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How is AutoCad being used in your company?

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Message 1 of 40
dqueen
418 Views, 39 Replies

How is AutoCad being used in your company?

This is a very broad question, but there is a reason. My company uses AutoCAD, Microstation and PDMS. I am in charge of AutoCAD for my company and I am trying to set goals for where our company should be headed with AutoCad. My question to anyone is how is AutoCad being used in your companies. Are you using 3rd party software? If so what?Are you using paper space? If so do you use it all the time or just in certain cases? What are you doing with 3D and rendering? What are your clients asking for? Also, we are a multi-office firm and we share work between office across the WAN. How do you share work? What problems have you seen? It seems that my company has come to a stand still, and I need suggestions for the future. There is so much out there, and that makes it hard to decide which way to go. I am looking for what you are doing and seen. Anything you would like to share would be helpful.
39 REPLIES 39
Message 2 of 40
Anonymous
in reply to: dqueen

Poorly...   :o(


style="PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">
This
is a very broad question, but there is a reason. My company uses AutoCAD,
Microstation and PDMS. I am in charge of AutoCAD for my company and I am
trying to set goals for where our company should be headed with AutoCad. My
question to anyone is how is AutoCad being used in your companies. Are you
using 3rd party software? If so what?Are you using paper space? If so do you
use it all the time or just in certain cases? What are you doing with 3D and
rendering? What are your clients asking for? Also, we are a multi-office firm
and we share work between office across the WAN. How do you share work? What
problems have you seen? It seems that my company has come to a stand still,
and I need suggestions for the future. There is so much out there, and that
makes it hard to decide which way to go. I am looking for what you are doing
and seen. Anything you would like to share would be
helpful.
Message 3 of 40
Anonymous
in reply to: dqueen

We are also using very little of the software's
capabilities. Please don't start the "get some training" rant because I've
tried. I've been given 1 day a week to implement training, standards, new
techniques, etc but I'm already billing 50+ hours per week. Oh, That's a little
rant of my own. Sorry. 

 

I've implemented a fairly extensive use of
paperspace. To me it just makes life so much easier to have consistent plot
scales sheet setups, etc. Prior to my joining the organtization, we had an
official CAD group policy that prohibited use of XREFs. This policy was quickly
abandoned but we still have issues with managing xrefs.

 

We tried sharing LDT projects over a WAN but the
problem is sDSL line speed. It's simply too slow to allow us to open files over
the line. This forces our users to copy files from one server to their local
server and make the changes to the local copy. Then, the users copy the
files back across the wire to the project server. Since we have LDT, there are
more than DWG files involved, like point database, surfaces, alignments,
profiles, cross sections but the users only copy the DWG file, not the
other supporting files. Before you know it, we're missing sampled profile data,
etc and I have to figure out what happened! If anyone has suggestions, I'd be
open to hearing them.

 

BTW, we are a large 500+ engineering firm and you'd
think we would have the $$$ to fix some of these issues. Unfortunately,
investing in technology is not a priority for the firm. (Crank out plans &
give the Board the profits)

 

Not much help but at least I know I'm not alone.
Good luck to you,

 

JL

 

 

 


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Poorly...   :o(


style="PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">
This
is a very broad question, but there is a reason. My company uses AutoCAD,
Microstation and PDMS. I am in charge of AutoCAD for my company and I am
trying to set goals for where our company should be headed with AutoCad. My
question to anyone is how is AutoCad being used in your companies. Are you
using 3rd party software? If so what?Are you using paper space? If so do you
use it all the time or just in certain cases? What are you doing with 3D and
rendering? What are your clients asking for? Also, we are a multi-office
firm and we share work between office across the WAN. How do you share work?
What problems have you seen? It seems that my company has come to a stand
still, and I need suggestions for the future. There is so much out there,
and that makes it hard to decide which way to go. I am looking for what you
are doing and seen. Anything you would like to share would be
helpful.
Message 4 of 40
Anonymous
in reply to: dqueen

I can't believe someone else is asking this
question.

My group buys new equipment, and doesn't draw,
except for the plant engineers.  They do the layouts.  All of these
people have less than 7 years with us, and most less than that.  They all
come from different companies and bring with them those ideas.  Most can't
use Paint Brush.  Then after we check the drawings for accuracy, we send
the drawings to the plant.  Here lies the problems.  Different
companies drawing to their standards, then send them to us, but we don't check
them because we don't know how.  One drawing per sheet.  No xrefs, and
the titleblock has attributes, the titleblock has to be changed per plant. 
And that is not getting done.

We don't have a good CAD leader.  He just
hands out a blank copy of AutoCAD, or Microstation, CATIA is for product. 
No 3rd party stuff for CAD, but for PDM that different.  Custom made from
PTC.

We do have a CAD guru, but he can't use it. 
He came from academia.

Don't even think of asking about a Standard. 
How does all details on one layer sound.

Lead, follow, or get out of the way.  I am not
the salesman in the department.  So I would like to move to some other
company that has a Standard, does 3D, and people of interest in CAD.  I
don't care what kind of CAD, just as long as it is CAD.

Do your people work together well?  Does you
management listen to the end user, or to someone from academia?  Do you
have up to date workstations?  Is you CAD Standard easy to
follow?

There are other questions, but that has to do
with money, and I won't bring that up.

Later

Kirk Crawford

The Big Three plus one buy in.


style="PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">
This
is a very broad question, but there is a reason. My company uses AutoCAD,
Microstation and PDMS. I am in charge of AutoCAD for my company and I am
trying to set goals for where our company should be headed with AutoCad. My
question to anyone is how is AutoCad being used in your companies. Are you
using 3rd party software? If so what?Are you using paper space? If so do you
use it all the time or just in certain cases? What are you doing with 3D and
rendering? What are your clients asking for? Also, we are a multi-office firm
and we share work between office across the WAN. How do you share work? What
problems have you seen? It seems that my company has come to a stand still,
and I need suggestions for the future. There is so much out there, and that
makes it hard to decide which way to go. I am looking for what you are doing
and seen. Anything you would like to share would be
helpful.
Message 5 of 40
Anonymous
in reply to: dqueen

Boy, there is a loaded question 8-)

 

Lets see, My company probably uses AutoCAD
differently then 95% of the others here so our experience is most likely
different.  The company is a mining company and thus must work fully in 3D
to design and optimise the ore body.  Paperspace is a must because of the
various angles that must be viewed for the working underground.  To assist
with this we use a very advanced addon package called A-Mine.  This package
assists the user in designing and developing the working underground in
3D.  It has plotting customisation utilities, blasting design,
ventiliation, Geology modeling and drill hole design/grade calculators. 
The biggest advantage is the drawing manager and standards database.  All
these tools assist but when it comes right down to it, it is still AutoCAD and
has its own little quirks!

 

Paperspace is used all the time and we would like
to use rendering but since AutoCAD can't plot rendered viewports in paperspace
we replace the rendering with solid fill hatches, hopefully someday they will be
able to plot shaded viewports. 

 

We have no clients except ourselves.  No
different file standards to deal with, no sloppy design that don't meet
standards... it is nice!

 

By the way, we were a Microstation shop but
switched 2 years ago to AutoCAD.  Head office wanted to standardise on one
package and most of the other mine site were using AutoCAD.  This was a
painful transition but now that it is over it is business as usual.

 

Anyway, good luck, hopefully you find the answers
your looking for!

 

Shawn Romkey

Noranda Mining and Exploration

 


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This
is a very broad question, but there is a reason. My company uses AutoCAD,
Microstation and PDMS. I am in charge of AutoCAD for my company and I am
trying to set goals for where our company should be headed with AutoCad. My
question to anyone is how is AutoCad being used in your companies. Are you
using 3rd party software? If so what?Are you using paper space? If so do you
use it all the time or just in certain cases? What are you doing with 3D and
rendering? What are your clients asking for? Also, we are a multi-office firm
and we share work between office across the WAN. How do you share work? What
problems have you seen? It seems that my company has come to a stand still,
and I need suggestions for the future. There is so much out there, and that
makes it hard to decide which way to go. I am looking for what you are doing
and seen. Anything you would like to share would be
helpful.
Message 6 of 40
Anonymous
in reply to: dqueen

We're a relatively small office, so all files are
shared across a LAN, not a WAN.

 

We're using ADT3.3.  Implementation is spotty,
a few people get it, a few people don't.  We're small enough that we
finally decided that the best thing to do is for me to just sit one on one with
everyone in the office until they get it.

 

We use xrefs, and paper space.

 

ADT handles a lot of 3D stuff for us, and one guy
here is very adept at solids modelling in ACAD.  I've also done a
reasonable amount of solids modelling.

 

We have set up ADT witht ehflexLM license manager,
and have one license each for Viz and Raster Design.  Neither of those gets
used a whole lot, although Raster Design is getting used more and more
-slowly.  I'd like to see us use more Viz, but only one person in the
office has any Viz training, and none of the rest of us have time to train
ourselves.

 

There are a few 3rd party apps in use.  DTI's
free ADT tools, a plot logger, some added hatch patterns, and the old express
tools. I've evaluated a few others, and would really like to get one or two, but
the budget has gotten very tight.  Also, I fingd that a lot of the third
party packages duplicate each other  - So Rob Starz and DTI offer some very
similar functions, even if they use different methods.  Since getting
everyone over the learning curve hump is already a problem, I am limiting the
number of add-ons for now.  (don't worry, Rob, someday I'll be a
customer).  It may seem odd to limit the number of options people have,
since increawed productivity is the goal, but in truth, some people here are so
overwhelmed already, and I have to expand their personal capabilities
first.


style="PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">
This
is a very broad question, but there is a reason. My company uses AutoCAD,
Microstation and PDMS. I am in charge of AutoCAD for my company and I am
trying to set goals for where our company should be headed with AutoCad. My
question to anyone is how is AutoCad being used in your companies. Are you
using 3rd party software? If so what?Are you using paper space? If so do you
use it all the time or just in certain cases? What are you doing with 3D and
rendering? What are your clients asking for? Also, we are a multi-office firm
and we share work between office across the WAN. How do you share work? What
problems have you seen? It seems that my company has come to a stand still,
and I need suggestions for the future. There is so much out there, and that
makes it hard to decide which way to go. I am looking for what you are doing
and seen. Anything you would like to share would be
helpful.
Message 7 of 40
dqueen
in reply to: dqueen

Thanks at least I see we are not the only ones. LOL
Message 8 of 40
dqueen
in reply to: dqueen

All of our office seem to be doing different things. We use the AIA layer standards that are posted on our intranet, but people don't look at them. We also have standards from clients that we must follow at times. The offices don't work very well together it seems to be a us against them type of deal. We are working on this we have established a standards commity with people from all offices, so hopefully things will get better. We use straight AutoCAD 2000i, ADT3.3 and LDT 3. We have custom menus and lisp routines that I have created, and it uses lisp to create the proper layers for objects but I want to search out the best 3rd party software so I can stop updating our in house stuff. As far as money and management I think that is the same in every company.
Message 9 of 40
dqueen
in reply to: dqueen

Yes you do use AutoCAD differently. We are an Architectural and Engineering firm so the type of work we do is different. Our civil group uses LDT3 and our Architects use ADT3.3. That is a problem in itself because of errors civil gets when the Architects have opened files with ADT3.3, but that would be a different post. We use paper space but it is not used all the time in all offices. It cause problems when a office is doing work for another office who is using paper space and the other office may not be as up to speed with paper space. There are pros and cons to paper space and I am trying to figure out the best way to go. We do have customized menus and lisp routines that I have created over the years and we also use the old express tools. I would like to go to all 3rd party software, but finding the best one at the cheapest price is always a problem. 3d is used very little here and I truely think we need to be headed in that direction. ADT3.3 and LDT3 use 3d but most of the time people just use the 2d features. We are doing PDMS which is all 3d and it has been very impressive and I am trying to make things exciting and get people motivated about doing the same thing with AutoCAD but not sure how to get that done. Thanks for your input and anything else you might come up with please pass alone.
Message 10 of 40
dqueen
in reply to: dqueen

The learning curve is a problem. Our Architects use ADT3.3 but do not use it to its fullest. I am trying to figure out if we are way behind other companies but from the replies I have gotten it seems we are all in the same boat. There is so much out there but money and learning is always an issue. Do you use paper space at all times? Do you bind xref's before sending to a client. There are more questions I could ask but don't want this post to be a mile long. Thanks for your input.
Message 11 of 40
Anonymous
in reply to: dqueen

We don't bind.  We have started using the
etransmit tool, which strips saved xref paths.  I actually set the standard
to not save the path, for a variety of reasons, but I have not found a way to
make not saving the default (there's probably a registry hack for that, maybe
someone knows what it is.

 

Ideally, I'd use paper space all the time, and put
all annotation in paper space.  But, ADT cannot yet tag through xrefs and
paper space.  Nor can you save a block with both PS and MS elements (If you
could, and you inserted the block in ms, where would it insert the ps components
- I wonder)  So, we are horribly inconsistent.  I hate it, but it's
the best we can do at the current state fo the program.

 

Post wishes!  Let them know how you need the
program to work.  And post the mile long list of questions, I'll answer as
best I can.


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The
learning curve is a problem. Our Architects use ADT3.3 but do not use it to
its fullest. I am trying to figure out if we are way behind other companies
but from the replies I have gotten it seems we are all in the same boat. There
is so much out there but money and learning is always an issue. Do you use
paper space at all times? Do you bind xref's before sending to a client. There
are more questions I could ask but don't want this post to be a mile long.
Thanks for your input.
Message 12 of 40
dqueen
in reply to: dqueen

I try and use the etransmit whenever possible but we have clients that will not except files with xrefs attached. I think it is a lack of understanding on their part. For some reason user's in my office have been reluctant to learn paper space. It is a different concept with do's and dont's but once you understand those it is not hard to work in.

You put all annotation in pspace? I suggested that and everyone was like, NO, if something moves you have to go into pspace and move the text. They put all the text in mspace and have different text heights for the different scale vports on a different layer. It works, just adds some steps and makes the drawing bigger than it has to be in my opinion. Now with the inplace xref edit feature and working in floating mspace those changes can be made a lot easier.

We do a lot of work using the xclip feature instead of using pspace. My user's understand this better for some reason. Our clients in this area also don't understand the pspace concept so there has not been a real issue. Now our other offices use pspace which in turn causes problems when our office helps out on a job because of the lack of understanding by my user's. I am here most of the time to answer questions if the get stuck but I can't always be here. When have done training classes and users groups but for some reason pspace is hard for the to understand.
Message 13 of 40
Anonymous
in reply to: dqueen

I remember hating the idea of annotation is pspace
in r12, and I think I had good reasons.  For one thing, it took forever to
regenerate.  Locking viewports has been the key to making it work. 
Also, we will do several sepate sheets as layouts in a single file, so
annotation in mspace forces you to use multiple annotation layers, which
invariably leads to errors.  I think  that once people grasped the
"building model in one file, annotation in another" concept, then the thought of
having the sheet file be essentially all paper space made a lot of sense. 
Now I just need Autodesk to solve the programming challenges for tagging through
xrefs and ps/ms (they admit to having given this a high priority for a future
release, which is remarkably forthcoming of them for a product in development,
but consistent with their information policies, they won't tell us for which
upcoming release it is a high priority)

 

Do you have a lot of drafters who have been around
for a while?  That may be part fo the problem.  I have found that a
lot of drafteers resist implementingthings that really didn't work in previous
releases.  I'm lucky in the current setup in that I have only two drafters
here with more than a couple years experience, and both of them are quite
willing to try new things.

 

Xref clipping is a viable alternative.  One of
the frequent participants in this NG uses it instead of paperspace, and will
argue at length that it is the better system.  It certainly works, but
which is better is a question that has to be ansewered in a larger contect,
involving work flow, company standards, client standards, consultants standards,
etc.  Whichever system is going to get you to the end of the job in the
most profitable manner is the better one.

 

As far as understanding pspace, if your company
decides that it should be the standard, require everyone to use it.  After
three or four drawins, they'll get it, or they won't.  If they don't, maybe
they could fill some other role int eh coimpany better than they fill the
drafter role.


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I
try and use the etransmit whenever possible but we have clients that will not
except files with xrefs attached. I think it is a lack of understanding on
their part. For some reason user's in my office have been reluctant to learn
paper space. It is a different concept with do's and dont's but once you
understand those it is not hard to work in.

You put all annotation in pspace? I suggested that and everyone was like,
NO, if something moves you have to go into pspace and move the text. They put
all the text in mspace and have different text heights for the different scale
vports on a different layer. It works, just adds some steps and makes the
drawing bigger than it has to be in my opinion. Now with the inplace xref edit
feature and working in floating mspace those changes can be made a lot easier.

We do a lot of work using the xclip feature instead of using pspace. My
user's understand this better for some reason. Our clients in this area also
don't understand the pspace concept so there has not been a real issue. Now
our other offices use pspace which in turn causes problems when our office
helps out on a job because of the lack of understanding by my user's. I am
here most of the time to answer questions if the get stuck but I can't always
be here. When have done training classes and users groups but for some reason
pspace is hard for the to understand.

Message 14 of 40
Anonymous
in reply to: dqueen

Charles,

Probably the biggest issue I have AGAINST the "let's put all our annotation
in paperspace" ideology is this:

If you would like your consultants to actually attempt to *use* your
drawings as a background for theirs, don't you think it would be a good idea
if they could *see* said annotation so as to discern what your design intent
is? If all that drawing information - notes, dimensions, etc. - is placed
in the paperspace layouts it really creates difficulties (unneccessarily,
IMO) for the consultants who are trying to coordinate their plans with
yours, since all that information is effectively lost when the drawings are
xreffed.

It has always seemed to me that the more readily information is shared
amongst the design teams the better off the project tends to proceed and
develop, since coordination issues and problem areas are more easily
*noticed* (<-to me, this is a good thing). Hiding away all that information
in paperspace just seems to me to be needlessly creating additional barriers
for that to happen.

Or - do you have a simple way to share such paperspace info with your
consultants (and their draftsmen, who are hopefully awake enough to notice
when something major has changed in the design) so that such things are not
a problem?

Curious,
David Kozina
Message 15 of 40
dqueen
in reply to: dqueen

You make a good point and I wish I had a simpler way. When you work in a multi discpline firm and xref's are being used you would like for the xref to be as clean as possible in my opinion. It makes it diffcult for other's referencing your base plan to have to turn 2 or 3 different text layers off because they don't need to see that information. I know when you get everything turned off that you don't need to see, and setting visretain to 1 it holds for the next time you call that drawing up but it does slow down the drawing. Also remembering to use vplayer to freeze this in this view and freeze that in the other view is also time consuming. There is no right or wrong answer, it is just finding the right one for my firm.
Message 16 of 40
Anonymous
in reply to: dqueen

If I put all my annotation in the same file as my model (the all in one
approach), my consultants need to undertand how I have distinguished
between, say, floor plan text, and ceiling plan text. I would probably have
done this using layers. In fact, if I had done the all in one approach, I
would make ample use of the layer state tools that were added first as an
express tool, then as part fo ADT's layer manager, and then as part fo the
core ACAD program. the consultant would need to know which one I used,
since all three exist simultaneously, and would bneed to have the same one
available to him - hopefully I was thoughtfull enough to use the one
available in the core, but maybe my consultant uses an earlier release, and
doesn't have any layer state tools available to him. So, once we get all
sorted out about what annotation is on what layer, the consultant can start
his work. Now, he can continue the all in one approach (I prefer that he
does not, but that's another discussion), in whcih case he needs to create
his own annotation layers, or he can xref my base file into his drawing, and
then add annotation. But, he is ultimatly going to freeze my annotation so
it doesn't appear as part of his drawing. He could, I suppose, simply make
my annotation layers non-plotting so he could read my notes while drafting,
but then he has an awfull lot of extraneous information on the page.

OR, I could put all my annotation in a separate sheet file, and send that to
the consultant along with the base plan. The consultant can then use that
file to create his own sheet file, since it already set up with viewports,
etc. If I have put all my annotation in model space, though, he has to
freeze it, or erase it.
If I put all my annotation in in a layout, the consultant can then copy the
entire layout, and erase all the annotation off of the copy, nd start his
own. If he wants to look at mine, he can just switch layouts. Simple as
that. So, it seems to me that having annotation in a separate sheet file is
decidedly better, which is probably why the AIA and NCS adopted that
approach (scary to thing that they might have been right about something).
If all the annotation is in a separate file, it should all be in one space,
paper or model. But xrefing doesn't lose anything, so far as I can tell.

That does not particularly address changes while the job is in progress.
That's a more complicated issue.





"David Kozina" wrote in message
news:B7E0E6DD2E893E21029F4D329D6EDDEA@in.WebX.maYIadrTaRb...
> Charles,
>
> Probably the biggest issue I have AGAINST the "let's put all our
annotation
> in paperspace" ideology is this:
>
> If you would like your consultants to actually attempt to *use* your
> drawings as a background for theirs, don't you think it would be a good
idea
> if they could *see* said annotation so as to discern what your design
intent
> is? If all that drawing information - notes, dimensions, etc. - is placed
> in the paperspace layouts it really creates difficulties (unneccessarily,
> IMO) for the consultants who are trying to coordinate their plans with
> yours, since all that information is effectively lost when the drawings
are
> xreffed.
>
> It has always seemed to me that the more readily information is shared
> amongst the design teams the better off the project tends to proceed and
> develop, since coordination issues and problem areas are more easily
> *noticed* (<-to me, this is a good thing). Hiding away all that
information
> in paperspace just seems to me to be needlessly creating additional
barriers
> for that to happen.
>
> Or - do you have a simple way to share such paperspace info with your
> consultants (and their draftsmen, who are hopefully awake enough to notice
> when something major has changed in the design) so that such things are
not
> a problem?
>
> Curious,
> David Kozina
>
>
Message 17 of 40
Anonymous
in reply to: dqueen

As a free-for all. Every engineer draws what he wants, how he wants, the
way he wants. Agreed upon standards are ingored. THe engineer then takes
his conceptualization and used his documents to build/complete the
project. Then and only then do they "submit" their drawings (?) to CAD
for conversion to comply with standards. If I find a conflict or ????
They don't care, as they wenet ahead and built it, and because they
built on the fly, true documentation to the actual finished product is
just something they don't care about.
heck, some even use Visio, then come ask how do I how can I, etc, and
let me figure everything out after the fact, on;y because the customer
wants something they can understand, and because the customer wants all
the documents to be somewhat similar in presentation....

Sign me - Frustrated and looking for a real professional position....
Phil(NM)


dqueen wrote:
>
> This is a very broad question, but there is a reason. My company uses
> AutoCAD, Microstation and PDMS. I am in charge of AutoCAD for my
> company and I am trying to set goals for where our company should be
> headed with AutoCad. My question to anyone is how is AutoCad being
> used in your companies. Are you using 3rd party software? If so
> what?Are you using paper space? If so do you use it all the time or
> just in certain cases? What are you doing with 3D and rendering? What
> are your clients asking for? Also, we are a multi-office firm and we
> share work between office across the WAN. How do you share work? What
> problems have you seen? It seems that my company has come to a stand
> still, and I need suggestions for the future. There is so much out
> there, and that makes it hard to decide which way to go. I am looking
> for what you are doing and seen. Anything you would like to share
> would be helpful.

--
ÐÏ'ࡱá
Message 18 of 40
Anonymous
in reply to: dqueen

AutoCAD is used to prepare all engineering (civil) drawings and some
other graphics (diagrams).

3rd party software is used -
- Land Development Desktop
- 12D Civil Design Package
- PCDRAIN Drainage design
- Toolpac (Dotsoft)
- Quikpik
- Periscope
- Express Tools

Paper Space is always used to plot hardcopy drawings at A1, A3 and A4
sizes. Paper space page layouts are stored as a block on the server with
all required printer settings, CTB files etc. The block is inserted into
drawings. Borders and Title blocks are set up as attributed blocks. We
use RTEXT blocks for Plot date, File Name etc.

We encourage the use of XREFs

We do not do much 3D presentation or rendering. AutoCAD is used if
required.

Clients require -
- black and white contract drawings (60% ?)
- B&W base with some color shading and hatching (20% ?)
- Color drawings and charts with images, photos etc on paper (15% ?)
- Color 3D renderings on gloss paper (5% ?)

We do not share work across a WAN. Each of eight offices uses a server
independently. Project work is generally not shared but allocated to one
office. Files within an office are stored on the server. Software is
loaded locally.

Common problems are -
- non-standard layers (we have no standard layer names)
- non-standard local grid coordinate systems
- tracking revisions and amendments in the data base (we are
implementing a custom drawing registry)
- transfer formats (distributing drawings to non-AutoCAD clients)
- sharing data across project teams in different locations

Doug Boys Cardno MBK Brisbane Australia
Message 19 of 40
Anonymous
in reply to: dqueen

I wasn't trying to say that the consultants would be wanting to *add* more
layers and annotation to *your* drawings in order to use them - that would
be madness. My point was trying to *xref* such drawings into their own (to
use as a background or point of reference). I think most people have
figured out ways to freeze or thaw whatever layers they need to see - if the
drawing uses them consistently, this is a non-issue for me. But any
drawings containing annotations made in paperspace layouts will be severely
lacking in detail - especially with regards to dimensions - as soon as it's
xreffed into another drawing. Or am I missing something here? I've always
understood that paperspace objects don't travel well thru xrefs. Has this
changed?

It seems to me that if one wishes to go the 'keep the annotation separate
from the model' route, the most 'consultant-friendly' approach would be to
simply xref in the 'annotationless' "model drawing" into a separate plot
drawing *in modelspace* and then annotate the thing to your hearts content
BUT DO IT *in modelspace*. Then send *both* drawings to the consultants as
needed. (Usually we get sent the annotation drawing but not the model
)

Perhaps I'm not following your suggested usage of Layouts for consultants
and what will happen when you send him an updated file - Layouts won't carry
thru xrefs if he is xreffing your drawing into his own, will they? OTOH, if
he has simply renamed your original drawing AE201 to SE201, say, in order to
copy and use the layouts and viewports and such that you have kindly
provided in the original file - how will he manage to avoid overwriting his
own stuff when he gets an updated AE201? (Say that he has added his own
layout(s) to SE201 in the meantime).
What would he need to do with the new AE201 in order to coordinate his own
drawings with the new ones you sent?

Still curious and likely a tad slow,
David Kozina


"Charles Prettyman" wrote in message
news:A4F969CF5F8FBA85168BDA37CF646348@in.WebX.maYIadrTaRb...
> If I put all my annotation in the same file as my model (the all in one
> approach), my consultants need to undertand how I have distinguished
> between, say, floor plan text, and ceiling plan text. I would probably
have
> done this using layers. In fact, if I had done the all in one approach, I
> would make ample use of the layer state tools that were added first as an
> express tool, then as part fo ADT's layer manager, and then as part fo the
> core ACAD program. the consultant would need to know which one I used,
> since all three exist simultaneously, and would bneed to have the same one
> available to him - hopefully I was thoughtfull enough to use the one
> available in the core, but maybe my consultant uses an earlier release,
and
> doesn't have any layer state tools available to him. So, once we get all
> sorted out about what annotation is on what layer, the consultant can
start
> his work. Now, he can continue the all in one approach (I prefer that he
> does not, but that's another discussion), in whcih case he needs to create
> his own annotation layers, or he can xref my base file into his drawing,
and
> then add annotation. But, he is ultimatly going to freeze my annotation
so
> it doesn't appear as part of his drawing. He could, I suppose, simply
make
> my annotation layers non-plotting so he could read my notes while
drafting,
> but then he has an awfull lot of extraneous information on the page.
>
> OR, I could put all my annotation in a separate sheet file, and send that
to
> the consultant along with the base plan. The consultant can then use that
> file to create his own sheet file, since it already set up with viewports,
> etc. If I have put all my annotation in model space, though, he has to
> freeze it, or erase it.
> If I put all my annotation in in a layout, the consultant can then copy
the
> entire layout, and erase all the annotation off of the copy, nd start his
> own. If he wants to look at mine, he can just switch layouts. Simple as
> that. So, it seems to me that having annotation in a separate sheet file
is
> decidedly better, which is probably why the AIA and NCS adopted that
> approach (scary to thing that they might have been right about something).
> If all the annotation is in a separate file, it should all be in one
space,
> paper or model. But xrefing doesn't lose anything, so far as I can tell.
>
> That does not particularly address changes while the job is in progress.
> That's a more complicated issue.
Message 20 of 40
Anonymous
in reply to: dqueen

Productively I think but on some days it is hard to
tell.

 

The layout tab is for producing hard copy. The
model tab is for the (in my case) building model. Dimensioning and annotation is
necessary for the hard copy but (and it isn't always true) with the building
model drawn correctly you don't care about the dimensions because you are only
concerned with your portion (plumbing and hvac) as it is relative to the
building model. For the most part, (only rarely these days) the building model
is drawing correctly with out the old manual drafting system of noting some
dimensions as being drawn not to scale.

 

Model tab or layout tab ( notice "layout tab" not
paperspace ) annotation is not as big a deal as not using the "single
building model" system. The reflected ceiling plan
size=3>, and the millwork plan belong on the floor plan and not as a
separate plan drawn of to the side. The second floor should be drawing over top
of the first floor separated by layer names and not off to the side. It is a
simple concept that most Architects ignor using the phrase "I don't see why I
have to do that.". Engineers as well.

 

But I digress.

 

Model tab for the model, layout tab with view ports
for plotting, a multi-level "design" drawing file for the model (with or with
out dimensioning and anotation) and a separate "sheet" drawing file with
everything xreffed for plotting. One plot drawing for each plotted drawing.
Xrefs for everything that is used more than once, xclip in model tab for
reducing the clutter of xrefs and in layout tab for breaking up xreffed drawing
notes to fit the layout of the sheet. Nested xrefs (carefully as I still haven't
got that to work easily yet) to faciliate updated architectural plans and either
Pak-N-Go or E-transmit for sharing drawings so you can reproduce the Architect's
titleblock complete with the proper font styles. Submit your drawings, plot or
sheet files with the xref's bound with "bind", not "insert" so the recipient can
plot them or switch to model tab to extract the information that they
want.

 

Dave Alexander

 

 



style="PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">This
is a very broad question, but there is a reason. My company uses AutoCAD,
Microstation and PDMS. I am in charge of AutoCAD for my company and I am
trying to set goals for where our company should be headed with AutoCad. My
question to anyone is how is AutoCad being used in your companies. Are you
using 3rd party software? If so what?Are you using paper space? If so do you
use it all the time or just in certain cases? What are you doing with 3D and
rendering? What are your clients asking for? Also, we are a multi-office firm
and we share work between office across the WAN. How do you share work? What
problems have you seen? It seems that my company has come to a stand still,
and I need suggestions for the future. There is so much out there, and that
makes it hard to decide which way to go. I am looking for what you are doing
and seen. Anything you would like to share would be
helpful.

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