Question
I just uploaded my plan sheets to Fieldwire, but I'm not seeing any hyperlinks as expected. What's happening, and how can I resolve it?
Answer
After you've uploaded your plans, all detail, section and elevation callouts on the plans should automatically activate, creating red hyperlinks. These allow whoever accesses the plans to easily navigate between them as needed.
| BEFORE | AFTER |
However, if your hyperlinks do not automatically activate, there are a few potential culprits. We've provided some specific examples and context below - keep reading to learn more!
How to fix hyperlinking errors
| Reason: | Explanation: |
Solution: |
| Time | If you've just uploaded the plans, it may take several minutes for the hyperlinks to be enabled. Uploading a high volume of plans at once can increase the time it takes for the hyperlinks to populate. |
Wait 24 hours for your hyperlinks to load. |
| Plan name | The sheet number within Fieldwire needs to match the callout exactly. (See example below) | If this is not the case, it's easy to scan the sheet numbers and descriptions in bulk. You can also manually modify the name of the sheets, and the hyperlinks should generate. |
| Plan name | Fieldwire will name, and generate automatic hyperlinks for, 2-character plan names if the plan names are in letter (A-Z) + digit (0-9) format. |
Plans with names such as 'AA' or '11' will not activate. Modify the sheet name so that it contains a letter and a number (for example, 'A1' will activate). |
Plan name hyperlinking errors
Example: In the following callout, Fieldwire will search for a sheet numbered "A1.01".
| CORRECT |
Sheet #: matches callout Description: on second line |
|
| INCORRECT |
Sheet #: does not match callout Description: on same line as sheet # |
|
| INCORRECT |
Sheet #: does not match callout Sheet #: contains version |
Additional hyperlinking errors
| Obscured callout or sheet number | Your plans may have been uploaded with errors or blurred areas, which prevents the OCR from recognizing the plan names. This can also happen if lines or markings from the plans themselves overlap over the hyperlink details. | Correct the plans and upload again. |
| Scanned documents | Scanned PDFs have inherent hyperlink problems because the PDF tends to be lower quality. Fieldwire's OCR works best with text (readable) PDFs, so be sure to export your plans from AutoCAD to PDF in text format. |
Upload readable (text-based) PDFs of your plan sets, e.g. select vector PDFs as the format that is exported from CAD or REVIT. |
| Font type | If the font used to print your hyperlink details is not a TrueType, monospaced font (e.g. a readable font), then Fieldwire's OCR scanner will not be able to scan them. Please refer to this article for more information about font type: How should I format my Plan Files for Fieldwire? | Ensure your plans use a TrueType, monospaced font, then re-upload them into Fieldwire. If exporting from AutoCAD, your export settings should typically be set to "exploded text". |
| The text is going outside the circle |
|
Ensure the text is within the callout circle. |
Note: If you have eliminated these possibilities and your hyperlinks still do not activate, please contact us at support@fieldwire.com so we can assist you.