Welcome to the ODC AutoCad2000™ Drawing Guide
Here you will learn the standard format used by the Design staff to set up, create and manage drawing files using AutoCad 2000™ The site is not intended to teach visitors how to use AutoCad; it is merely for reference by staff when procedural questions arise. Since the likelihood is that drawings will be edited by more than one user, standardization of drawings and methods is vital.
More:
Drawing in CAD - Tips on Drafting Techniques
Side-by-Side Plotting (6/28/01)
When plotting several 11x17's, we need no longer to "waste" inordinate amounts of roll paper in the post-plot trimming process that has, until now, been necessary. At the plotter, you can control something called the Nesting value, which will, in effect, 'tell' the plotter to nest several drawings together, as long as the drawings are received within a given timeframe. If you set the Nesting value to 2 minutes, any information received by the plotter within this timeframe will be plotted in the most economical configuration, typically, side-by-side in the case of 11 x 17 or 8 1/2 x 11.
Helpful Lisp Routines (6/29/01)
There are a few lisp routines that have been made available to the staff which will help perform several otherwise cumbersome tasks. These include layer deletion and drawing clean-up, as well as the 'flattening of a drawing that has elements with various z-coordinates...
Details:
Click here - Available Lisp Routines
**New Hatch Patterns** available In-House(6/1/01)
The arrival of our new employee, Daryl, has brought with it some useful and promising new hatch patterns, as well as Lisp routines, for use with Autocad 2000. Our office now has access to a "gravel" hatch pattern as well as several scales of "wood," including end-grain and plywood facing. See Chris or Daryl for further information on how to get your workstation up to speed.
Upcoming Changes to the X-Reference Naming Format
Currently, the procedure used by this office to X-Reference one drawing into another is problematic; The practice of X-referencing uniquely named drawings into another drawing causes the creation of layer names unique to a given project, within the host drawing...
Details:
Click here - Proposed X-Ref Procedure Change
| Did you know... |
| ...that only elements drawn in Model Space can be X-Referenced by another drawing? |
Simplification of Layer Lists leads to less tedious layer editing.
I am currently in the process of simplifying the layer lists. Currently, our template drawings contain EVERY layer, and since every drawing we make, including base sheets, host sheets and plots, is derived from these templates, the layer list in a given drawing can become quite cumbersome.
Archiving methodology of completed projects and their drawings
Upon completion of a project, it is necessary to update the University's floor plan database, so that only "Updated" and accurate floor plans be used in future projects. It is vital that this archiving occur just after the project has been built, as opposed to time of completion of Construction Drawings, to ensure the accuracy of the archive.
More:
Click here - Simplified Archiving Procedure
Layer Manager is a Valuable Timesaver.
Layer Manager is an Express Tool included in AutoCad2000™ which is designed to save the user time and labor which would otherwise be required to manually change the status of each layer, depending on the viewport. Currently, this office utilizes this feature in a limited manner, and it is imperative that we become more familiar with this tool so that we might increase our drafting efficiency.
Full story:
Click here - Save Time with Saved Layer States
Aligning Hatch Pattern lines with elements of your drawing.
By redefining the Snapbase of your current drawing, it is possible (and easy) to get those troublesome hatched floor tiles, ceiling grids and siding lines to appear precisely where you wish. Take the guesswork out of hatching.
More:
Details - Understanding Hatch pattern scales
Important Settings for Sharing Drawings with others
Once you open AutoCad2000™ the first thing that must be done is the setting of User Options. This can be found under the Tools pulldown menu, at the bottom of the list. Failure to assign certain value to various settings within the Options dialogue box is often the cause of sharing violations among work groups.
Details:
Click here - File sharing and File saving preferences
On the Lighter Side...
| The Doug Nebula |
|---|
Having problems in AutoCad2000™? Well, chances are, so is Doug|
| Relive such spine tingling tales of horror as:
- The Vanishing Viewport
- The Phantom Layer
- The Cubed Block (block within a block within a block)
- The Circular Reference
...Coming soon to Computers near you
| | |
Useful Links
- ARCHIdigm
- This is the best site I have found for tips and tricks.
- Autocad Job Seekers Network
- Time to move on?
- Autocad Users Group of South Australia (A.U.G.S.A.)
- This site has some tips for using Acad2000 and links to other Cad sites.
- Cadalog.com
- Lots of freeware & shareware stuff for Acad. This site has far more .lsp files to download than Don's Page, below. Has a Flatten.lsp for Acad2000.
- CadDepot.com
- Freeware, shareware and downloadable utilities. There is one called Flatten that will "flatten" your drawing, so that you no longer get the error message regarding line segments having different z-coordinates.
- CadMonkey.com
- Freeware, shareware, hatch patterns & blocks and links to other Cad sites.
- Cadvice
- This link will take you directly to a site where you can download any one of several free Cadd drawing viewers. Useful if you do not currently have access to an AutoCad license and wish to view Cad drawings that are online or have been emailed to you.
- Don's Autocad Page
- Very useful, easy to navigate source of lisp routines, such as one that will draw a batt insulation at exactly the thickness you need. Caution: This may be for R14 or earlier.
- Eng-tips.com
- A site which contains message boards for questions and answers in several disciplines
- myCadsite.com
- General Cad help, plus a message board for tough questions.
- Professional Autocad Users Group(P.A.U.G)
- This site contains a good message board that you can access to read the various posts. There is a fee to join P.AU.G., but you do not need to join to access the board.
- Shefali Kumar's Computer Aided Drafting Site
- General Cad helpsite, downloadable Cad viewers, Chat, message boards
- SoapTalk
- Pretty good message board. Discussion of Autocad problems & tips from Release 11 through 2000.
- Tenlinks.com
- Touts itself as the "ultimate CAD directory." Not so sure we disagree.
- ViewCad.com
- This is a site that allows you to post your Cad drawings to the internet to share with the rest of the world. There is no download required for someone to view a posted drawing. They just need to have Java enabled.
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