Creating a Template Title Block?

[E071804]

Ok I have had a different job for years and now I have a new job drawing in autocad lt. I havent used AutoCAD since R13 and wow things have changed. Now I am drawing streets and I have to have a Titleblock that I can use regularly. So I dont have to create a new one and set up my scales evertime I have a new drawing. Also a titleblock where it stores my scale as well as that I am drawing in feet, along with all of the same layers everytime. Can anyone help?

[Charles_Shade]

Do you have a drawing you are using already? If so, delete all the geometry and save as a DWT. Now you have a template with all your layers and such.
Is there not a Title Block in the plan already? If not, serach this forum as that question has been ongoing for about a month recently. There are standard templates that should have loaded with LT which should have title blocks you can use if they fit your need.
Regards, Charles Shade

[Modman_4]

...also, assuming you are now on a version of AutoCAD that supports annotative objects, you may want to do several things when setting up that template drawing. Below are only a few of them, but you may want to keep your eyes open for tips in the form of answers to problems posted in these forums:

1: Draw the model in modelspace, but put your template's border and title in paperspace. There are tabs that you can use to switch from one to the other now, instead of typing TILEMODE (which still does work). You can define the entire plotter setup on that paperspace tab, and copy that tab (along with that setup) numerous times, so you no longer need several borders in one paperspace tile.
2: Viewport scales are easy to assign now -- it's practically point and click, no more need to use zoomscale (which still does work). The viewports can be locked so you can work right through them, zooming in and out without screwing up the scale. What scale do you think you would normally have a viewport set to the most commonly? You can go to the modelspace tile and set the annotative scale of modelspace so your linetypes will show up as they would in paperspace. Hit F1 and start reading up on it! Also, in your template you can eliminate the preset scales that you don't think you'll be using. This will speed up your drawing's performance.
3: Set LTSCALE, MSLTSCALE, PSLTSCALE and CELTSCALE all to 1, and then load the linetypes you would most commonly use. AutoCAD has 3 choices for most of these, so see which ones look the best without resorting to overriding the scale. In relation to all of this, check the MEASUREMENT variable and UNITS db so that your template is using the correct units of measurement. There's one more I keep forgetting, but Dean S knows it, that gives 6 choices (4 are metric) of how your drawing reads a unit.
4: Learn about annotative objects. Text objects, dimensions and hatches are some of the handiest. In my line of work, so are annotative blocks. For dimensions, you can define one dimension style (for example) in paperspace, showing exactly how you want it to look. Then by making it all annotative, you can use it in any viewport and it'll resize itself automatically, without the need for a separate definition or layer for each scale. Hit F1 and read up!
5: Learn about fields. You can go into your drawing properties and on the custom tab you can define a custom property along with its default value. Then in your titleblock you can insert "fields" as text objects, and tell the fields where to look for their custom property, and return the value contained within. If you have several borders/titles within one drawing (remember the multiple paperspace tabs), then you can fill in the common information by editing the values contained in the custom properties tab of the drawing properties db. Another use of fields would be to create something similar to a plot stamp, wherein the fields are used to look up certain info about the drawing (such as user or path) and display it somewhere.

Okay there is so much more you can learn, considering you have a steep learning curve concerning the upgrade from R13, but I hope this has pointed out some stuff that is really neat about the latest versions, as well as providing a huge jump forward regarding templates. One last note about annotative objects. As long as you aren't dealing with 2007 or older on a regular basis, set your SAVEFIDELITY variable to zero, as it otherwise results in really long saves with some setups. Good Luck and better get crackin'! 🙂