The reason for the "not started" status is to make things a little clearer
for the non engineering types who are wondering at what stage their project
is currently at.

"Fred" wrote:

I've been running engineering intensive high tech companies (including
hands-on organization of engineering departments and drawing systems) since
1982, and am an engineer.

Drawing and revision tracking and related control systems vary from the
simplest case (which Steve described and is claiming to be universal) to far
more complex systems.

And "not started" can indeed be a valid status. And indeed, in 95% of all
systems if new drawings have an identifying number (e.g. drawing number) when
they are started, then the number is taken out / allocated prior to starting
the drawing, and typically the tracking DB is the control point for drawing
numbers. In such systems (which are the norm) the record / drawing number
always exists prior to the drawing being started thus a "not started" phase
is not only valid, but a stage the EVERY drawing record goes through.