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

502 Managing the Drafting Environment

Training, seminars, and learning material: Sending employees to training or purchasing training materials for them is often hard to justify financially. This is because at times the true return of investment (ROI) is unclear. You must determine as a company how training is conducted when a new release comes out or a new individual is brought onboard.

Managing the Drafting Environment

AutoCAD is a complex drafting program with many different options and support files. Proper management of the AutoCAD environment is not something that just happens overnight. Given the sophisticated drafting environment in AutoCAD, a small group of appointed individuals at your company should be in charge of making updates to support files. Having a small group in charge of updates is especially critical in preventing unauthorized changes that could affect new or existing drawings in a negative way when the files are shared with a large group of drafters. So what is included in the drafting environment?

When we say drafting environment, we’re not talking about background colors and size of the crosshairs — those things don’t affect the final output of a drawing file. Instead, we’re referring to template file locations and where AutoCAD looks for support files such as blocks, fonts, and customization. When you first install AutoCAD, it often looks locally for things such as menu customization, hatch patterns, blocks, fonts, drawing template files, and anything else that is ordinarily shipped with the product. Because AutoCAD doesn’t force specific locations for files, it allows you the flexibility to determine how you want to manage all these support files. The default out-of-the- box locations are local on the computer, but this is not the best way to manage support files.

If a CAD standard changes, you need to update the drawing template files; but if AutoCAD looks locally for these files, updating the files can be a nightmare, depending on how many users you are supporting. Instead of letting all users have their own copies of the drawing template files, place the drawing template files on the network and redirect AutoCAD to look in that location. This way, when a change is made, all the users get the change instantaneously.

All the support paths and folder locations in which AutoCAD looks for the files it needs are defined on the Files tab of the Options dialog box. This means that you can have your drawing template files, plot style files, font files, linetype definition files, and blocks on a network location so you don’t have to worry about any computer using outdated files when changes are made. This also gives you control over who can make changes to these files,

504 Creating a Good Foundation

Multiline styles: (Book II, Chapter 1)

Page setups: (Book VII, Chapter 1)

Table styles: (Book III, Chapter 1)

Text styles: (Book III, Chapter 1)

UCSs (User Coordinate System): (Book V, Chapter 3)

Viewports: (Book VII, Chapter 1)

Views: (Book II, Chapter 3)

Drawing objects in model and paper space: (Book I, Chapter 5)

Drawing limits and some drafting settings: (Book I, Chapters 5 and 6)

AutoCAD LT does not support the creation or editing of materials used for rendering 3D objects or Multiline styles used to create Multiline objects.

Creating a drawing template file

The following procedure uses the File menu to start the SAVEAS command and creates a drawing template file.

1.Create reusable content in the drawing that you want to have available when you use the template to create a new drawing.

2.From the File menu, choose Save As.

The Save Drawing As dialog box is displayed.

3.In the Save Drawing As dialog box, select AutoCAD Drawing Template (*.DWT) from the Files of Type drop-down list.

By default, AutoCAD navigates to the location that is specified for drawing template files when AutoCAD Drawing Template (*.DWT) is selected from the drop-down list. This location can be changed using the OPTIONS command. We recommend changing where AutoCAD looks for drawing template files to a centralized location, such as a network, to make it easy for multiple users to access the files.

4.Browse to a different location or use the location specified by AutoCAD for saving drawing template files.

5.Enter a different filename other than the one that AutoCAD provides by default.

You might want to add some information to the filename to help identify what the template is used for. For example, you might give your template the name E-Size Lot Plan if you are doing architectural drawings, or B- size Part if you are doing mechanical drawings.

506 Creating a Good Foundation

or each time AutoCAD starts. If no default template file is specified, the QNEW command behaves like the NEW command. To specify the default drawing template file that should be used, start the OPTIONS command and browse to the template that you want to use for the QNEW command under the Template Settings node of the Files tab.

Startup and Create New Drawing dialog boxes: Both the Startup (see Figure 1-2) and Create New Drawing dialog boxes are controlled by a setting in the Options dialog box. These dialog boxes are displayed when AutoCAD first starts up or when the NEW command is started. To control whether these dialog boxes are displayed on system startup, start the OPTIONS command and specify the value Show Startup dialog box from the Startup drop-down list under the General Options section of the System tab.

Figure 1-2:

A different take on startup.

Double-click drawing template file: From Windows Explorer, you can double-click a drawing template file to create a new drawing. If AutoCAD is not running already, it starts, and the new drawing is created.

Specifying a drawing template file for use with QNEW

Often, you find yourself using a specific drawing template repeatedly. The QNEW command was created for this situation. But out of the box, QNEW works just like the NEW command. To make the QNEW command live up to its potential, you need to specify the default drawing template to use through the Options dialog box. This saves you some time because you don’t have to browse and select the drawing template you commonly use for most of the new drawings you create.

The following procedure shows you how to use the Tools menu to start the OPTIONS command and specify a drawing template to use to create a new drawing when the QNEW command is used:

508 Creating a Good Foundation

Specifying the location of drawing template files

If you create templates for a number of users in your office, you want to be sure they can access them. To make the most of the time you spend creating your own templates, place them in a centralized location and then have AutoCAD look there for them. To specify where AutoCAD looks for drawing template files, you need to change a setting in the Options dialog box.

The following procedure shows you how to use the Tools menu to start the OPTIONS command and specify a new location for AutoCAD to look in for drawing template files when the NEW command is started (or at AutoCAD startup if the Startup dialog box is displayed):

1.From the Tools menu, choose Options.

The Options dialog box is displayed.

2.In the Options dialog box, click the Files tab along the top of the dialog box.

3.Click the plus sign next to Template Settings.

The settings that are related to this group are displayed with additional nodes.

4.Click the plus sign next to Drawing Template File Location.

5.Select the value under Drawing Template File Location and click Browse.

The Browse for Folder dialog box is displayed and allows you to select a new location that AutoCAD looks in for drawing template files.

6.In the Browse for Folder dialog box, specify the location for drawing template files.

The location can be on a local or network drive. Most commonly, if you are maintaining drawing template files for a group of users, you specify a location on a network drive.

7.Click OK.

The Browse for Folder dialog box closes and the value is added under the Drawing Template File Location node.

8.In the Options dialog box, click Apply or OK.

Clicking Apply saves the changes and keeps the dialog box displayed, whereas clicking OK saves the changes and closes the Options dialog box.

510 CAD Standards Overview

CAD standards affect both creating and editing geometry. This is because you are trying to make sure all your drawings look a certain way when they are plotted to paper. If everyone doesn’t follow CAD standards, you may edit someone else’s drawings only to discover that the established standards weren’t followed. Then, you have to spend additional time correcting the problem. Without CAD standards, all your objects would probably look the same, with none of the necessary variations.

The variations in a drawing help to convey a design idea that you have drafted. The variations might be in the form of different lineweights, linetypes, or even text styles. CAD standards cover the range of the drafting process from creation to presentation; for this reason, a specialized individual usually takes responsibility for CAD standards. In most midto large-size companies, CAD standards are determined by a CAD manager; in smaller companies, a senior level drafter often takes the responsibility. No matter who defines the CAD standards, they must be defined and understood by all drafters.

Below is an overview of some of the important things you should keep in mind when establishing or modifying a set of CAD standards:

Remember plotting. One of the key things to keep in mind when establishing CAD standards is how your drawings will look when they are plotted. This can affect such things as linetype scale, text size, dimension scale, and how you establish the use of lineweights for your objects.

Don’t make constant changes. We don’t recommend making changes to your CAD standards on a daily or even weekly basis; otherwise, you’re defeating the purpose of standards. And, as obvious as it sounds, remember to keep track of the changes you make. Changes might cause

problems for third-party applications or even possibly your own internal customization. Tracking changes provides a good way to keep track of when changes were made and also offers a way to communicate the standards to other drafters in the office when problems arise. Having an implementation date as to when the standards were updated ensures that everyone stays on the same page.

Keep it simple. One thing that can save you time is to create customization that incorporates your established CAD standards. If dimensions should be on a specific layer, consider customizing the menu items and toolbars so that they set a specific layer current before starting one of the dimension commands. You don’t have to be a power user to set up this type of customization, and it can cut down on errors and time.

Make it straightforward. CAD standards should not be in the form of complex manuals that require the use of a secret decoder ring to understand them. CAD standards should not only make sense to your internal drafters, but also to those with whom you share files. If you use cryptic