RFI Manager

Purpose and description

Allows users to Manage Requests for Information (RFI's) and link and view them with the model.

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System requirements

Installing RFI Manager

To install the application:

1. Have Tekla Structures closed during installation.
2. Install the appropriate installation package that you can download from the Tekla Warehouse.  (Before 2016i install the .msi.  2016i and newer install the .tsep.)
3. Reopen Tekla Structures once installation is complete.
4. Before version 2016:  A new toolbar icon which will launch the tool should now be visible when a drawing is opened. For version 2016 a new thumbnail under Ungrouped items in the Applications and components side pane will appear.  For version 2016i and newer a new thumbnail under US Extensions items in the Applications and components side pane will appear.

Before v2016:

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This is the individual RFI form where the specific RFI information can be stored.

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***If you hover over the icons a tooltip will appear. The majority are self explanatory. Below is a detailed explanation of some of the icons.***

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1. Save - Saves the open RFI
2. Copy - Zips up the RFI and stores it on your clip board. You can then paste anywhere. An example workflow would be to paste it in an email. These zipped folders can drag and drop straight into the RFI Manager interface.
3. Print - Creates an HTML file of the RFI and opens in your default HTML viewer.
4. Link Objects - Links the selected objects to the RFI.
5. Highlight - Highlights the RFI’s associated objects  in the model.
6. Save 3d RFI - Save a IFC file of the RFI’s associated objects, which can then be sent to anyone else working on the project to be imported to their model, if desired.
7. Insert 3d RFI - Inserts the IFC file into the model.
8. Delete 3d RFI - Deletes the inserted 3d RFI
9. Set View - Stores the view for the RFI
10. Zoom to View - Zooms you to the stored view associated with that RFI.

This is the main interface to view a summary of every RFI in the project.

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***If you hover over the icons a tooltip will appear. The majority are self explanatory. Below is a detailed explanation of some of the icons.***

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1. Change Directory – Select the directory where the RFI’s are stored. By default an RFI sub-folder is created in the current project model folder.
2. Refresh – Refresh the content in the user interface.
3. New – Opens the individual RFI dialog box to create a new RFI.
4. Modify – Opens the selected RFI’s dialog box for editing.
5. Delete – Deletes the selected RFI.
6. Highlight – Highlights the objects linked to the selected RFI.
7. RFI’s on objects – Select objects in the model and click this button to filter the list for all the RFI’s linked to the objects selected in the model. To clear the filter click on the Refresh button.
8. Filter list – Filters the list based off the information entered in the Search function field
9. Search function – Allows user to filter the list based off the text entered in this field.  To clear the filter, removed all text and hit Enter or hit the Refresh button
10. Check for any overdue RFI’s – Scans all RFIs and compares the RFI due date with the current Due Date. If the RFI is overdue then the RFI status will automatically be changed to Overdue.
11. Show Status – Colorizes the model based off the selected RFIs to show their current status.  NOTE – This also stores the RFI number, status, subject and date to the UDA’s defined in the Options dialog box. Multiple RFI’s can be linked to the same object in the model but only one RFI can be written to the UDAs. The worst case scenario is used when writing to the UDAs. For example, if 3 RFIs were linked to the same object and one was Overdue, another was Open, and the last was Closed, the Overdue RFI info would be written to the UDAs. If there were only 2 RFIs linked to the same object and one was Open and the other was closed then the Open RFI info would be written to the UDAs.
12. Print – Prints all selected RFIs to an html file and is opened with the default html viewer (i.e. Internet Explorer,etc.) Each RFI has a hyperlink that can be clicked and then in individual RFI will be opened in the same html viewer allowing the user to view the entire RFI information. This file is stored in the directory defined by the user.
13. Create Report – Exports the selected RFI summaries to a .csv file and it automatically open in the default viewer (i.e. Microsoft Excel). This file is stored in the directory defined by the user.
14. Copy – Creates a zip file of the selected RFIs and places them on the clipboard. Then can then be easily pasted into an email or another file location. These zip files can be dragged and dropped into the main RFI interface for ease of use.
15. Publish to FTP – Allows user to publish the selected RFIs to a defined FTP site. Click on the arrow to the right of the icon to set the FTP settings which would include the ftp site address, username and password.
16. Options – Allows user to define the Logo, RFI Template, and Report Template to be used when generating reports, etc. Also allows user to define where the RFI Number, Status, Subject and Date UDAs should be written.
17. Send Email - Click this button to package the selected RFIs and send them as individual emails to the designated recipients. Click the arrow to the right of the icon to open the Email Settings Dialog box. Here you can define the SMTP Host and Port if desired. Also, there is an option the user can check to send notifications up status change to the designated recipients. This can be checked on or off. There is also an option to include the zipped up Tekla RFI with the email as well.  These emails will send once the RFI Manager is closed.

Using RFI Manager

To use the application:

• After the application is loaded press the new icon in order to create a new RFI. Fill in the information and the different features such as adding images, attachments, linking objects, and setting the view.
• The storing view location isn’t as good in Orthogonal views. It is suggested to save RFI view locations in perspective view only.