12.05.03 How You Might Cause Pages to be Deleted by Deleting a Plan Set

Last Updated: 2022-03-22 06:32

There are two main ways Pages can be deleted from the Plan Organizer:

You open the Plan Organizer and delete them, we cover that in the previous article (Deliberately Deleting Pages).
You do something that causes them to be removed (deleted), there are four things you can do that cause a Page or Pages to be removed:

You edit a Plan Set and delete a Plan that was the only Plan associated with a Page (a Page cannot be "blank") (How You Might Cause Pages to be Deleted by Deleting a Unique Plan)
You delete a Plan Set that included the only Plan for one or more Pages (covered below)
You deactivate a Plan Set that included the only Plan for one or more Pages (How You Might Cause Pages to be Deleted by Deactivating a Plan Set)
After saving a Plan Set, you edit it an match a Plan to another Page (Sheet) No. (How You Might Cause Pages to be Deleted when Revision Matching after Saving a Plan Set)

When you delete a Plan Set, if there are Plans in this Plan Set that are Unique Plans (see below) for any Pages, those Pages are remove from the Plan Organizer.

We do not do this often, but we are starting this article with a Warning.

Warning!

When you cause a Page to be removed from a Project by deleting the only Plan Set that contains a version of this Plan, you are not just affecting the Bid from which you opened the Plan Organizer, or just Bids you created/worked on. All Bids in a Project share Plan Sets and when a Page is removed from the project, everything on that Page (such as takeoff, file attachments, and annotations), in every bid in the project, is deleted permanently. This may affect bids you never worked on but were being taken off or estimated by another user.

You are always prompted if your actions are going to remove a Page from a project, so if you are not absolutely certain that you are the only person using this Project and that there is nothing on this Page in any bid in this project, do not confirm your action. Find out who is working in this Project and ensure that they (and you, of course) have not drawn any takeoff, annotation, or created any Named Views, Punch Items, or Typical Groups on this Page. If you are unsure if a Page is used, leave it in the Plan Organizer (set its Discipline to something like "Unused" or "Deleted" and then just ignore it).

Deleting a Plan Set

For our example, we consider the project's Plan Organizer screenshot below.

Plan Organizer setup to show several Plan Sets and several Plans and Sheets

As you can see, we have added three Plan Sets (Original, Rev1, and Rev2).

The Original Set created Pages A1.20, A2.21, A2.22, and A2.23.
The 2nd Set (Rev1) was an update to A1.20 so it did not create any additional Pages.
The 3rd Set (Rev2), was an update to A2.21 and A2.23 and created Pages "000007" and "A2.22b". A2.22b is really an update to Page 4 (A2.22), but the estimator made a mistake and did not match it correctly when he or she created the Plan Set, we touched on what happens when you revision match after saving a Plan Set in a previous article, but we cover it in more detail in the articles that follow.

There are a total of 6 Pages in our Plan Organizer, built from a total of 9 Plans, and three of those Pages are created from "Unique Plans".

Unique Plans

In our example, there are three Pages with "Unique Plans" meaning there is only one Plan or drawing associated with the Page.

Page Index 1 (Page No. 000007) exists because it was created from a plan in Rev2 - it does not exist in Rev 1 or the Original Set. Rev2 is the only Plan Set in which a plan exists for this Page.
Page Index 4 (Page No. A2.22) exists because it was created from a Plan in the Original Set. Again, the Original Set is the only Plan Set that contains a Plan associated with this Page.
Page Index 6 (Page No. A2.22b) exists because it was not matched to Page Index 4 (Page No. A2.22) when the Plan Set "Rev2" was added. It should be a Revision of Page No. A2.22 but as it stands, it is a separate Page with a Unique Plan.
All other Pages have at least 2 Plans associated with them. For example, Page Index 2 (Page No. A1.20) has two Plans associated with it, one in the Original Set and one in Rev1. If we delete the Original Set or Rev1, there is still at least one Plan associated with the Page so the Page would be a valid Page and not be removed.

Now, let's say in the Plan Organizer, we delete Plan Set "Rev2" (which created Page Index 1 (Page No. 000007) and Page Index 6 (Page No. A2.22B). Right-click within the Rev2 column and select "Delete Plan Set" from the context-menu. (There is no toolbar button because we discourage deleting a Plan Set - someone added it for a reason usually and deleting it is a drastic action.

Plan Organizer - deleting a Plan Set

You are required to confirm the action.

If you proceed:

Any Page created by a Plan in this Plan Set, that has no other revisions (Page 1 and 6 right now), will be removed from the project (which means removed or deleted from every bid in the project).
Any takeoff or annotations you or any other user has drawn on that Page are deleted
Any Named Views or Punch Items that exist on this Page are deleted (Punch List history and photos are deleted as well)
All File Attachments on this Page are deleted

If you are absolutely certain you want to delete the Plan Set, click Delete Set.

A second Confirmation prompt displays - we want you to consider your actions carefully. You or other users could lose days or weeks of work if you delete a Plan Set that deletes Pages from this Project.

Delete Pages confirmation 2

Click Delete to remove the selected Plan Set from the Plan Organizer.

Even though the Plan Set (and any Pages created by Unique Plans within it) is removed from the Plan Organizer, to commit your changes and delete the Plan Set, you must click Save in the Plan Organizer. After you save your changes to the Plan Organizer, the program displays the "Updating Plans" process box while the Plan Set and any affected Page(s) are removed (from every Bid in this Project) including everything on affected Page(s).

Plan Organizer showing Pages removed

If you click Cancel or close the Plan Organizer without saving your changes, the delete action is ignored.

Warning

Please consider what is going to happen before you click "Save". If you are certain you are the only person working on a project and that you have never used Page(s) created by the Plan Set you are trying to delete (in any Bid in this Project), go ahead and delete it. However, if there are any other users working in this project, or you are not 100% certain that you have never used Pages created by this Plan Set, click Cancel and leave the Plan Set there.

When you click Save, the Page(s) that no longer have a Plan associated with them, and everything on that Page(s), is removed from every Bid in this Project. It is impossible to recover this Plan Set once it is gone, nor can any Pages be restored, or anything that was stored on those Pages.

In our example, notice that the original Page index 1 (Page No. 000007) and the original Page Index 6 (Page No. A2.22b) are gone.

Final Warning

Anything that exists on Pages you remove, in any Bid in the Project, is deleted, irretrievably. If you are not absolutely sure that neither you nor any other user has used this Page, click Cancel.

Return to the Projects and Bids List and see if there are any other Bids in this Project (other than yours), if there are, contact whoever created or is working on those bids to ensure that deleting the Plan Set will not cause problems.
If there are no other Bids, open your Bid and navigate to the Page that you are going to cause to be deleted. Make sure there is nothing on it. If there is, move it to another Page.
Return to the Plan Organizer and proceed with deleting the Plan Set.

How You Might Cause Pages to be Deleted by Deleting a Unique Plan

How You Might Cause Pages to be Deleted by Deactivating a Plan Set

04.14 Deleting Pages, Plans, and Plan Sets