dollars, but there are more budget-conscious alternatives.
With Archispec SpecHelper, the architect
works with a simple "tree structure" menu in the software to point
and click on desired items. There are five basic types of specification
templates: outline, custom residential, premium residential, retail/office
build-out, and light commercial.
A relatively new entry from "down under"
is SmartSpec, a menu-driven specification system that can work independently
of (or with) any word-processor. Its companion product, SmartScratch,
keeps track of the myriad project documents that are needed with any
project and allows import of any data into SmartSpec. Both SpecHelper
and SmartSpec have demo programs at their Web sites.
Online Checklist Specifications
Kalin Associates has developed Kalinweb,
a low-cost Internet service that might be described as the checklist
approach to "getting to 90 percent fast." A straightforward checklist
in CSI division format allows the architect to select the items that
are in the project.
As each section's checklist is completed,
it automatically generates a draft specification in outline or short-form
format. This is culled from the proprietary and well-known Master
Short Form Specifications and Master Outline Specifications databases.
Once the checklist sections are completed,
the entire draft specification is sent to the architect in Microsoft
Word format within 24 hours. With this service, you can develop a
project specification for any custom residential or commercial project
for only $295.
For smaller projects, Kalinweb offers the
alternate Prospec checklist service for only $49 to generate specifications
in CSI MasterFormat or TimeLine format. In this second mode, the specifications
are available immediately in Adobe PDF format for download and use.
This checklist approach to specifications
is very helpful in the architect's own design process because the
list is a reminder of which items have been decided on and which have
not.
It is also a fast way to work, says Kalin.
"The most common choices are listed first," he notes, "and if you're
not sure, you can check all the boxes and decide later" as if you
were working with a master specification. Kalin estimates that an
architect can easily develop a 90-percent-level specification draft
in under an hour.
An important caveat to using any online
or specification software service is to evaluate the staffing, experience,
and comprehensive quality of the guide specifications behind the "software
curtain." Make sure you also check the guide specification's flexibility
and applicability to your regional requirements.
CAD Drawing-Based Specifications
For many years, architects have been frustrated
because project specifications could not be automatically generated
from CAD drawing files. Object-based CAD software promises to fully
integrate specification writing soon.
In the meantime, one intriguing alternative
is E-specs by InterSpec LLC, which uses non-object-based CAD drawings
to help create project specifications.
This Web-based software scans a CAD file
in DWG or DXF format and creates a "call-off" dictionary of items
that are then linked to create project specifications. Although this
service provider can work with standard abbreviations, they know enough
about the realities of common practice not to expect to architects
to adhere to CONDOC standards or the latest National CADD standards
and have built flexibility into their system.
The software creates a master list of text
terms which are then edited and otherwise culled by both the architect
and by Interspec to create the key call-offs file. For example, the
software may list the text term, "DH Window", as a likely call-off
candidate. This text term is then linked to a "Double-Hung Window"
guide specification.
As the process moves along, an InterSpec
technician may log a project note in the file, asking the architect's
preference for window manufacturer, and the project specifications
grow more definitive as information is sent back and forth.
When the architect sends or posts another
iteration of the CAD file, the InterSpec software does another scan
of the CAD file database and compares it to the previous list to find
new or omitted call-off items. A dialog between the technician and
the architect determines the appropriate adjustments.
E-specs scans CAD drawings largely for text,
but the company expects that, as architects grow more sophisticated
in their use of CAD, this software will read symbols, objects, and
attribute information for call-offs as well.
Unique to InterSpec's service is that the
CAD file is linked and automatically used as a cross-checking mechanism
to the project specifications. The company has also introduced a Spec-liner
utility that helps clients red-line specification sections online
or append notes to the specification writers to further enhance the
online interaction of the service.
CAD software developers are not quite at
the point of taking full advantage of the power of newest technology
to enable architects to create a more automated and integrated set
of project specifications. But we architects can take better advantage
of the opportunities that are currently available to create better
specifications than the rehashed office master. Today's specification
software and online services move us a good way in that direction.
Evan
H. Shu, FAIA, is an architect with Shu Associates Inc. in Melrose,
Massachusetts. He is a frequent contributor to Architectural Record
and publisher and editor of "Cheap Tricks," a monthly newsletter for
DataCAD users and computer-using architects.
This article was reprinted from the March
2001 issue of "Cheap Tricks"
© Shu Associates Inc. with permission of the publisher.
Editor's note: recent advances in object-based CAD systems, such
as Revit, have brought drawings and specifications closer to integration
than when this article was first published. This integration will
be the topic of a future article.
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