Costumer requires specific formatting and we have hundreds of drawings to edit.

[Anonymous]

We are working on products that a customer has requested from us.  Most of the things we do are custom by design.  And they are not accepting our cad files because they don't conform to their formatting standards.  For instance balloons have to be certain sizes, arrows have to be certain sizes, splines cannot exist in the drawings (super problematic when transferring from inventor), here is literally an 80 page packet they gave us, we call it the book.  They had also given us a plugin to use to test whether or not everything fits the bill. I found a lisp routine that changed all splines to lines, but now some drawings have close to, if not more than hundreds of thousands of lines.  I don't know for a fact but I feel dimensions will be dramatically effected if I do this, and may lead to errors in servicing our products.  I am at a loss on what else to do and the pile is growing.  If there is a way to create a lisp file to completely automate this process.  I would be so grateful. An extra example is dimensions and stuff have to be on their own layers.

I am a new intern and I am learning AutoCAD as I write this.  I am much more proficient in Inventor and Solidworks, so any tips and tricks would also be very welcome!

Can't show any files and cant give any customer information away. Just describing an issue that we need to resolve.  

[john.vellek]

Hi @Anonymous,

I see that you are visiting as a new member. Welcome to the Autodesk Community!

This does seem rather daunting. It isn't the first time I have seen it though. In my experience, working with the customer to meet them part way in order to retain the integrity of the work might be a good first step. I have also found that if working day-to-day in their fashion means you can't get the work done efficiently and properly then perhaps a single conversion process at the end of the project might make the most sense.

If you have blocks that need to be changed in shape or size that is fairly easy. Redefine them and then use an Action Macro to do a block substitution and then an ATTSYNC.

Laytrans can be used to map layers. What other items are you looking at?

Please select the Accept as Solution button if my post solves your issue or answers your question.

[john.vellek]

Hi @Anonymous,

I am checking back to see if my post helped you with your problem or if you need additional assistance or information. Please add a post with how you decide to proceed and your results so other Community members may benefit.

Please hit the Accept as Solution button if my post solves your issue or answers your question.

[Murph_Map]

You might also want to look at Standards in AutoCAD.

[rculp]

If they have a plug-in to check for non-compliance, they should have a tool to fix it as well.  Any function that would allow you to fix it must be specific in ALL areas of compliance.  That means you'd HAVE to share the client standards and yours to whomever might make the attempt to write a solution.

If the issues are formatting related (layer names/colors/linetypes, text styles/layers/fonts/height, dimstyles, etc.) then STANDARDS, CHECKSTANDARDS, LAYTRANS, and STANDARDSVIOLATION would solve those.

Splines can be converted to PLINES (if they are acceptable) by PEDIT->M (for multiple)->select all the splines->keyin precision of conversion (bigger is finer) and exit.  I'm guessing the lisp you mentioned went on to explode the polylines into individual lines.

[RobDraw]

Where was the foresight? Didn't anyone know that there was a standard requirement? It's much easier to create the drawings to a standard than it is to convert them after the fact. Finding out about this after the fact, is unacceptable in my book and should be thrown back at the requesting party with an add service agreement with a hefty fee.

[Anonymous]

The complexity of our designs are enormous. We didn't have the time to get them all done and when they were exported to autocad everything from inventor was on our own standard layers. When. The customer provided them it was a bit late. And we don't have that much negotiating power. As far as I am aware of it am not in an executive position to negotiate. We have to build several of these extremely complex machines. And we are about half way there.

[dgladfelter]

Though still daunting, some suggestions (many of which build upon what others have already shared).

Fixing Layer Names

LAYTRANS is probably your best option here. It will let you set equivalent layers between your standards and your clients. Since it sounds like you have several drawings, it's worth mentioning this option lets you export your configuration and load it into other drawings. Again, still daunting, but makes it so you don't have to clean drawings individually.

Fixing Layers, Linetypes, Dimension Styles, and Text Styles

After you have the layers converted, you may find the STANDARDS command helpful. Using it requires you to configure a drawing with the proper layers, layer property definitions (color, linetype, etc), dimension styles, linetypes, and text styles and saving it as a standards drawing. You can then use the STANDARDS command to check your existing drawings against it; correcting the problems it finds.

Here's an overview of that tool: http://autode.sk/2m37mDu

Fixing Blocks (Baloons) 

Assuming your baloon callouts are blocks, I would recommend assembling the proper version of the blocks in a master standards drawing. You can then use something like Design Center to right-click on block names and choose "Redefine". Assuming the names are correct, that should change the definition of blocks in your drawing (shrinking/expanding things like baloons in your drawings).

Another trick for this one would be to use the Select Similar tool to select individual groups of blocks and change the scale using the Properties palette. 

Splitting Elements into Two Layers

If you have text for notes and dimensions on the same layer, but need to separate them, I would recommend using the select similar command. You can use it to select all dimensions on a specific layer. Once you have the selection set, you can then change the layer of the selected objects. 

There's also a Quick Select tool on the Properties Palette that might be helpful in this process. With it you could select everything on a specific layer, then run the tool again to select all text within the current selection set.

Again, I am not aware of a simple fix for this specific scenario, but hopefully the suggestions above makes the process a little less daunting for you.

[john.vellek]

HI @Anonymous,

I am checking back to see if my post or others helped you with your problem. There are some excellent suggestions and if you need assistance with any of the methods mentioned. Please add a post with how you decide to proceed and your results so other Community members may benefit.

Please hit the Accept as Solution button if a post or posts solves your issue or answers your question.

[Anonymous]

I will update as soon as we get everything in motion. So far everything is
starting to get organized we don't work on weekends though so today we will
see.