What does issued for review mean?
Issued for review, usually shortened to IFR, is the drawing status that releases a document to reviewers for comment before it has been approved. The purpose the drawing went out for is stamped on the sheet, written into its revision block, and carried on the drawing record, so a reader can tell what the sheet is for before acting on it.
An IFR issue goes out to gather comments. Other disciplines check it for clashes, the engineer checks it against the design intent, and the client or an authority reads it before anything is submitted for approval. What comes back is expected to change the drawing, which is why an IFR sheet carries no authority to build and why the next issue takes a new revision.
Also written IFR · Also called issued for comment, or a preliminary issue · Related terms: issued for approval, issued for tender, issued for construction
Where IFR sits in the issue sequence.
Every issue names what the sheet may be used for, and the sequence below is the one most engineering and construction projects run, though the exact set is defined by the project. IFR is the stage that repeats. A drawing can go out for review three or four times, each cycle taking a new preliminary revision, long before anyone submits it for approval.
Nobody builds from a review issue. When a print at review status reaches the field, the control that failed is the issue record, and the cost of the rework lands on whoever owns the asset.
See what issued for construction releases- WIPWork in progress
Held inside the authoring discipline while the sheet is drafted and checked. Nothing has been issued yet.
- IFRIssued for review
Released to reviewers for comment. Gaps are expected, and finding them is the reason the sheet went out.
- IFAIssued for approval
Submitted to the client, the engineer, or an authority for formal sign-off.
- IFTIssued for tender
The set contractors price. Projects that run a bid process instead call the same issue IFB.
- IFCIssued for construction
Approved and released for the works to be built from, and the only issue anyone may build to.
Projects add issue purposes of their own, and the letters carry no single agreed meaning across the industry. IFT is issued for tender and IFB is issued for bid, which are the same issue under two names. IFI is issued for information, sent so a party knows what is coming, with no comment expected back. IFP is the ambiguous one: firms use it for issued for pricing, issued for procurement, issued for permit, and issued for planning, and the sheet itself rarely says which. Some offices also write issued for comment, which shortens to the same three letters as issued for construction, so that one is usually spelled out in full.
The safe habit is to read the status legend the project has published. Where a project has published none, ask the document controller what the code means before acting on the drawing.
Where the issue purpose is recorded.
A status only does its job if a reader can find it. The purpose an issue went out for is recorded in four places, and all four have to agree. When they disagree, the person holding the print decides for themselves, which is the failure the whole convention exists to prevent.
The table on the sheet that lists every revision with its date, its description, and the purpose it was issued for. Read down the block and you can count how many review cycles the drawing has already been through.
The current revision prints in the title block, so the reader holding the sheet knows which issue it is. Many offices stamp the issue purpose beside it, or run a preliminary watermark across the sheet.
The transmittal names what went out, at which revision, to whom, and for what purpose. It is the evidence that a set was sent for review rather than for construction.
Pre-approval issues are usually numbered so they read as preliminary at a glance. A letters-then-numbers scheme runs A, B, C through review, and the ISO 19650 revision codes run P01, P02, and onwards until the information becomes contractual and moves to C01.
ISO 19650 carries the purpose as a status or suitability code on the information container rather than as a stamp in the corner of a sheet. Shared containers take S codes, and S3 is commonly set as suitable for review and comment, which is the ISO 19650 equivalent of an IFR issue. The project information standard defines what each code means, so check it before reading anything into the letter.
The issue purpose lives on the document record.
Lunr holds drawings under revision control and runs each issue through a workflow you configure, so a drawing at review sits at review on the register, and the approved revision is the one the register serves. Comments come back as markup on the controlled document rather than on a print somebody kept.
- Route each issue through the review and approval workflow you configure, so a drawing at review sits at review on the record.
- Assign reviewers and approvers, and hold the document at each stage until it is cleared.
- Reviewers read and mark up in the browser with no CAD licence, and a redline can raise a change request against the controlled document.
- The approved revision becomes the one the register serves, marked and dated on the record.
- Every workflow transition, approval, and revision is logged with the person and the time, so the review cycle leaves an audit trail.
- Issue the review set on a transmittal, and Lunr records the recipient, the date issued, and the revision of each document sent.
- The revision is synchronised back to the drawing title block, so the preliminary revision on the sheet agrees with the register.
configurable workflows · review and approval · document status · redline markup · transmittal record · revision sync
Keep reading.
The status at the end of the sequence, and the only one that releases the works to be built.
The recorded issue that carries a review set out, and names the purpose it went for.
What happens to the earlier review issue once the next revision goes out.
Where revision A, P01, and rev 0 fit, and which letters the convention skips.
Questions about issued for review.
- What does IFR mean on a drawing?
- IFR stands for issued for review. The drawing has been released so reviewers can read it and comment, and what comes back is expected to change it. An IFR sheet has not been approved and carries no authority to build. The status is stamped on the sheet and recorded against the drawing on the register, so a reader can tell what the sheet is for before acting on it.
- What is the difference between IFR and IFC?
- IFR is issued for review: the drawing is circulated for comment, it is still changing, and nothing may be built from it. IFC is issued for construction: the design has been approved and released for the works to be built from. The two are almost always different revisions of the same drawing number, and a sheet usually goes through several review cycles before it reaches IFC. Read the status rather than the date, because a sheet issued last week at review status does not replace a current IFC sheet.
- Can you build from an IFR drawing?
- No. An issued for review drawing has been released for comment, and it carries no authority to build. Work set out from an IFR sheet is set out from a design nobody has approved, so if the review changes it, the work has to be done again at somebody's cost. Order materials and start work from the sheet issued for construction, and where there is doubt about which revision that is, check the register before anything is cut.
- What does IFA mean, and how is IFA different from IFC?
- IFA is issued for approval: the drawing has gone to the client, the engineer, or an authority for formal sign-off, and it can still change before that sign-off is given. IFC is issued for construction, the status given after approval, which releases the sheet for the works to be built from. IFR sits before both. A review cycle gathers comments from the people working on the job, approval is the decision by the party who has to authorise the design, and construction is the release that follows it.
- What does IFT mean on a drawing?
- IFT stands for issued for tender: the set contractors price during the bid. It is complete enough to cost the works, and it carries no authority to build. Projects that run a bid process rather than a tender call the same issue IFB, issued for bid. The tender set is usually compared against the later construction set when a variation is assessed, because the difference between the two is what the contractor never priced.
- What does IFP mean in construction?
- IFP has no single agreed meaning, so it is worth checking rather than assuming. Firms use it for issued for pricing, issued for procurement, issued for permit, and issued for planning, and each of those releases the drawing to a different audience for a different purpose. Read the status legend the project has published, and where the project has published none, ask the document controller before acting on the sheet. Whichever meaning is in force, IFP is a preliminary issue and carries no authority to build.
- What revision does an IFR drawing carry?
- That depends on the scheme the project has written down. Under a letters-then-numbers scheme, review issues run A, B, C, and the drawing moves into the numeric sequence once it is handed over as-constructed. Under the ISO 19650 revision codes used on projects working to the UK BIM framework, preliminary issues run P01, P02, and onwards until the information becomes contractual and moves to C01. Either way, each issue for review takes a revision of its own, so the revision block records every time the sheet has been round.
Keep review issues out of the field.
Book a walkthrough and watch Lunr route a drawing through review, hold the comments against the document, and release the approved revision to the register.
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