Best pratice advice

[pottsk1]

I'll be working on a project where I'm told the drawing, tiff and shape files, along with all of the supporting files will be on the jump drive. This project is to add the tiffs and shape files to the drawing so the client can then ship it off to their client in Canada. What is a best pratice for making sure all files stay with the drawing so when it gets to Canada they can open it and have everything show on the screen? I'm using Infrastructure Suite 2013.  

Thanks in advance!

Kim

[tcorey]

Use eTransmit. This will make a single .zip file of all files needed to support the drawing you're transmitting.

xRefs, Data References, plot styles, font files, Shp files (if you connect using Data Connect, but not if you MapImport), etc., will all be included. You can add additional files to the zip if they are not included automatically. Files like excel and pdf files that are part of the project, but are not shown in the drawing would be examples of extra files you would add to the bundle.

[Pointdump]

Kim,

Tim's right.

Dave

[Jay_B · Accepted solution]

To add to the great advice.

Avoid saving Xref file path's, use relative path & setup project files in a single folder if possible.

This helps avoid the need for Reference Manager or REDIR command to find Xref's for the receiving party.

[pottsk1 · Accepted solution]

Where and what is this relative path & setup project files? I haven't came across it. I was going to use mapiinsert to bring in the .tfw file and mapimport for the shape files.

[pottsk1]

I will have the jump drive and I was going to copy everything from the jump to my C drive and then copy it all back when I am finished. I didn't plan on using data connect, I was planning on using the map features to insure the tfw file stays with the drawing.

[pottsk1]

I figured this out and it worked perfectly!

Thanks Jay

[Pointdump · Accepted solution]

Kim,

Advice you are getting mainly applies to Xref's. It can be a pain to get them to play together. This is the Reference Manager Jay mentioned:

Whenever I get a bunch-o-files like this, I've always thought it would be nice to have a Readme Textfile that listed what files were included and what to do with them. That goes double for prj, tfw, XML, shp, etc, files.

Dave

[pottsk1]

I showed my client how to do this for his future reference. I used mapimport and mapiinsert to make sure the translation and rotation held.
Thanks Dave!

[Jay_B]

Hi Dave,

I was referring to the external stand alone Reference Manager where xref paths can be edited in bulk.

Win Start Menu > All Programs > AutoDesk > Acad or C3d version > Reference Manager

[Pointdump]

Jay,

I didn't know about that Reference Manager. Thank you.

It's automatic. Cool!

Seems to even pick up Fonts and LineTypes and Layouts. I like!

Dave