AutoCAD & AutoCAD LT All-In-One Desk Reference For Dummies (2006)

492 Outputting Made Easy

1.Click one of the paper space layout tabs at the bottom of the drawing window.

2.Use one of the previously listed methods to open the Plot dialog box.

3.In the Plot dialog box, if necessary, specify the printer/plotter, paper size, and the number of copies.

4.Under the Plot Area heading, select what you want to plot in the drawing — often, you select Layout when plotting a paper space layout tab.

The drop-down list contains a number of options that you can select. The only difference between plotting the Model tab and a paper space layout tab in this case is that there is a Layout (Paper Space Layout Only) option in place of the Limits option. With the Layout option, all the objects on the layout that fall within the specific printable area of the specified paper size are printed.

5.In the Plot Offset area, specify an X and a Y offset from the edge of the printable area.

6.In the Plot Scale area, you specify a scale of 1:1 from the drop-down list in almost all cases.

A scale of 1:1 is selected because the scale of the model geometry is handled by each of the floating viewports on the layout.

7.Click Preview and verify that everything you want to plot will fit. After you have finished verifying your drawing, right-click and select Exit to return to the Plot dialog box.

8.Click OK.

Scaling your drawing

When you output your drawings, you must specify a specific scale for your drawing. This means you don’t use the Fit to Paper check box in the Plot dialog box much. If you are plotting from the Model tab, you specify a drawing scale. The drawing scale is usually always determined up-front before you begin drawing, and Chapter 5 of Book I explains how to calculate this value. If you are plotting from a paper space layout, you use a scale of 1 to 1 (1:1) because the scaling of the geometry is handled by the floating viewports on the layout.

More plotting options

The Plot dialog box has a button with an arrow on it located in the lowerright corner; by default, this button points to the right. This is a toggle that expands the Plot dialog box and reveals additional settings that are not required to output a drawing but do affect the appearance of the output. Below is a list of these additional options that are revealed when the More Options button is clicked:

494 Publishing Drawings

Publishing Drawings

Using the PLOT command to output your drawings is easy if you only have a few drawings that need to be outputted, but it can be a very large task if you have many drawings and layouts. Prior to AutoCAD 2004, you had to use an external batch plotting utility in order to output many drawings at one time. AutoCAD 2004 introduced a command called PUBLISH. The PUBLISH command allows you to batch a number of drawings together in order to output them all based on their defined page setups or override that page setup with one of your choice. The other feature that the PUBLISH command introduced was multisheet .DWF files. Prior to AutoCAD 2004, .DWF files were only capable of containing a single representation of a layout from either the Model tab or a paper space layout tab.

The PUBLISH command in AutoCAD LT only supports plotting to .DWF files.

To start the PUBLISH command, use one of the following methods:

File menu: Click File Publish.

Standard toolbar: Click the Publish button on the Standard toolbar.

Keyboard input: Type PUBLISH and press Enter.

Right-click over a layout tab after multiple layout tabs: From the shortcut menu, select Publish.

The following procedure takes you step-by-step through the basics of using the Publish dialog box:

1.Use one of the previously listed methods to open the Publish dialog box.

The Publish dialog box (see Figure 3-8) is displayed. If no layout tabs were selected, all the open drawings and their layouts are pulled into the dialog box.

2.In the Publish dialog box, click the Add Sheets button to add layouts from other drawings not currently open in AutoCAD.

The Select Drawings dialog box is displayed.

3.In the Select Drawings dialog box, browse to and select the drawings whose layouts you want to add to the Publish dialog box. Click Open.

The Select Drawings dialog box closes and all the layouts in the selected drawings are imported into the list box.

4.If you do not want a layout that has been imported, select the layout from the list and right-click. From the shortcut menu, select Remove, and the layout is removed.

Publishing Drawings 495

Chapter 1: CAD Management:

The Necessary Evil

In This Chapter

Basics of CAD management

Managing the drafting environment

Creating a good foundation with drawing templates

AutoCAD & AutoCAD LT All-in-One Desk Reference For Dummies is designed to help both AutoCAD and AutoCAD LT users improve the

quality of the designs that they publish and effectively share them with others. As you progress through this book, you discover how to manage the drafting environment and CAD standards that are defined by your company, and some of the different ways to effectively work with drawing files.

CAD standards are one of those topics that is not discussed enough in the office, and yet they play a very important role in sharing drawing files. CAD standards ensure that the drawing files you create look similar to the drawing files that everyone else in the office creates. All the drawing files should have the same look and feel when they are presented to a potential client. If your work doesn’t have a uniform look, the client might get the impression that your company doesn’t have enough experience to handle the project.

After the drawing files have been completed, it’s usually time for them to be shared with others. During this stage of the project, you might find that printing hard copies and mailing them to the client or off-site team members takes too much time. If you need a timely response to a question or a change, you will most likely share files electronically. The type of file sharing you use depends on your target audience and the phase of the project. You might use a Web site to display files and images or use an Internet project site like Buzzsaw. In the end, you have to ensure that you are efficiently collaborating with your team and client.

Getting a Handle on the Basics of CAD Management

CAD management refers to managing the day-to-day operations involved in drafting with AutoCAD. CAD management is not necessarily the sole responsibility of one individual, but one individual often heads up the duties

500 Getting a Handle on the Basics of CAD Management

included in this area. If you are a midto large-size company, you might have a full-time CAD manager in this role; in a smaller company, the chores may be handled by a senior level drafter. The CAD manager may or may not be a supervisor at the company.

CAD management commonly covers the following areas:

Budgeting: Estimating the amount of money needed for a specific period of time for CAD-related expenses. This might be software upgrade costs, hardware purchases, office supplies (such as paper for the plotter), training costs, and even consulting fees.

CAD standards enforcement: Making sure that all drafters are following the company’s defined CAD standards — this is one of the responsibilities that many don’t like about CAD management. Ensuring that CAD standards are followed helps ensure that a high level of quality is maintained for drawings that are sent out.

Managing the drafting environment: Maintaining and managing support files through a centralized location to make sure that all drafters are using the same set of files when working with drawing files. This helps to reduce potential errors and the extra cost of keeping the files in sync if they are all running locally on each user’s own computer.

Conducting and coordinating training: Rolling out new procedures or even providing upgrade training for a new release. Training for upgrades might be outsourced, but the coordination of this training is usually handled by the individual responsible for CAD management in your office. Training might also be related to company rules and policies, and even departmental ones, if they exist.

Resource management: Overseeing the resource pool of CAD drafters to ensure that current and future projects are completed in a timely manner.

A project involves much more than just one drafter creating drawing files with AutoCAD; instead, a whole team with specialized skills is usually at work on a project. This team might include individuals who are responsible for overseeing the project, drafters, estimators, manufacturing and builders, and the client. This is the same approach that should be taken with CAD management and standards. One individual might have leadership responsibility, but everyone should be involved to a degree. Having everyone involved at some level helps to ensure that the standards are widely accepted and are uniform across an organization.

Due to the growing complexity of projects these days, more people from different areas of the company are getting involved, so having representation from across the company in defining CAD standards is a good idea. CAD standards shouldn’t just stay in the drafting department: The output from