Plan Room FAQs
NC State University’s Plan Room collects and maintains building information for the University. The physical Plan Room – and its digital counterpart, AERES – house record drawings, manuals, reports, surveys, maps, and other building and project data. The information included in this webpage is intended to assist internal and external project managers with delivering documentation at the close of a project.
If you need access to the physical plan room, please contact the Plan Room Librarian, Stephanie Hatfield, at sfhatfie@ncsu.edu or 919-515-8072. If you need access to the digital plan room, please fill out the Access Request Form. Consultants should send the form to their NC State project manager. NC State staff should return it to the FIS Specialist, Rose Fortier, at rfortie@ncsu.edu.
For questions regarding any of the following information, please contact the NC State Plan Room at facilities_planroom@ncsu.edu
Do all projects require close-out documentation?
Generally, all projects should result in some type of documentation. Large formal projects typically have record drawings, project manuals, final reports, O&M manuals, and submittals/shop drawings. Smaller informal projects may only have record drawings or a marked-up floor plan. Studies should have a final document, whether it’s a report or drawings, as well as any supporting documents like proposed budgets or timelines.
While not required, project photos are always welcome and appreciated.
Where do I submit my closeout files?
Talk to your project manager, as they may want the files to be delivered to them first. Additionally, final files should be delivered to facilities_planroom@ncsu.edu by either you or your project manager. Be sure to include the NC State University AERES Project Number and Title in the email subject line, not just the SCO ID number.
How do I submit my closeout files?
Via electronic delivery – either email or a cloud-based sharing application.
What are the latest NC State University documentation requirements for files submitted to the Plan Room?
Click on the links below to download the most current version of NC State’s documentation requirements.
- OSDR: Appendix A Formal
- OSDR: Appendix A Informal
- NC State Final Report Checklist
- SCO Closeout Forms
- Cover Page Template PDF, .AI, .SVG
What exactly is the difference between the NC State University Final Report and the State Construction Office Final Inspection Report?
The NC State Construction Office used to require two different reports to be delivered at closeout: a final report, and a final inspection report. The Final Report outlined a project at a broad scale – describing the project scope, the project timeline, a breakdown of the finances related to a project, and a few other overview sections. The Final Inspection Report details specific parts of the project that have been inspected by various entities and have passed said inspections, usually with documentation of those passed inspections. (Such as fire alarm inspections, boiler inspections, life safety inspections, and so on).
We have required that these two files also be delivered to us at closeout. Both sets of forms (the SCO Final Report, and the SCO Final Inspection Form) used to be available from the SCO website as a blank template for designers to use.
Sometime after 2010, SCO stopped requiring the Final Report as a part of closeout documentation. We decided that we wanted to keep receiving that file, so we duplicated their checklist, scratched out “SCO” from the title, and put “NC State” in its place.
This has understandably caused confusion.
The NC State Final Report should follow the NC State Final Report Checklist. This form is usually generated by a design team from scratch.
The Final Inspection Report should follow either the SCO Final Inspection for Owner Occupancy Form and also possibly the SCO Final Inspection for Beneficial Occupancy Form. If a beneficial occupancy booklet is provided, a final owner occupancy booklet must also be provided. These two forms can be downloaded at the following link: State Construction Forms & Documents
For any line item on the SCO Final Inspection form that has a completion date on the date line (again, such as an NFPA 72 inspection, a Test and Balance Report, Domestic Water testing), a corresponding file within the larger packet that documents the results of that inspection should appear. If a test and balance report was generated, that line item on the form should be dated, and the actual test and balance report should be included in the PDF packet.
These files should use the checklist/inspection form as their “table of contents”, and both sort the file and bookmark it accordingly.
The NC State Final Report is sometimes referred to simply as “the Final Report”.
The SCO Final Inspection for Owner Occupancy is also often referred to as the “ BO (beneficial occupancy) Book”, “Acceptance Binder/Book”, or “Final Inspection Report”. These names are often used interchangeably.
Our project doesn’t have an SCO monitor – is an SCO Final Inspection Report still required?
Yes, this file is still required for our record; however, any sections that would have required a signature from an SCO monitor are no longer required.
What is the reasoning behind the file naming conventions?
The way we’ve chosen to structure our file names – FacilityID_NCSUproject#_YYYY-MM-DD_FileType_specificity – communicates a lot of information in a small amount of space. This file structure is useful for when documents get separated from our digital plan room, as most of the project information is embedded in the file title itself.
Additionally, this structure conforms to the Best Practices for File-Naming as outlined by the North Carolina State Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.
About how many pages is 25 pounds?
- 18×24 – 225 pages
- 24×36 – 200 pages
- 30×42 – 175 pages
- 36×48 – 150 pages
Volumes can be divided into smaller sections than delineated by the weight limit; just ensure that no single volume set is over 25lbs once printed.
Do I really need to bookmark all these files?
All files submitted to NC State University should be bookmarked.
As a general rule:
- Do not nest bookmarks past the third level. Excessive bookmarks detract from document navigation
- Be sure that the punctuation in the bookmark matches the sheet number and is used consistently. Note the differences between A-1.01, A101, and A1.01
- Use title case. All words’ first letters should be capitalized, excluding for, and, nor, but, or, and the
- The larger the file, the more bookmarks there should be. An O&M Manual of 50 pages may only need two to three bookmarks. An O&M Manual of 500 pages will probably need between 10 and 30 bookmarks
Below are the specific guidelines for bookmarking and some examples for each file type
Record Drawings
All PDF files shall include bookmarks for each sheet. The sheet number and description shall be included in the bookmark.
Use the sheet index as a table of contents.
Project Manuals
The PDF document shall include bookmarks marking the bid documentation, CSI divisions, and CSI sections of the document.
O&M Manuals
The PDF document shall include bookmarks marking the cover sheet, table of contents, each product subcategory, and each piece of equipment.
Warranty Manuals
The PDF document shall include bookmarks marking the cover sheet, table of contents, and each warranty.
NC State Final Reports
The electronic PDF copies shall include bookmarks for each section of the report.
Use the NC State Final Report Checklist as a table of contents.
SCO Final Inspection Reports
The electronic PDF copies shall include bookmarks for each section of the report.
Use the SCO Final Inspection for Owner Occupancy Form as a table of contents.
Submittals/Shop Drawings
Each CSI Division shall be submitted as one PDF document with bookmarks for each CSI Section.
How do I permanently bind external references into my CAD files?
As you all know, we require all x-refs to be bound in all AutoCAD files; however, unless the x-ref is a DWG file, this has been difficult to achieve. PDFs, JPGs, and other file types that have been referenced into a drawing cannot be bound the way a DWG file is. Here are instructions for dealing with these issues.
To bind a PDF:
Use the Import command. Select Import as block, and Use PDF layers so that once it is imported, it is easier to manipulate. Once it is placed and scaled appropriately, it can be exploded if desired and objects placed on the correct layers.
To bind an image file:
Open the image in your image viewer of choice. Copy the image with CTRL+C, or by right clicking and selecting Copy. Navigate back to AutoCAD, and select Paste Special. Choose the option Image Entity, then specify your scale and rotation.
I’ve gotten bounce back on files with $0$ in layers names. What’s the deal?
When another drawing is bound into an AutoCAD drawing, instead of being inserted, duplicate layers are created with the element $0$ added to the layers’ names. This creates extra work in cleaning up these layer names to meet our internal CAD file standards, so this issue is called out explicitly in the OSDR Appendix A, section 3-h-4: “All external references shall be bound using the “insert” option or inserted directly as a block into the drawing. X-refs of any kind, including but not limited to file types .dwg, .jpg, or .pdf, are not acceptable. Improperly bound or exploded x-refs are not acceptable”
These layers should be cleaned up by a thorough purge of each CAD file.
Where can I find an AutoCAD site plan for the University?
The most current version of the exterior campus map in AutoCAD format can be found at this location: Campus Existing CAD Map.
This map does not include outlying locations, only the main precincts in Raleigh. Reach out to your project manager to determine if AutoCAD files are available for outlying locations.
Why does NC State require only one layout tab in AutoCAD drawings?
We ask for each PDF drawing page to be delivered in a corresponding, single AutoCAD file so that an end user can download from AERES their specific trade drawings in the field, instead of a large file that has multiple layout tabs for each page. With smaller drawing sets, the file size may not be an issue, but for large projects, drawing sets can range into the 600+ page count. This practice allows for ease of access to specific information.
To support that single page navigation, it is important that multiple layout tabs do not show conflicting information. The simplest way to do this is to not have multiple tabs.
Why can’t I include my externally referenced files with my closeout delivery?
Extraneous files are not loaded into our digital plan room. One of the goals of the digital database is to provide information that is easily accessible. Including extraneous files, such as externally referenced drawings, plot styles, and typeface information puts the burden on the end user to know not only what those files are used for, but also how to use them. An end user should be able to download a single file and be able to access all the information within that file without any further knowledge of AutoCAD, Adobe Acrobat, or other software.
For questions regarding any of this information, please contact the NC State Plan Room at facilities_planroom@ncsu.edu