Creating an AutoCAD drawing that includes corporate standards is the goal when starting any AutoCAD drawing. To effectively do so, a well-defined drawing template (DWT) must be the basis of any drawing created by the CAD operator. When a company creates a well-designed (DWT), which includes corporate-driven standards, the CAD operator has a solid start to their new drawing. It is essential to have a (DWT) when creating a “base” print set for future drawing projects and individual drawings.
Without establishing a (DWT), there is always the risk of not conforming to corporate standards when working in an AutoCAD file. Even if the drawing is a “one-off” application when created, in my time as a CAD designer, I have frequently needed to reuse these files. Usually, when reusing an existing file, it is done to save time on a job, reduce costs, or both.
Managers who are not CAD savvy will not likely appreciate you redoing an existing drawing to “fix drawing issues.” If these poor-quality files are “assumed” to be ok, untrained users can wreak havoc by duplicating problems without realizing what is happening.
The corporate (DWT) should include corporate-driven specifics and be created using good AutoCAD techniques. This file must have the formatting and settings required for all different types of drawings as necessary to complete an entire drawing package. As a controls designer, I use AutoCAD electrical (ACADE). My default file includes additional settings that are not ACADE-specific. My drawing packages include not only schematics; I include machine layouts and fabrication drawings. I also extract BOM files from the schematics. When creating the required drawing files, we created a specific report format for our extracted BOM data.
Your printed drawing output must also be considered when setting up the template. We put our plotted drawings into a binder for release to the build shop. When preparing build books, we ran into an issue with the schematic rung numbers being covered by the binder. Modifying the origin of the template corrected this situation quickly. However, the problem was not evident while working on the drawing files, only becoming apparent when preparing the release prints.
As a CAD manager, one of my biggest challenges is the corporate distribution of CAD data. Your template will need to be available to all CAD users when released. The template file should be in a fixed network directory, not on individual computers. This will enable template updates to be available automatically to all users.
The network location must be set up in the AutoCAD files path on each user’s machine. Ideally, there should be a network distribution of all the company-preferred settings, ensuring everyone has the proper setup. That is another discussion; in my case, IT will not allow CAD managers to modify any settings on the company network.
In this post, I will go over some of the essential areas of my drawing template that were explicitly set up with corporate standards in mind. Also, some of the things which are just good practices, in general, will be noted.
The screenshot below is my ACADE drawing template. Several things (highlighted in red) are specific to our company standards and the ACADE software.
The screenshot below details a dimension and multi-colored wire naming convention block.
The dimension style in this example has been set up to company standards. By having a dimension present in the template, its style will be included with every new drawing created from this template. Consistent dimension style from job to job is a critical part of a quality drawing package, a key deliverable supporting products the company ships.
Also shown in the screenshot is a detail with ACADE wire layer examples. Matching these settings to company standards is another essential quality item, even if not apparent in the printed drawings.
A more pronounced need for consistency is shown above. I offer a schematic device example from two different drawing packages going to the same customer. The power supply is the same device used in two different drawings. The one on the left has a different device suffix than the one on the right. If the customer decides to review the prints for these two machines for quality/consistency, we could have a problem. Also important is the rung spacing on the schematic sheet. While there will be exceptions for specific sheets, all general wiring diagrams should be the same.
As a CAD designer, it is important to me to have consistent and high-quality prints, even if the customer never reviews drawings at a granular level. When the customers’ staff or their internal protocol changes, what is acceptable to them will also likely change. We recently had a long-time customer go through this process. Adhering to a “standard” was not crucial to the organization until new management took over and tried to improve internal operations.
If there is no customer standard specification, your “standard” and how well you implement it will speak volumes to the quality of your design work. A company’s reputation and industry presence (brand) is its lifeline. A quality documentation package will ensure that your company’s brand stands for quality and reliability.
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