An essential part of the Common Data Environment Catenda HUB is the document area. This article explains how you can structure this area and use the individual features for better organization. There are 3 approaches to organizing the document area.
1. A classic folder structure in which documents and files are stored in an organized manner
2. The use of metadata to enable the organization of documents and files, as well as the retrieval of files.
3. Combination of folder structure and metadata
Tip: A combination of these two variants often makes sense and offers many advantages.
Here is a comparison of the advantages and disadvantages of these 2 variants:
Classic folder structure:
Advantages | Disadvantages |
Structured design | Folder structure has to be be created and managed |
Assistance with searching for documents | Documents have to be be stored in individual folders and cannot be organized across topics |
Access settings can be created via folders |
|
Document structure based on metadata
Advantages | Disadvantages |
Free structure | High level of discipline and firm guidelines required |
Document storage and search is dynamic | Documents have to be be named according to the specifications and provided with metadata |
Combination of both variants:
Advantages | Disadvantages |
Structured organization based on folder structure combined with other possible metadata for a dynamic approach | Both must be well coordinated in advance |
Documents can be assigned and found very easily via the folder structure and the name + metadata |
|
Example folder structure
You will be able to find good suggestions about how to create a folder structure in this article. You can also find an example of a folder structure used by the State Building Directorate in Bavaria at the following link
Folder structures can be set up very differently. On the one hand, this depends on the requirements of the project and the associated project team, and on the other hand, the folder structure depends on any plan key used.
Example - Separating structures by phase
A folder structure is set up based on the service phases. This clearly separates which documents from which management phases are stored in which folders. But what happens to documents that apply across all service phases? You might think that if the documents are organized in the folders of the various service phases, this information is no longer needed in the plan key, for example. But what happens when a plan is printed out or sent digitally to the construction site? Here too, the plan name should be used to identify the exact document. In the best case scenario, the folder structure and plan key form a unit that works for all parties involved throughout the entire course of the project.
Metadata on documents:
The use of so-called metadata for documents and files has become increasingly popular in recent years. Some document metadata is generated directly by Catenda HUB and saved on the document. For example, the upload date, the author of the document or the file size are directly visible.
In addition to the automatically displayed metadata, Catenda HUB also allows you to create your own metadata. Via the user-defined attributes or the labels.
Example:
A document is uploaded with a plan key 2-ARC-AN-02-00-second floor plan.pdf The naming convention is used to automatically read out some information about the document. This is done automatically in the background by recognizing the naming convention.
2 = Preliminary planning
ARC = Architecture
AN = View
02 = 2nd upper floor
...
Tip: In addition to this information, you can now add the status of a document, for example. Pre-submission, Approved, Archived, Rejected
If we now want to add information, for example whether this document is important for a building application or DGNB certification, we can add this using the label or user-defined field options mentioned above.