121 — The Tracker

Two questions come up on every tilt-up job long before the first panel is cast. The detailer asks what do I do next? The person running the job asks how far along are we, and when will the drawings be done? The Tracker answers both from one window, from whichever drawing you have open.

It reads the project file (.cvp) — the record ConstructiVision keeps up to date as you save panels — and lists every panel with what is done and what is still to do. You can open any of the project’s drawings straight from the list.

Where it is

• Toolbar: the ConstructiVision toolbar, seventh button — Tracker, right after Projects, at the end of the project group. The icon is two boot prints in brown dirt. The tooltip reads: “Tracker: how far this project is, the next step and how long until drawing is done, read from its project file; open any of its drawings from the list.”

• Menu: ConstructiVision → Tracker…

• Typed command: CV-TRACKER (the button runs the same command under its other name, CV-PROGRESS).

What it needs: a project file. The Tracker finds it from the folder of the drawing you have open. If no project file can be found anywhere on the computer, it says so (see What you see).

Try it on PDX248SHLP01

PDX248SHLP01 is a project from the sample corpus. Its folder holds 83 panel drawings and the project file PDX248SHLP01.cvp.

1. Open PDX001.dwg from the PDX248SHLP01 folder.

2. Click Tracker (or type CV-TRACKER). The ConstructiVision – Tracker window opens.

3. Read the three lines at the top:

   PDX248SHLP01   (83 panel drawing(s))
   How far: 32% (81 of 252 steps done)
   How long: 83 panel(s) to go. Not enough history yet to estimate a finish: it needs
   finished panels saved on at least 2 days in the last 2 weeks.
   

4. Read the Next step box:

   Set up the site drawing: grid, walls and slab (Site Plan, Site Grid, Walls, Slabs). Saving it records it in the project file.

   That is the next thing this project needs, and the buttons that do it. The site drawing is Tutorial 10.

5. Read the Project step list:

   Project step	Status
   Project Details (name, concrete strength and weight)	Done
   Weld connection catalog (131 types)	Done
   Site drawing	To do

6. Scroll the panel list. Each row is one panel drawing, under the headings Panel, Drawing, Drawn, Picks, Braces, Welds, Features and Saved. The first rows read:

   Panel	Drawing	Drawn	Picks	Braces	Welds	Features	Saved
   01	PDX001.dwg	Done	To do	To do			2026-09-18
   02	PDX002.dwg	Done	To do	To do			2026-09-18
   03	PDX003.dwg	Done	To do	To do			2026-09-18

   and the last four:

   Panel	Drawing	Drawn	Picks	Braces	Welds	Features	Saved
   –	PDX059.dwg	Not saved
   –	PDX060.dwg	Not saved
   –	PDX062.dwg	Not saved
   –	PDX079.dwg	Not saved

7. Click the 02 PDX002.dwg row, then click Open panel. PDX002.dwg opens and becomes the drawing you are working in. PDX001.dwg stays open behind it.

8. Click Close when you are done.

Reading the result

The header names the project and how many panel drawings it has. How far is the share of the project’s steps that are done, project steps and panel steps counted together. How long estimates when drawing will be finished from how fast panels have been completed recently; until there is enough history, it says so instead of guessing a date.

The panel columns.

• Drawn — Done on every panel the project file holds; Not saved on a drawing it does not hold yet (below).

• Picks and Braces — pick points and brace points. Every panel needs both, so they count as steps on every row. The PDX248SHLP01 project file has none recorded yet, so every row reads To do.

• Welds and Features — on PDX248SHLP01 both were blank on every row but one: panel 58 shows 1 under Features.

• Saved — the date the panel was last saved into the project file.

Two kinds of gap, worth telling apart:

• Not saved (Panel --) — the drawing is in the folder, but the project file has no record of it yet. On PDX248SHLP01 that was PDX059, PDX060, PDX062 and PDX079.

• drawing not found — the project file lists the panel, but its drawing is not in the folder beside it. When this lesson was checked by copying only PDX001.dwg and the project file, every other panel’s row read drawing not found (still Done under Drawn, from the project file’s record).

A panel number twice. Panel 12 appears on two rows, PDX012.dwg and PDX24012.dwg, because the folder holds two drawings numbered 12. The Tracker lists both rather than hiding one — a quick way to spot a stray or duplicate drawing.

What you see

On the Sample Building. With CSB022.dwg and its project file, the Tracker read ConstructiVision Sample Building (1 panel drawing(s)), How far: 33% (2 of 6 steps done), the same Next step, a Weld connection catalog (12 types) row, and one panel row, -- CSB022.dwg Not saved. Under the list it added:

3 record(s) in the project file are from an older export and were skipped: open and OK those panels to refresh them.

From a new, unsaved drawing. In a blank Drawing1 that belongs to no project, the Tracker opened on the last project it had shown — PDX248SHLP01.

With no project file anywhere. With a lone copy of Arlington Airport A’s AAA039.dwg and no project file on the computer, clicking Tracker opened an AutoCAD Message box instead of the window:

ConstructiVision Tracker

No project file (.cvp) was found on this computer. Open a drawing in a project, or add its folder in Projects.

Click OK. The same text is printed on the command line, starting [CV-PROGRESS]. To fix it, open a drawing that lives in a project folder, or point Projects at the folder.

What this lesson does not cover

• Open site drawing and Refresh — both buttons are on the window.

• Placing pick points and brace points, which clears the To do in those columns — Tutorial 113 and Tutorial 104.

Watch the lesson

The video follows the steps above on PDX248SHLP01: the three top lines, the next step, the project steps, then panel 02 opened from the list. It does not show Open site drawing or Refresh.