Brief for technicians and «Explain in plain words»

Build a brief for technicians

1. Open the project → the «Documents» tab → «Project documents» and click «Brief for technicians». Two more ways in: «My documents» (choose the project in the window first) and the «Technical support» sheet of the estimate, the «Brief for technicians» button above the items of the sheet.
2. The window shows what AURA will build the brief from: the project details, client briefs, voice briefs, texts of the board, floor plans, visualizations, production orders, the items of «Technical support», meeting results and the schedule. All the sources are ticked; untick the ones you do not need or click «Clear all».
3. In «What else matters» add what the project does not have, for example «we bring our own generator» or «nothing fixed to the walls».
4. The price is shown under the field. Click «Build the brief»: in a minute or two the project documents get a «Brief for technicians: …» document, and it opens.

• The brief is built by the project's owner and editors; the project's owner pays, as for other AURA operations in a project.
• If the estimate has unsaved edits, the brief takes the last saved estimate: click «Save» first.

Where the data comes from

The floor plan: the hall's dimensions, the ceiling height, door openings, installations and stages with their sizes, trusses and the fixtures on them. Visualizations: the objects of the frame and their catalogue sizes.

Production: products, decor and drawings from the order's estimate with their sizes, material and the weight from the product's calculation, the installation date and the order's conditions: the access window, the floor and the lift, the ceiling height, height works, dismantling and the carry-in path.

The estimate: the items of the «Technical support» sheet with their quantities, without prices. The schedule: delivery, set-up, the event and take-down with the people responsible.

Briefs, voice briefs, the board and meeting results: AURA sorts their texts into the sections of the brief. From meeting results it takes only the technical decisions and tasks: light, sound, video, electricity, trusses.

• Voice briefs and meeting results appear in the list if «Brief from a voice recording» is open to you. Production orders are shown to those who have «Aura Production».

What the document holds

1. «General information»: the venue, the dates, the hall on the plan, the ceiling height, openings, the access window, the floor and the lift.
2. «Objects and structures»: a table with sizes, material, weight, mounting and fixing and who makes the object.
3. «Rigging and loads»: each truss of the plan with its span, the height of its bottom, its support, the number of fixtures, the load, the allowed load, the hanging points and the load per point.
4. «Power supply», «Light, sound, video», «Set-up and take-down schedule» and «Who does what».
5. «Questions for the venue and the technicians»: what to check to make the brief complete.

• The last column of every table names the row's source: «from the plan», «from the estimate», «from the brief», «from the board», «from production», «from the schedule». A value from another source in the same row is marked in brackets.

Numbers only from the project

AURA counts the loads and sizes itself, not the AI. The load on a truss is the weight of the fixtures on it, as in the plan editor, without the weight of the truss itself and its fixings. The allowed load comes from a typical table for a truss of that section and length. Per point, the load is split evenly between the two ends of the span.

The AI only sorts the texts into sections. If its row has a number that is not in the project's materials, the value is replaced with «to check», and a row with such a number in its name does not reach the brief.

Power, weight, phases and other quantities are checked together with their units: «14 kW» reaches the brief only if the project says exactly «14 kW». A date like 14.11 or «120 guests» does not confirm such a value. Decimals are checked whole: «2.5 m» is not confirmed by a separate 2 and 5.

• If a fixture has no weight, the typical weight of its kind is used, and the questions ask to check the weight of the fixtures.
• Only the venue knows the allowed load per hanging point: when the plan has trusses, AURA always asks it.

Edit and send

1. The brief is an ordinary project document: edit the text, save versions, download .md or .html and print.
2. To send the brief to the set-up crew or the venue, open «Access and publication»: invite by email or publish a link.

• Clicking «Build the brief» again creates a new document; the earlier one stays with your edits.

Explain in plain words

1. Click «Explain in plain words» next to «Brief for technicians» in the project documents or in «My documents».
2. Paste the technical text: a venue's requirements or a technician's letter, for example «load per point 250 kg, 3 phases 32 A, set-up from 6:00».
3. Click «Explain». AURA says briefly what the text is about, explains each requirement and lists the limits for the decor, what to do and what to ask.
4. Click «Copy» to paste the explanation into a chat, or «Save to documents»: in a project the document is saved to the project, in «My documents» to the studio's base.

• The numbers stay as in the text. If AURA converts them to make them clearer, for example amperes into kilowatts, such a value is marked «≈».

How much it costs

• Building a brief and an explanation are paid; the price is shown in the window before the start. In a project the project's owner pays.
• An editor of someone else's project can build up to 20 briefs and get up to 20 explanations in that project at the owner's expense in 24 hours. The project's owner has no limit.
• If AURA could not build the brief or explain the text, the charge is refunded.
• If the connection dropped while AURA was explaining the text, press «Explain» again without changing the text: the ready explanation comes without paying again.

How it differs from similar tools

• «Count what can be counted» in the production estimate reads the client's brief and counts the products with calculators. «Brief for technicians» does the opposite: it writes a brief for the set-up crew from the project's data and adds nothing to the estimate.
• The «Technical setup from the brief» task of «Do it for me» puts trusses and fixtures on the floor plan and in the estimate. «Brief for technicians» reads a finished plan and describes it to the technicians.
• «Meeting results» sorts a call by direction. Its technical decisions go into the brief as one of the sources.

Related guides

• Floor plan: dimensions, seating and export
• My documents: editor, Markdown, HTML and versions
• Event estimate: sheets, summary and Excel
• «Count what can be counted»: a helper for the client brief