Digital Plan Room

• Include a table of contents when exporting to or publishing a PDF.

• Include sheet titles in the table of contents.

• Review customer training videos below.

• Create an Accela Citizen Access account if you do not already have one.

Please follow these guidelines in your document design to ensure your plans are correctly processed in the Digital Plan Room.

General

• All files must be in a PDF file format.

• Maximum file size is 100 megabytes per file.

• Do not use encrypted or password-protected files.

• Do not submit plans as a PDF Portfolio.

• Do not combine supporting documents in the same PDF file with any plan sheets; supporting documents should be uploaded as separate files.

Plan Submissions

• Arrange plans in a landscape view.

• The title block must be in the lower, right-hand corner.

• Make sure sheet numbers are unique and consistent for each version of submitted plan pages.

• Plans must be to scale, in PDF format, scanned original plans, with professional seal and signature or other acceptable electronic format per the North Carolina Board of Examiners for Engineers and Surveyors regulations 21 NCAC 56.1103.

• Plan sheets must be no more than 24 inches by 36 inches and can be scanned at a resolution of 150 dots per inch.

• When possible, please include a table of contents when exporting and publishing the PDF (ex. Include "Create bookmarks") setting in AutoCAD.*

• Include sheet titles within a table of contents when possible.*

• You can upload multiple files, including plans, at the same time.

• When submitting revisions, only upload the sheets with revisions. Please do not resubmit the entire plan set.

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  Supporting Documents

  • You can submit supporting documents as individual files or as a single file with multiple pages.

  • Submit supporting documentation as separate PDF files from the plan set or plan sheets.

  • Document files may be oriented in either landscape or portrait view.

  *Asterisk indicates recommended document standard but is not required for submission.

Submitting Plans

Watch these video tutorials to better understand how to upload and submit documents.

Uploading plans and documents video 

Document Upload Times

Once you have uploaded and validated your files, they will be processed in the city's system. The Digital Plan Room:

• Separates your plans into individual sheets.

• Scans plans using optical character recognition to identify sheet numbers.

• Attaches plans to previously submitted versions.

• Prepares plans for web and mobile access.

Processing Time

Most documents will take 30 seconds to a minute to process, but larger plan sets could take longer.

After you've clicked the "Process Files" button, you can close the file processing screen and exit the Accela Citizen Access website. Your files will continue to process after you've left.

Email Notice

When the processing is finished, you will receive an email with a link for you to complete the remaining steps in your submission.

Issues are items that will need to be addressed and fixed prior to plan approval. Once created, each open issue will require a brief response in the Digital Plan Room prior to a new review cycle being available to the customer to submit revisions.

Conditions are items that may require action by the customer, but do not need to be addressed prior to plan approval. Unlike issues, conditions do not require a response in the Digital Plan Room. Conditions may need to be met later, during the inspection phase of the project.

Reviewing issues, conditions and notes video

Through the Digital Plan Room, customers only need to submit sheets containing revisions, not the entire plan set.

At the end of the plan review process, the Digital Plan Room will automatically combine the most recently approved version of each sheet into one final, stamped PDF plan set.

Uploading corrected plans and documents video

Downloading approved plans video

Plan Review Issues Report Video