Single Project - Work Folder

The "Work" folder is found in the 02 Permits, 03b DD, and 04 CD directories.

02 Permits	03b DD	04 CD

WHAT FILES GO IN THE WORK FOLDER?
The work folder contains any CAD drawings and/or items that will be included with the CAD work that comes from our office. Planting plans, grading plans, sitework plans, etc.. This includes any file that is referenced (or linked) into a CAD drawing. Type of files include (but not limited to):

• AutoCAD files or ".dwg, dxf, or dwf"
• Adobe PDF or ".pdf" files
• Images or ".tif, .jpg, .sid, or .dwf"
• Excel Spreadsheets or ".xls or .xlsx"
• Word Documents or ".doc or docx"

HOW ARE THE WORK FILES NAMED?
The files names look like this:
A10100-plant.dwg or A10100-tree_list.xls

Any file in the work folder should follow this format [job number][hyphen][name of the file]. No spaces please, so use an underscore when a space is needed. Also, files should follow the general file naming principles.

When the folder structure is created using the Make Single Project Directory or Command "SPJ", a sample set of drawings will be placed in the 04 CD\work folder with the correct file naming standards. You can always refer to these sample templates to help you remember what the standards are for naming files. The Standard files in the work folder are (job number is typical):

• A10100-anno.dwg
• A10100-details-01.dwg
• A10100-details-02.dwg
• A10100-details-03.dwg
• A10100-grade.dwg
• A10100-site.dwg
• A1011-title.dwg

WHY ARE THESE FILE NAMES SO SHORT?
These files are short because when viewing xref layers in a drawing, we usually use the layer pulldown menu, and AutoCAD's layer menu will only support so many characters before the layername is truncated and made unreadable. The drawing name becomes part of the layer name. Xref layer names are prefixed with the [drawing name][vertical bar][layername] and look like the image below. When you combine the drawing name with our layer naming standards the entire xref drawing name and layer name will appear in the pulldown menu. The details file name is longer, but we don't turn layers on and off in a detail drawings so that name is allowed to be longer.


Xref Layer Names

Single Project - Xref Folder

The "Xref" folder is found in the 02 Permits, 03b DD, and 04 CD directories.

02 Permits	03b DD	04 CD

WHAT FILES GO IN THE XREF FOLDER?
Files in the "Xref" folder come from the 01 Consultant Bases folder (the vault). This is the folder where all the files we receive (not send out) are placed for editing. We do not edit the originals in the 01 Consultant Bases folder. They are copied to the Xref folder first and then edited.



HOW ARE THE XREF FILES NAMED?
The files names look like this:
A10100-xCivil.dwg (if a smaller project) or
A10100-xpbsexistingtopo.dwg (for a project with many files keeping their orignal file name but adding the job number plus the lower case "x").

Any file in the work folder should follow this format [job number][hyphen][lowercase "x"][name of the file]. The name of the file can be the same as they sent it to us but include the "job number","hyphen", and a lowercase "x". No spaces please, so use an underscore when a space is needed. Also, files should follow the General File and Folder Naming Practices.

For a more detailed look at xrefs and their file naming for consultant bases please refer to "Xrefs - Standard Folder and File Names"

SHOULD I KEEP THE XREF FILENAMES SHORT TOO?
Yes, keep them as small as possible, because the drawing name becomes part of the layer name. Xref layer names are prefixed with the [drawing name][vertical bar][layername] and look like the image below. When you combine the drawing name with our layer naming standards the entire xref drawing name and layer name will appear in the pulldown menu. The details file name is longer, but we don't turn layers on and off in a detail drawings so that name is allowed to be longer.


Xref Layer Names

Linetype Variables

There are a few variables that can control what your linetypes look like in AutoCAD.

LTSCALE - This variable is like a preview of what your linetypes will look like at a certain scale in Model Space.
PSLTSCALE - This is the variable that control what your linetypes will look like in Paper Space.
CELTSCALE - The is the current element linetype scale. If you set this in your properties dialog box, every linetype will have a specific linetype scale that will be multiplied by LTSCALE or PSLTSCALE.

The good news about all of this is, by using Scale Manager, you do not have to remember any of these. Just thought you would like to know what Scale Manager is doing for you.

AutoCAD - Inserting A Standard Set Of Layers

To insert a Standard set of layers:

1. Go to the Menu Bar select the Title+Insert Layers+"Layer Set per type of drawing..

CAD Cartoon

From Roger Penwill

TBG Scale Manager

Scale Manager is a tool that we use set our

• Dimension Styles (DIMSTYLE), 
• Text Height (TEXTSIZE), 
• Layer Names, Dimscale (DIMSCALE), 
• Text Style (TEXTSTYLE), 
• Linetype Scale(LTSCALE),
• Units (DDUNITS),
• Insert Units (INSUNITS). 

It is the backbone of our drafting system. You should not have to modify any of the variables listed above.  If you are editing any of these things, you are doing something VERY wrong.

What Scale Manager doesn't do

• When the scale is changed, it will not change the scale of what has already been drawn.
• Viewport Scales are not controlled by scale manager
• Annotation scales (if any) will not be affected

Scale manager makes it possible to have many different drafting scales in one drawing. This eliminates the need to have one drawing per scale.

Scale Manager Layout

From TBG Two Minute Training

Scale Manager Layout
1. Unit Values - Switch between Architectural Units, Engineering Units, and Metric Units. These are the units you will use to draft your drawings. You should only switch the units once to start working. They should not be modified after starting work in drawing.
2. Layer Categories or A,B,C Area - This is an additional layer division that allows for 3 different categories for layers on the same scale in the form of A, B, and C layers. (Example: 0A-dim-A-0010, 0A-dim-B-0010, and 0A-dim-C-0010.) All layers are default "A" category unless some other category is selected. Scale Manager will add these to your layer names.
3. Scale and Dimension Styles Area - This area is where you will set the scale and also it will determine what units your dimension will be shown in. This comes into play with Metric Units more than Architectural or Engineering Units. Scale Manager will add the current scale to certain objects layer names. Decimal and Metric units are easy to decipher, but the architecture units are a little harder read because they are in decimal format. for instance 3/4" = 0016.

How to Use Scale Manger
1. Command: : "SM"
2. Select your Units.
3. Select your Scale
4. Should not have to hit "OK" after selecting scale.

Metric Scales

From TBG Two Minute Training

Working With Metric Scales
1. Select the units you will be drawing in. You should not toggle units when drawing in metric. Usually plans are drawn in meters and details are drawn in millimeters. If you decide to toggle units (not scales) you will need to rescale your drawings.
2. When selecting scales also consider what dimension style you would like to see them in. For instance if you are drawing in MM but want to see dimensions in Meters you would select a scale from the Meter Dimensions column.

When working with metric scales, we have chosen to use dimscales that are scaled from imperial units. Meaning dimscales are not set to 1, 5, 10, 15, etc... when working in metric units, they are instead set to 25.4, 127, 254, 381, etc... The reason for this is that all the current blocks, linetypes, hatch patterns, and notes have been created in imperial units and therefore will need what I call a "dirty scale" to scale them correctly instead of a "clean scale" of 1, 5, 10, 15. So do not be worried if the dimscale is not set to 1, 5, 10, 15, etc..

Layer Categories

From Drop Box

Layer Categories
Layer categories were created to provide a way to see different annotation sets at the same scale. Please refer to the article on AutoCAD Layer Names. A common scenario... A pool plan has deck dimensions at 10scale for one drawing and pool fence layout dimensions at 10scale in the same drawing. When viewing this drawing in a sheet plan, if the dimensions were drawn on the same layer, you would not be able to freeze the deck dimensions and see only the fence dimensions because they were created on the same layer. That is where using categories become useful. Now you can have dimensions for the deck on "A" category and fence dimensions on a "B" category.

Selecting a Category
If a Category is never set then it will always default to "A" category.
Otherwise:
Selecting "A" category will show ALL "A" category objects and make the "A" category current for all new items and freeze the category "B" and "C" layers.
Selecting "B" category will show ALL "B" category objects and make the "B" category current for all new items and freeze the category "A" and "C" layers.
Selecting "C" category will show ALL "C" category objects and make the "C" category current for all new items and freeze the category "A" and "B" layers.

View All "ABC"
This will thaw all ABC layers no matter what the scale is.

View Current ABC
View Current ABC will show the current category at the current scale.
To see a specific scale in A, B, or C categories.
1. Set the scale you would like to see first.
2. Select "A","B",or "C" category to show ALL "A","B", or "C" category items.
3. Select "View Current 'ABC'" and click "OK" to show the A, B, or C layers at the current scale.

View All Dimscale
This will show all layers with the current dimscale. Matchlines, Reference Lines, Utility Text, and Street Text usually do not have A, B, or C  categories and this command will thaw them as well.

Software Bug:
If current dimscale is annotative, Scale manager will not close and will show an error on the command line. It will also give you an error when switching between model space and paper space. To fix this either set a dimstyle that is not annotative current or modify the current dimstyle. To modify the current dimstyle, type "dimstyle" on the command line and select the current dimstyle. Click the modify button. Select the "Fit" tab. and uncheck the annotative box. Save the dimstyle.  

Using Bluebeam To Print Adobe Produced PDF's

If you have a PDF that was produced using Adobe In-Design or Illustrator, there is a special way to send those documents to the printer/copier from Bluebeam. Granted, there may be things that we can do differently in In-design and/or Illustrator in the future, but for now there is a problem. My first suggestion is to use Adobe Reader to print Adobe created products, but if you would like to use Bluebeam as your main means of printing PDFs to the printer the rest of this article is for you. The reason why documents tend to get "stuck" can lead to a long boring conversation, so I will get to the point.

To print PDFs made with In-Design and/or Illustrator:
1. While in the print dialog box in Bluebeam, click on the "Advanced" button in the lower left corner.

From TBG Two Minute Training

2. While in the Advanced Printing dialog, find the "Printer Engine" option and choose "Image" in the drop down menu.
3. Click "OK", and this will be the default once a document is printed using this setting.
Note: This will also convert colors (my guess is RGB to CMYK) for printing and will affect how those colors appear when printed.

From TBG Two Minute Training

Some other printing issues with Bluebeam.
1. Documents created with In-Design and Illustrator that have gradients or fills, will either leave them out or will print parts of the gradient or fill. Choosing "Image" will not solve this problem.

2. When printing documents with Bluebeam that you have added any type of content to, you will need to choose the "Document & Markups" setting. Choosing "Document Only" will only print the original PDF document and "Markups Only" will only print the markups.

From TBG Two Minute Training

3. Documents made with Bluebeam 8.5 cannot be viewed with Adobe Reader 6.0. So please advise your clients and consultants accordingly if they are having issues opening and reading your PDF. 

To be fair, Bluebeam is a great product and it is not always this programs fault for things getting "stuck" in the printer. There are a myriad of issues that can cause these types of problems, but these are just some known issues that you should be aware of so that it does not affect your printing time.

Creating PDF's From AutoCAD - Method 4 : Using Plot

 1. Select the tab you would like to Publish. "Right-click" on the tab and select the "Plot"

From TBG Two Minute Training

2.Select the "DWG to PDF.pc3" in the "Printer / Plotter" dialog to plot the drawing to PDF.

From TBG Two Minute Training

3. Select your appropriate paper size.

From TBG Two Minute Training

4. Then select your appropriate pen settings and click "Ok".

From TBG Two Minute Training

Creating PDF's From AutoCAD - Method 3 : Using Publish

A third method of making PDF's from AutoCAD uses the "Publish" command.

1. Select the tabs you would like to Publish. "Right-click" on the tabs and select the "Publish Selected Layouts"

From TBG Two Minute Training

2. Within the Publish dialog, select the "Publish Options"

From TBG Two Minute Training

3. Within the "Publish Options" dialog scroll down to "General DWF / PDF Options" and find the "Type" setting. This will allow you to make a lot of single-sheet PDF's or one multi-sheet PDF. (Note: It does not matter what your publishcollate variable is set to, it will still make a multi-sheet PDF.)

From TBG Two Minute Training

 
4. Next. scroll down to "Layer Information" and set that to "Don't Include" and click "Ok". The reason for turning off the layer information, is that if the person you are sending it to does not have an up-to-date print driver it may not print the layers correctly and also may cause confusion if a client or consultant accidentally turns some layers off.

From TBG Two Minute Training

5.  Under the "Publish To" section of the Publish dialog choose "PDF" if it is not already selected.

From TBG Two Minute Training

6. Click "Publish" to save the PDF to your desired location.

From TBG Two Minute Training

Creating PDF's From AutoCAD - Method 2: Using Export

This method is probably the most versatile of the 4 different methods of making PDF's. The reason for this is because it is possible to print a single layout, multiple layouts, override layout paper sizes, scale, and pen weights.To export a drawing to PDF please follow the steps below.

Method 2 - Export the Drawing to PDF

1. Use the Command: "ExportPDF"
or...
Click the "Application" button (The big button with the "A" on it) and scroll down to Export->PDF

From TBG Two Minute Training

2. While in the dialog, first set the options by clicking on the "Options" button in the far right side of the dialog box.

From TBG Two Minute Training

3. While in the options dialog box, scroll down to "Layer Information" and select "Do Not Include". The reason for turning off the layer information, is that if the person you are sending it to does not have an up-to-date print driver it may not print the layers correctly and also may cause confusion if a client or consultant accidentally turns some layers off.

From TBG Two Minute Training

4. Choose where to save the PDF and click "Save".

From TBG Two Minute Training

5. Optional: You can change the setting to export the current layout only or all layouts.

From TBG Two Minute Training

6. Optional: You can choose to export using the current page setup or you can choose another page setup like plotting 1/2 size. From this location you can also change the pen sizes, paper sizes, and scale.

From TBG Two Minute Training

Creating PDF's From AutoCAD - Method 1: Using Sheet Set Manager

With the advent of AutoCAD 2011, we have changed how we make PDF's. No longer will we use 3rd Party programs such as Bluebeam and Adobe to make PDF's from AutoCAD. Instead Autodesk has provided a PDF maker built into AutoCAD that has proven to be more reliable than the 3rd party applications. There are now 4 different ways to make PDF's of your AutoCAD drawings.

Method 1 - Sheet Set

1. From the Sheet Set Manager, find the publish button in the upper right corner. Click the down arrow to show the publish options for the sheet set. Select "Sheet Set Publish Options" from the drop down menu

From TBG Two Minute Training

2. In the "Publish Options" dialog find the "File Format" option and set that to "PDF"

From TBG Two Minute Training

3. While in the properties dialog, scroll down to "Layer Information" and set to "Do Not Include" and click "Ok". The reason for turning off the layer information,  is that if the person you are sending it to does not have an up-to-date print driver it may not print the layers correctly and also may cause confusion if a client or consultant accidentally turns some layers off.

From TBG Two Minute Training

4. Once those settings are set for the Sheet Set, find the PDF icon in the upper right portion of the Sheet Set palette. This will print the selected sheets to PDF. (Optional: right-click on the selected files and select Publish->Publish to PDF.)

From TBG Two Minute Training

How To Use Print Screen

Have you ever pressed the "PrtScn" or "Print Screen" key on your Windows keyboard and wondered what it does, since it never seems to do anything? Not so long ago, it used to send whatever was on the screen to the printer. The "Print Screen" button actually sends the printable image to the "clipboard" to paste into any graphics program. Not only is this extremely useful, but there are three variations of "Print Screen"

1. Pushing the "Print Screen" button alone will take a snapshot of all the active programs on your screen(s). This means if you have 2 monitors it will copy both screens to the clipboard. This is important because if you paste this into an email, more than likely the recipient will not be able to read it. It will look like the image below.

From TBG Two Minute Training

2. Using "CTRL+Print Screen" will copy entire contents of the active screen to the clipboard, or in other words, the last screen you clicked on (assuming you have two screens). An example of this is shown below.

From TBG Two Minute Training

3. Use "ALT+Print Screen" to copy the active dialog box to the clipboard. You can make a dialog box active by clicking on the box (or window) you would like to make active.

From TBG Two Minute Training

CAD Cartoon

From TBG Two Minute Training

Outlook .PST Files - Where Are They Kept?

THE DEFAULT LOCATION FOR .PST FILES IN WINDOWS XP:  
"c:\documents and settings\(username)\Local Settings\Application data\Microsoft\Outlook"
However they can be kept anywhere.

It is recommended that the .pst files be kept in this default location until archived. If they are ready to be archived, it is recommended that they be kept on an external hard drive or burned to CD/DVD. Just remember that DVDs have a capacity of 4.7gb, so keeping .pst files no larger than 4gb is a good idea.

TO FIND OUT WHERE A CURRENTLY LOADED .PST FILE RESIDES:
1. Right-click on the pst file
2. Left-click on "Properties for (personal folder name)"

From TBG Two Minute Training

3. Click the "Advanced" button

From TBG Two Minute Training

4.This is the path where you can find the .pst file. Simply highlight the path, then copy and paste this path (minus the .pst file) into windows explorer to find the .pst file.

From TBG Two Minute Training

TO SEARCH FOR .PST FILES ON YOUR MACHINE:
1. Right-click on the "C" drive (or other drive letter if stored on an external drive)
2. Click on the "Search" option

From TBG Two Minute Training

3. In the search dialog under the "All or part of the file name" option, type "*.pst" (do not include the quotes). This will search your hard drive for all of the .pst files on your drive.

From TBG Two Minute Training

4. Scroll down to the "More advanced Options" Be sure to place checks in the boxes for "Search system folders", "Search hidden files and folders", and "Search sub folders".
5. Click "Search" and the results should appear on the right side of the dialog in just a few minutes.

From TBG Two Minute Training

Outlook .PST Files - How To Open And Close Them

TO OPEN A PERSONAL FOLDER (or .PST):

1. Go to the menu bar at the top of Outlook and find "File-Open-Outlook Data" file (why it doesn't say personal folder is a good question)

From Two Minute Training

2. Browse to the location of the .pst file. The default location is "c:\documents and settings\"username"\Local Settings\Application data\Microsoft\Outlook", but it could be in any folder you have specified at an earlier time. If you don't know the location of the .pst files, you can do a search for *.pst on your C drive, external hard drive, or other drive location to find all the .pst files on your machine. 
3. Select the desired .pst file to open.
4.Click "Ok".

**Note** Once opened, the .pst file name may not have the same folder name in Outlook.

From Two Minute Training

TO CLOSE A PERSONAL FOLDER (or .PST):

1. Right-click on the personal folder you would like to close.
2. Highlight and click "Close".

**Note** The main mailbox folder cannot be closed. 

From Two Minute Training