Softlabs delivered a central system for managing civil-maintenance engineering drawings at Bhabha Atomic Research Centre in India.
BARC
Engineering and nuclear researchBhabha Atomic Research Centre, commonly known as BARC, is an Indian research organisation working across nuclear research, engineering, and associated technical operations.
This project addressed civil-maintenance engineering drawings. The requirement was not to create or edit CAD models. It was to store supported files, find the correct record, manage revisions, review changes, confirm drawings and trace drawing activity.
PDF, JPEG and PNG drawing records.
Access and actions organised by role and department.
Review, confirmation and approval stay visible.
A controlled home for supported drawing files, their revisions and the review activity around them.
Engineering drawings were held in decentralised storage while revision tracking depended on manual processes. The central challenge was maintaining the correct drawing state and approval status.
Civil-maintenance teams needed a reliable way to find the relevant drawing and identify its current revision.
Centralise supported files and add structured search by department, system, equipment, area, keywords and project.
Technicians, supervisors, engineers and administrators needed different levels of access and responsibility.
Restrict actions by role and department, while supporting comments and engineer confirmation.
Manual revision tracking made it harder to understand where a drawing stood in review and approval.
Link every revision to its original, preserve workflow state, send pending reminders and record activity.
Softlabs built a custom engineering drawing management system combining a central repository with role-based access, linked revision records, review comments, engineer confirmation, reminders, search, reporting and access logs.
Administrators upload supported files and associate structured engineering information. Technicians view, supervisors review and comment, and engineers validate through confirmation comments.
How It Works
An authorised administrator uploads a supported PDF, JPEG or PNG file and assigns department, system, equipment, area, keywords and project information.
Technicians have view-only access. Supervisors can review and add comments. Engineers carry out validation through confirmation comments.
An updated drawing becomes a connected record, helping the team follow history and review the correct version.
Review, comments, engineer confirmation and final approval preserve the drawing state, with configurable reminders for pending actions.
The revision workflow follows a clear sequence: Upload → Workflow assignment → Revision creation and review → Final approval.
Each revision remains connected to its original drawing. Supervisors record review comments, engineers add confirmation comments, and reminders can notify users when a required action remains pending.
Problems & Fixes
Each documented problem is paired with the capability delivered in the system.
Tap to explore each challenge
Drawings were held across decentralised storage.
A central engineering drawing repository brought supported files into one system.
Revision tracking relied on manual processes.
Every revision could be linked to its original drawing and followed through a defined workflow.
Different users required different levels of control.
Access was restricted by role and department.
Review and validation needed clear responsibility.
Supervisors could comment while engineers validated through confirmation comments.
Assigned actions could be overlooked.
Automated reminders could be triggered after a configurable number of pending days.
Finding the relevant drawing could take unnecessary effort.
Search and filters covered department, system, equipment, area, keywords and project.
Drawing activity needed to be traceable.
Access logs recorded drawing-related activity for review and reporting.
Problems & Fixes
Each documented problem is paired with the capability delivered in the system.
Drawings were held across decentralised storage.
A central engineering drawing repository brought supported files into one system.
The completed system provided BARC’s civil-maintenance teams with a central place to manage supported engineering drawing files and their revisions.
At the last developer check, the system was reported to remain in use and hold more than 10,000 drawings. This is a historical, developer-reported lower bound—not an independently verified current total.
Documented capabilities grouped by the part of engineering drawing management they support.
3 features
Administrators upload and organise supported engineering drawing files.
Filters cover department, system, equipment, area, keywords and project.
Reporting supports visibility into records and workflow activity.
3 features
Each revision remains connected to the original drawing.
Supervisors record observations and required actions.
Engineers validate through confirmation comments.
3 features
Actions differ for administrators, technicians, supervisors and engineers.
Availability and actions can be limited by department.
Configured reminders support overdue assigned actions.
3 features
Authorised teams can review drawing-related activity.
The documented system accepts PDF, JPEG and PNG.
Logs and reports support oversight of drawing handling.
The application includes access logs for drawing activity, giving authorised teams a traceable view of actions associated with drawings.
Role- and department-based access combines controlled availability with recorded activity, improving auditability without relying on manual access notes.
A similar approach can support organisations that manage approved drawings across departments, assets, facilities or maintenance teams.
Softlabs can help design and develop custom software for central drawing storage, revision control, role-based access, review workflows, reminders, search and drawing activity records.
Discuss Your Drawing WorkflowAnswers about the delivered BARC drawing-management system, its scope and its documented boundaries.
It is software used to store supported engineering drawing files, organise them with structured information, manage revisions, control access, support review and approval, and record drawing-related activity.
Softlabs built a custom engineering drawing management system for civil-maintenance teams at BARC, including a central repository, linked revisions, role-based review, comments, confirmations, reminders, search, reporting, and access logs.
Each revision remains linked to the original drawing and moves through review, comments, engineer confirmation, and final approval.
Administrators upload and manage records, technicians view drawings, supervisors review and comment, and engineers validate through confirmation comments, subject to role and department.
The documented upload formats are PDF, JPEG, and PNG.
No. The documented system manages supported PDF and image drawing files. It does not include native CAD authoring, DWG editing, BIM coordination, or CAD-platform integrations.
