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Location for templates, sheets, etc.

13 REPLIES 13
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Message 1 of 14
support
797 Views, 13 Replies

Location for templates, sheets, etc.

Please keep in mind that I'm not a CAD user, but an the IT individual charged with migrating and installing software.  However, I need to understand this and discuss with staff, so please be technical and bear with me.

 

I'm planning a migration from C3D 2010 to 2014.  We have five offices, all of which have libraries in their local servers.  Drawings are on local servers depending on which office owns the project.  Everyone has access to the drawing files on each server.  However, they all have separate libraries for sheet sets, templates, blocks, pen settings, etc.  They initially started off the same but each office did their own things.

 

I often hear that drawings get "butchered" when other offices touch them, although I don't know what this specifically means.  We are consultants so I understand that some clients want their drawings to look specific ways, so a specific CAD standard on how everything should look is.

 

From a CAD drafter standpoint, what are the advantages and disadvantages of incorporating all of our library locations to one?  Does it help when sharing drawings?  Keeping in mind that the IT aspect is not something you would need to be concerned about - ie. internet outage, mirroring technology used, etc.  I understand an advantage is that it makes changes (ie. branding changes, if necessary) much easier to deploy and upgrades much smoother.

13 REPLIES 13
Message 2 of 14
Joe-Bouza
in reply to: support

Don't concern your self too much with the "Butchered" drawing comment. Any time a drawing leaves an office and comes back its been butchered in the eyes of the receiver.

 

But back to you question. I'm a proponent of centralized locations for all this drawing related. If everyone looks at the same libraries Butchering becomes more of an ego complaint than fact, i.e. sharing drawings becomes easier.

 

One drawback and I know you said not to worry about the IT part but increased traffic on the central location can bog autocad performance. One villain in particular is Sheet Set Manager. You can Google SSM performance issues and get more on it.

 

I agree with you last sentence.

Thank you

Joseph D. Bouza, P.E. (one of 'THOSE' People)

HP Z210 Workstation
Intel Xeon CPU E31240 @ 3.30 Hz
12 GB Ram


Note: Its all Resistentialism, so keep calm and carry on

64 Bit Win10 OS
Message 3 of 14
support
in reply to: Joe-Bouza

Thanks for your comment, Joe.

 

You stated: "everyone looks at the same libraries Butchering becomes more of an ego complaint than fact, i.e. sharing drawings becomes easier."

 

HOW does everyone sharing the same library make it easier for sharing drawings?  This is what I'm really trying to understand.  Sorry, I'm not a CAD user 🙂

 

Thanks for the heads up on the style sheet manager.  My intention is for data mirroring across the sites.  All 5 offices have same content, but it will be local.  Users will interact with their local servers and only changes go across the WAN to other offices.  Only time users will interact with other office servers directly for libraries, etc. is if the local server goes down.

Message 4 of 14
Jay_B
in reply to: support


@Geoconsult-ICT wrote:

Everyone has access to the drawing files on each server.  However, they all have separate libraries for sheet sets, templates, blocks, pen settings, etc.  They initially started off the same but each office did their own things.


If I were in your situation the first thing I would attempt to resolve is the "They initially started off the same but each office did their own things" dilemma.

 

Without getting this in check and having a core standard for all offices to follow for all projects using "your company way" standards, anything you set up for them is likely not going to be used / followed either IMHO.

 

We have many offices that access the same "replicated" cad library, we manage this by use of (office specific) arg profiles.

Almost everything in the arg's imported is the same amongst all offices but there are a few differences such as:

 

Options>Files Tab>Printer Support File Path>

Subcategories here point to office specific folders and printers.

 

Options>Files Tab>Template Settings>

Subcategories here point to office specific folders (office address differences, different States etc.).

 

Then we create desktop icons and provide a profile switch for both Civil 3d ran as AutoCad and Civil 3d on the users desktop. The profile switch launches using their respective office specific user profiles.

 

 

 

C3D 2018.1
C3D 2016 SP4

Win 7 Professional 64 Bit
Message 5 of 14
support
in reply to: Jay_B

Jay - Thanks for your comments.  I am looking at addressing the issue where the content differs and why.  Everyone has different work flows and does things differently; those differenes need to be understood.  With regards to the way you describe your use of profiles for different offices, that's exactly what I'm looking at doing.  At minimum they will have all of the items available.

 

The real question still stands - How does a drafter benefit from the a setup Jay describes?

Message 6 of 14
Joe-Bouza
in reply to: support

Most butchering complaints are about the look of the drawing which equals content. If everyone is reaching for the same content there is less to gripe about, other than "our office is better that your office"

It sounds sophmoric because it is - we can all be babies at times
Thank you

Joseph D. Bouza, P.E. (one of 'THOSE' People)

HP Z210 Workstation
Intel Xeon CPU E31240 @ 3.30 Hz
12 GB Ram


Note: Its all Resistentialism, so keep calm and carry on

64 Bit Win10 OS
Message 7 of 14
Jay_B
in reply to: support

The drafter benefits from a well documented set of cad standards and workflow by having their daily working environment remain predictable and consistent from project to project regardless of project team members.

 

If the configuration is setup and working properly from the moment the software is launched then the designer can focus on their design and it becomes more work for them to deviate from the standard.

 

The organization benefits from ease of worksharing and increased efficiency and profit.

Tons of time is wasted by folks that don't think standards are necessary & then other folks need to pick up where they left it broken and have no clue where to begin.

 

We can literally go to another office for a day or 3 months and be set up exactly the same (using the same documented cad standards and profiles) with exception of the office specific variations mentioned in my previous post. This makes work sharing amongst our offices a breeze.

 

No we don't hire any robots and yes there are "human nature" variations for sure but the core standards and supporting files are the same and located on a read only library and must be followed.

C3D 2018.1
C3D 2016 SP4

Win 7 Professional 64 Bit
Message 8 of 14
troma
in reply to: support

A drafter will notice another drafter using the wrong layers or styles etc. within a drawing.  But a Project Manager has a different perspective; normally what the drawing looks like on paper.  From both perspectives there are different ideas about what works and looks best.  But even if there is no 'right' answer there does need to be a decision.  You may come to a point where you have to lock all the influential people up in a room together and tell them they're not coming out until they find a way forward that they all agree on.  Smiley Wink   Generally the bosses can see that finding and sticking to a company standard looks more professional, and when push comes to shove, they can find a compromise that accommodates the best parts of whatever various ideas were floating around.  (Although that applies more to the 'look on paper' side of it than the actual CAD standards side.)

 

I think it's great that you're doing this as you move to 2014.  You will be setting everything up from scratch anyway, so you may as well set it up identically everywhere.


Mark Green

Working on Civil 3D in Canada

Message 9 of 14
AllenJessup
in reply to: support

What is kept in the "libraries"? Are they Block libraries, Style libraries, Template, Plot Styles, stock notes?

 

A lot of the problems may occur when a drawing that references a drawing (block) called BASIN12 is opened in an office that either doesn't have that drawing or has one that now is different (They initially started off the same but each office did their own things).

 

This also goes for Civil 3D Styles. If a Surface Style "Existing Contour 1' & 5' (Background)" is set to a Surface in one office and another office has a different definition of it. When the second office opens the drawing and expect to see a Surface with that style be displayed a certain way and it doesn't. They'll overwrite the definition with their own. When the drawing is opened in the original office it has been "butchered".

 

There are often reasons for the differences between offices. If office "A" works with a very large industrial client doing site work for them. All their standards will most likely reflect what the client likes and what the municipalities where their major plants are require for site plans.

 

Office "B" may do a lot of work for the military or designing roads for Counties and the State they're in. So their standards will be based on what their major clients want and need. I've seen offices where there are different libraries for different clients or municipalities. In a large firm you can't help having these differences.

 

If you're going to share things between these offices. You're going to have to find a way to allow the differences. What need to be done is to find a way to handle how this happens. What I would suggest is that the office who has the lead on the project be given "ownership" of the files. The libraries they use should be available to every office. When office "B" opens one of office '"A"s files. They must have access to the correct support files and know (be told) to only use those support files.

 

The reason I would think that one office would be working on another offices drawing file would be because you have a specialist or group that specializes in a certain aspect of the work. That's fine. But they must know that they can't change the details and styles that the originating office has set up based on the clients needs.

 

The first part, making everything available to all the offices is the easy part. Making everyone adhere to the new policy will be the challenge.

 

Allen Jessup



Allen Jessup
Engineering Specialist / CAD Manager

Message 10 of 14
AllenJessup
in reply to: support

I also wanted to mention that the use of Civil 3D options like XRef and shortcuts (DRefs) are ways for users to have access to the contents of a file or the Civil 3D design elements. Without having to open the original drawing. It looks like you'll need to work with someone who understands how to use the program and these options.

 

Just as an example. The different Surface Style I mentioned in the previous post. If that were DRefed into a new drawing. The office could display and work with that Surface without disturbing the original file.

 

Allen



Allen Jessup
Engineering Specialist / CAD Manager

Message 11 of 14
support
in reply to: AllenJessup

I figured out the XREF'ing part (still don't know entirely what a DREF is, but I suspect it's drawing)  🙂  They don't do a lot of XREF'ing, which I imagine balloon's our drawing sizes....potentially making usability and reliability an issue! 

 

Either way, this helps me feel better about what I'm asking them to do because it also benefits me as I spend a lot of time setting CAD stations up when people move around, get new PCs, etc.  People like to be able to sit down and go.  And I am absolutly working with our drafters to accomplish this.

 

Thanks again.  I will add points and accept next week as I have to run.

Message 12 of 14
Jay_B
in reply to: support


@Geoconsult-ICT wrote:

I figured out the XREF'ing part (still don't know entirely what a DREF is, but I suspect it's drawing)  🙂  They don't do a lot of XREF'ing, which I imagine balloon's our drawing sizes....potentially making usability and reliability an issue! 


 A Data Shortcut (DREF) is Civil 3d's means of sharing Intelligent Civil 3d Objects in the form of an XML link which is a much smaller/lighter means of referencing compared to an xref. There is a dwg associated with every DREF xml link which is referred to as a Civil 3d Source dwg. (I realize your not a cad user so I'm trying to explain it as generically as possible). And yes the use of Xref's would also help keep file sizes down as well as other benefits such as being able to have different users working on various design components simultaneously.

 

C3D 2018.1
C3D 2016 SP4

Win 7 Professional 64 Bit
Message 13 of 14
AllenJessup
in reply to: support

Jay did a good job of explaining a DREF. You're linking to intelligent objects in another drawing and they can behave intelligently in the drawing they're inserted in. It's like linking to a table in access rather than inserting it in the current database.

 

The points about bloating drawings by not using Xrefs and Drefs are good. However I mentioned those because they are ways for users to show and work with objects in a drawing without altering the original drawing. So you're getting more than one benefit from including them in your workflow.

 

Allen Jessup



Allen Jessup
Engineering Specialist / CAD Manager

Message 14 of 14
AllenJessup
in reply to: support

Also. Whoever is in charge of your CAD workflow might want to read [this] documentation.

 

Sorry. Wrong link. Now it should be correct.

 

Allen



Allen Jessup
Engineering Specialist / CAD Manager

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