City of Toronto: Building Division - Electronic Submission Guidelines



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Electronic Submission Guidelines described by the Chief Building Official

IMPORTANT NOTICE

Effective November 12, 2012 the following changes to the Mandatory Submission Guidelines will take effect:

In addition to electronic submissions and re-submissions, only one set of paper plans/drawings will be required.

Two sets of full sized paper plans/drawings are still required for re-submissions or revisions to applications made before November 12th.

FASTRACK is no longer exempt. Applications must be submitted on a rewritable DVD or on a page with a maximum dimension of 11" X 17" to facilitate scanning by Toronto Building.

Electronic Submission Guidelines:

Toronto Building requires the mandatory electronic submission of all documents including forms, reports, specifications, calculations and plans (Chapter 363-5 of the Municipal Code).

Until November 12, 2012, FASTRACK applications are exempt from mandatory electronic submission requirements. Effective November 12, 2012 FASTRACK applications must be submitted on a rewritable DVD or on a page with a maximum dimension of 11" X 17" to facilitate scanning.

All Documents shall be submitted at a Toronto Building Customer Service location on a rewritable DVD (DVD-RW or DVD+RW).

Re-submissions of documents and plans/drawings may be submitted by email or via SFTP (Secure File Transfer Protocol) where the file(s) exceeds 10mb and up to 300mb (10 files maximum). Submission by fax is not permitted.

In addition to electronic submissions and re-submissions, two sets of paper plans/drawings are still required. Effective November 12, 2012 one set of paper plans/drawings is required.

For security reasons, USB Drive ('Key') or Flash Media are not accepted.

Helpful Links

Submission Requirements:

The following are the submission requirements for all documents and plans/drawings:

All electronic documents and plans/drawings must be submitted in “Portable Document Format" (PDF), version 7 or later.
- Files must be unsecured and not password protected
- All Toronto Building forms are available online in fill-able format. Forms should be completed and signed electronically. Please refer to instructions here on how to create an electronic signature. Acrobat Reader X (10) is required to add multiple signatures to forms.
- Plans/Drawings with multiple pages and sets must be combined into a single electronic document (PDF) in the same order as the submitted paper document, and
- Submitted PDF files must be a single layer drawing . Documents/Drawings containing multiple layers must be flattened to a single layer prior to submission.
- Drawings and Specifications must be in black and white only. Full colour renderings and photos may be submitted, but only as supplements to a sufficient set of plans.
- The scale and size of the electronic PDF plans/drawings must match the scale and size of the full-sized paper plans/drawings.
- Documents must be properly labelled. PDF file names for Electronic Documents should have an abbreviated description of the documents (Click here for examples).
All plans/drawings must include all the information required in Schedule D of Municipal Code Chapter 363 for Building Permit applications and the Sign Permit and Building Permit Plan Requirements for sign permit applications.
HVAC and plumbing plans/drawings must be submitted as separate electronic documents (PDFs) for each mechanical permit application and plumbing permit application.
Electrical/emergency lighting/fire alarm, sprinkler and other fire safety systems must be submitted as part of the building permit set.
Shoring, foundation and other structural plans/drawings must be included in the building permit set with ability to be extracted by the examiner for issuance of part permits, if necessary.
Fire Schematic Layout, which includes floor plans and cross-section(s) indicating all fire resistance ratings and fire separations as required by the Ontario Building Code, shall be included as part of the submission.
Where a submission is being made to address a deficiency identified by a plan examiner, an electronic copy of the revised plans, along with a paper copy, must be submitted to the plan examiner with the changes clearly labelled and red-lined.

Requirement for Scanning:

Electronic documents and plans/drawings (i.e. dwg, .docx,) must be converted directly into a PDF for submission. Hand drawn plans and manual calculations must be scanned. The use of a scanner to convert an electronically produced document should be avoided. Scanned documents that are prohibitively large may be rejected. Scanned documents must meet the following requirements:

Plans/ Drawings must be at a resolution that is easily legible onscreen and pages must not be skewed.
Scanned resolutions 1-bit black and white 300 dpi is usually acceptable. For plans/drawings containing fine lines 600 dpi resolution is required.
Do not reduce the scanned document size, as it renders the document slow to open.
Scanning documents in full colour is only necessary if it contains photographs.

E-mail / DVD / SFTP (Secure File Transfer Protocol):

Only re-submissions directly to the plan examiner are currently accepted by email. Initial submission of all applications must be made in person. Documents submitted by email must not exceed 10mb.
Large documents can be submitted via SFTP (Secure File Transfer Protocol) provided they do not exceed 10 files and 300mb in total number and size.
DVD must be re-writable and will be used to deliver the final issued documents.

Noncompliant submission may be subject to digitization fees and may delay processing times.

If you have any questions about the Electronic Submission Guidelines please do not hesitate to email Toronto Building's Electronic Service Delivery Team at bldesd@toronto.ca