Drawing file structure

[lsimms1]

What would make a good working file structure?
Right now, we have a
topo drawing with og surface
base drawing -copy of topo with line work in 2d, and og surface referenced in, pipes reference, alignments referenced, proposed linework (ep, lot lines,sw, etc), grading design with feature lines
pipes drawing - base drawing x-ref, og surface referenced, alignments referenced, corridor surfaces referenced, all pipe designs
Plan and profile drawings - base drawing x-ref, og surface reference, pipes reference, alignment for other streets referenced, alignment main street, profile, corridor
Needless to say, we have circular references in here. This seems to be causing most of our saving problems, and other crashes. Most of the time we end up with multiple users on each project, and need to have separate drawings. The size of most of the projects would also be a problem as they are usually quite large.
I need to fix our file structure in order to stabilize our drawings. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks

[klugb]

First off, everyone seems to do it different.

We ran into a lot of issues in plan production early on with xref'ing Civil 3D drawings. We had projects that had xrefs dragging surfaces to the plan sheets that we did not want. One project had (4) copies of the same surface xrefed and 3 of them were annotated in different drawings. The other big issue for speed was grabbing "base" drawings with multiple corridors.

The "basic" setup now is we do not xref any C3D working drawings. We Data shortcut in as much as possible and anything that is not C3D based goes into our Linework.dwg.

I have our layout in the attached PDF that shows how we organize our drawings and Data shortcuts.
I also attached how we organize our folders on the network. Under the project folder we have each section: Design, Survey, Environmental...
Then under Design we have a Civil3D folder with the data separated accordingly.

Bruce

[lsimms1]

Thanks Bruce
A few of us had a meeting late yesterday and came up with something similar to yours. I was afraid to try the new idea not knowing if it would work or make things worse. You have confirmed we are on the right track, and this should work out.

Thanks again,
Leah

[idmadcadder]

I agree with Bruce. Keeping all these drawings seperated, and using Overlays a majority of the time will save the user a lot of time. I've found this workflow to be very, very streamlined.

One of the things I do differently is have at Civil 3D shortcuts folder in one central location on the server with all the project numbers underneath it, and only data shortcuts in those folders. Makes for quicker changes if you have to change which project your working on. We had also used this same process when we used LDD. One good thing is that no one ever needs to physically get into those folders, or accidently does something to them because they only ever get a path set to them, and since they are out of the project folders where the docs and dwgs are no one is cruising around in there in windows explorer.

Brent Daley
Civil Designer/CAD Services Manager
The Land Group, Inc.

[klugb]

We debated the DS location early on, but our archiving policies require that all data for every department has to be under the main project folder. Some people still struggle with DS's in out office but I am test 2011 and it has the ability to assign the DS path to the drawing which will save some confusion.

I'm always open to better ways of setup & management of data. It will always get tweaked as we go along.

Bruce