CAD Standards manual, freely sharing with everyone...

[bob.kalsi66006]

Not sure how other people may do this where they work. This is the CAD standards that we have set up and work to. Please feel free to apply this setup to your own.

[robert.1.hall72202]

That looks good. I have a small section in my cad standards that looks similar to what you have here. My cad standards includes about 40 pages of design standards. It is more of a training/reference manual than a cad standard.

I work in manufacturing and my cad standard includes default part tolerances and major process parameters. Puts the writting on the wall and lets everyone in the company understand the design basics.

[Birdy]

Thanks a lot Slash. This is exactly what I've been looking for....sort of.
Well, not really looking, but there's a lot of stuff there that I can implement into ours. :) I really like the organization.
Will probably set ours up online as a web based manual....someday...when things slow down....


....and I don't have a bunch of stupid questions to answer....

[bob.kalsi66006]

No worries guys. Other than the manual theres another way to set up standards via CAD. I'm not sure how this is done but i have seen it before but basically you create a button and when you press the button on a completely new drawing, it imports in all the layers that are used. Off course these layers will have to be created first but if someone is starting a new drawing the most common method is to do a save as on another drawing and erase everything then purging. I think, and i stress i think this layer button is an add on which can be downloaded i think from the AutoDesk website.

If anyone knows of this "layers button" please let us know how it's done.

Glad i could be of help :-)

[Mike.Perry]

<SNIP>

If anyone knows of this "layers button" please let us know how it's done.Hi

Maybe...

Button creation to import Layers

Have a good one, Mike

[bob.kalsi66006]

Hi

Maybe...

Button creation to import Layers

Have a good one, Mike

Thanks Mike.....i beleive also that you can do the same with page setups to. Where you press a button for the right page setup required ie. A1 and once pressed, the page gets set up and an A1 drawing sheet with the company title block all gets done. As far as I know you can set these page set up buttons to as many paper sizes as you want. I remeber at my first work place they had 4 buttons for A1 A2 A3 and A4 (paper sizes).

[Mike.Perry]

Thanks Mike.....i beleive also that you can do the same with page setups to. Where you press a button for the right page setup required ie. A1 and once pressed, the page gets set up and an A1 drawing sheet with the company title block all gets done. As far as I know you can set these page set up buttons to as many paper sizes as you want. I remeber at my first work place they had 4 buttons for A1 A2 A3 and A4 (paper sizes).Hi

Try here...

TIPniques: The Power of Page Setups - October 2005 (http://www.augi.com/publications/hotnews.asp?page=946)

and here...

Oct '05 - TIPniques: Power of Page Setups

Have a good one, Mike

[H-Angus]

Not sure how other people may do this where they work. This is the CAD standards that we have set up and work to. Please feel free to apply this setup to your own.


Very informative, our current standards is made up of a single sheet of A4 with layers, text heights etc, no-where near as detailed as yours. I plan to work on that though.

One problem which may or may not interest you is that when we had Acad 2002 and used squiggle it would mirror the drawing, our way around it was to mirror the dwg and then squiggle it so it comes out the correct way around. From 2004 onward though Acad has a napkin sketch command which negates the need for sqiggle.

[bob.kalsi66006]

Very informative, our current standards is made up of a single sheet of A4 with layers, text heights etc, no-where near as detailed as yours. I plan to work on that though.

One problem which may or may not interest you is that when we had Acad 2002 and used squiggle it would mirror the drawing, our way around it was to mirror the dwg and then squiggle it so it comes out the correct way around. From 2004 onward though Acad has a napkin sketch command which negates the need for sqiggle.

Well we're using ADT 2006 now so our manual really needs a little updating.

To be honest, i think our manual maybe a tad too much....i mean sometimes knowing too much is not a god thing as you'll always have too many options...

[H-Angus]

Well we're using ADT 2006 now so our manual really needs a little updating.

To be honest, i think our manual maybe a tad too much....i mean sometimes knowing too much is not a god thing as you'll always have too many options...


I understand what you mean, too much can sometimes be as bad as too little.

Heres a standard (well more of a check list) that I produced when we had two new drafters start at the beginning of the year - this is the closest we have to a standard at the moment.

[bob.kalsi66006]

I understand what you mean, too much can sometimes be as bad as too little.

Heres a standard (well more of a check list) that I produced when we had two new drafters start at the beginning of the year - this is the closest we have to a standard at the moment.

That makes good sense tho as you said it is more of a checklist. Personally i think standardisation could go on and on. Then again CAD can be used in soo many ways to do one thing that standards will slip. In a perfect world and i stress PERFECT WORLD, cad standards will always be maintained but when you work in an environment where people do things differently to one another, standards will slip due to lazyness basically.

[H.Hunter]

Not sure how other people may do this where they work. This is the CAD standards that we have set up and work to. Please feel free to apply this setup to your own.I only wish ours could be that simple. When you have 7+ disciplines involved, it gets so complicated; well lets just say more people makes it more complicated.

I shudder at reading R14... I can't imagine having to go back...even back from 2006 to 2005!

[Doodlemusmaximus]

My thoughts would be to keep the whole thing simple, but at the same time precise enough to do the job. Some times you have to read war n peace to find out how to do something when all you really need is a simple flow chart.

[H.Hunter]

My thoughts would be to keep the whole thing simple, but at the same time precise enough to do the job. Some times you have to read war n peace to find out how to do something when all you really need is a simple flow chart.I agree. I think a standards document needs to serve 1 primary purpose: If a non-CAD person comes to you and shows you the same thing done two different ways by two different people and they ask which is right; you need to be able to point to a standard and say "this is right." If you don't have a defined standard, then you can't expect people to follow it. So in essense a standard really only needs to define and explain the aspects of how what you do. Sometimes its a lot and sometimes its a little. The trick is writing it so that both the experienced and non-experienced can understand it.

[cwjean76]

Beautifully written. I totally agree with you.

[gouhar]

Not sure how other people may do this where they work. This is the CAD standards that we have set up and work to. Please feel free to apply this setup to your own.

Hi, I was not able to open/download the attached document

[tedg]

Thanks for sharing Slash.
It's nice to see how other companys' standards are written.
I'm in the process of helping our Cadd Manager update ours, and have been up to my eyeballs writing procedures and things like that.

It's important to have enough information to get quality work and enforce the standards.
But it's hard to keep it open enough so there's a little "cad-freedom".

Basically ours reads like a how-to with allot of "its a good idea to....", but it also lets the reader know what will be enforced at the quality control stage.
Things like colors by layer, accurate geometry, correct fonts, symbols and layers.
(And file naming a structure!)

Anyway, valuable stuff!

[mharper]

I have been impressed with the share of CAD Manuals. I too would like to offer what I have put together for my company. It's not quite complete, but has enough to get others started.

[lguillot]

This is a great topic, I am about to start on our drafting/design manual. You guys have given me a great place to start and where I need to be when I am done.

Thanks.

[zaldy.agustin]

I have been impressed with the share of CAD Manuals. I too would like to offer what I have put together for my company. It's not quite complete, but has enough to get others started.

Thanks for sharing... I want to see it but I can't open the file.. :(

[jaberwok]

Thanks for sharing... I want to see it but I can't open the file.. :(


Hmm. Works for me.
Are you seeing any error messages? From Word? From your OS?

[zaldy.agustin]

yes..it's working now..maybe some error in my browser lately..
I'l check all of this and check something that I can adapt in our engineering group. :)
thanks..

[mharper]

That's really odd because it's just a simple word document. If you want I can send you a copy via email. Write to me @ mikeh@ekneng.com.

P.S. sorry for the late response, I've been in SO-CAL on business.

Mike H

[GreenMan415]

Standards are a great thing the one thing I find the hardest though is keeping them up to date over and over again.

[julie_tirone]

Not sure how other people may do this where they work. This is the CAD standards that we have set up and work to. Please feel free to apply this setup to your own.
Hi Slash

Your manual was an inspiration to how I was going to create our Cad Manual (still an on-going process) when you had posted it a few months ago.
It will be available online and the topics will be hyperlinked-so hit and go straight to the info you need.
Updating and additions should be easy and will be the most current info available to everyone.

Cheers
Julie

[Mlabell]

Not sure how other people may do this where they work. This is the CAD standards that we have set up and work to. Please feel free to apply this setup to your own.Nice CAD manual, very in depth, and gives a good start for new hires. One thing that I noticed which I would like to comment on. You have your plotters pathed to the C: drive, which if you network stored the the plotter files, and .pc3, it would be much easier to manage. (if you are allowed to do this) Just thinking from a frustrated CAD managers position, since I have dealt with people changing the .pmp and .pc3 in the local C: all of the time. You could go even further and store all the font and lisp files as well, and just change the support paths in each users options. You could write a routine to change this on all computers, and depending on the amount of users save lots of time for you! ;)

[ldcadd127]

Thanks, Slash. This standards manual will make a great starting point to our MEP firm. As our growing company continues to prosper, it is important that we create a manual that stipulates our intent and process to our outside consultants, as well as any new employees, whether CAD or Engineers entering, can understand the procedures we have instilled to ensure the proper quality for our product.

[guitarchitect7]

I also want to say thanks for this. My experience is limited to only two companies, so implementing something like this completely from scratch mades this a very useful tool.

[moiz1967]

Presently i am in process of making a CAD section manual. I need review & comments please , i am attaching the manual. I also need to have standard symbol library. Can any body help. This is my first time in this forum.

Moiz Khan

[markley]

Hi

Maybe...

Button creation to import Layers

Have a good one, Mike

I have set up a drop down menu for adding standard layers, attached is the macro.

Hope this helps
Markley

[CADDmanVA]

Another good tool for layer management is AutoLayer (just Google it). Our Standard has about 200 layers in 5 major disciplines, and AutoLayer makes it stupid simple to manage them. It also comes packaged in a nice/neat UI and supports networks.

[Richard.Kent]

I made a few comments in your manual, open up the attached and look for the flags.

This is a good start for a manual, you will find as you go along the need for much more information to keep everyone working the same.

The CADS name is a little disconcerting and since you apparently do manual drafting the name is not accurate. Nothing wrong with just calling yourselves the Drafting Section. Unless there is a Manual Drafing Section and a Computer Aided Drafting Section. But, before there was CAD, no one called their group the Manual Drafting Section so why make the distinction now?

I am a proponent of the National CAD Standard. Instead of everyone, everywhere coming up with their own manual you can just adopt NCS and then add site specific information as needed. Everyone wants to reinvent the wheel. Many people that are very much against the NCS actually don't know much about it and have never even seen the book for themselves.

Ciao,
Kent

[CADDmanVA]

...I am a proponent of the National CAD Standard. Instead of everyone, everywhere coming up with their own manual you can just adopt NCS and then add site specific information as needed. Everyone wants to reinvent the wheel. Many people that are very much against the NCS actually don't know much about it and have never even seen the book for themselves...

Or the person with a check book just can't understand why anybody with a brain would spend good money on something like that. Did I mention that person more-than-likely has no clue how a CADD system works let alone works best?

I ran into this problem quite a bit in my earlier years, and just gave up on the NCS. I like the idea of it, but the cost is difficult to justify. I know, I know, the cost of having someone reinvent the wheel is higher, but you know how that works too... :roll:

[Richard.Kent]

Or the person with a check book just can't understand why anybody with a brain would spend good money on something like that. Did I mention that person more-than-likely has no clue how a CADD system works let alone works best?

I ran into this problem quite a bit in my earlier years, and just gave up on the NCS. I like the idea of it, but the cost is difficult to justify. I know, I know, the cost of having someone reinvent the wheel is higher, but you know how that works too... :roll:

Ask that person if they have ever gone out to eat. I bet they could cook the same thing at home:)

For me it was a no-brainer. We are a manufacturing site and have various A/E, MEP providing services to us. Instead of coming up with a standard for them to follow, it is easy enough to just say in the contract "follow NCS". The $380 was saved in that instant and it is harder for the A/E firms to argue for their standard over mine, etc.

And there are some A/E's here that have embraced the NCS, so guess which firms I am more likely to want to use?

"The nice thing about standards is that there are so many to choose from."

[CADDmanVA]

Ask that person if they have ever gone out to eat. I bet they could cook the same thing at home:)

For me it was a no-brainer. We are a manufacturing site and have various A/E, MEP providing services to us. Instead of coming up with a standard for them to follow, it is easy enough to just say in the contract "follow NCS". The $380 was saved in that instant and it is harder for the A/E firms to argue for their standard over mine, etc.

And there are some A/E's here that have embraced the NCS, so guess which firms I am more likely to want to use?

"The nice thing about standards is that there are so many to choose from."

Very good points. I'll have to use that when the subject comes up again. Thanks. :beer:

[Richard.Kent]

Very good points. I'll have to use that when the subject comes up again. Thanks. :beer:

And if you have a client telling you in a contract to use NCS then you can go to your bean counters and say "Our client says we must follow UCS, may I have a measely $380 so we can comply with their request." Some smart accountant could probably charge it back to the client so they would end up paying for it anyway.

[CADDmanVA]

And if you have a client telling you in a contract to use NCS then you can go to your bean counters and say "Our client says we must follow UCS, may I have a measely $380 so we can comply with their request." Some smart accountant could probably charge it back to the client so they would end up paying for it anyway.

Of course, this is the topic which has always confused me. With the exception of a few consultation projects, I have never seen a customer request CADD files of any sort. They want sealed hard copy plots, and that's all they care about.

[Richard.Kent]

Of course, this is the topic which has always confused me. With the exception of a few consultation projects, I have never seen a customer request CADD files of any sort. They want sealed hard copy plots, and that's all they care about.

I have worked in or on Power Plants, Pulp and Paper facilities, and semi-conductor facilities and they all expect to receive CAD files. There are lots of changes continually made after the initial construction and having the files is pretty much essential. I also have worked on National Lab projects and they always expect the CAD files.

[jaberwok]

Similar here.
Power, nuclear power, ship building; all the clients stipulate not only that they want CAD files but the format of the files - software, version and layers, colours, etc..

[s_morgan_b]

Good to see a series of standards and how people have tried to implement same.

I'm going to be in this dreaded position over the winter and I'm not looking forward to this (I've done standards in two smaller companies for autocad back in the 90s). This is a medium sized company with several disciplines and individuals that have no grasp of working as a team - it could be "interesting"

The whole works will include:

- Layer naming conventions
- Colour conventions (including no hard colours)
- line type conventions
- new/revised/updated/etc title sheets
- an outline on cross-referencing (I still can't get some ppl away from circular)
- folder naming conventions

Its going to be rather all encompassing and I am *not* looking forward to this as people here have done whatever they want, for how ever long they've wanted, and trying to break those habits will be difficult at best.

I'm thinking that adopting the NCS (with minimal changes) should work rather well (the only version I've found to date - in any detail - is the guideline presented by the WesArmyMil Cad Standards rev 1.8+).

[Richard.Kent]

Good to see a series of standards and how people have tried to implement same.

....

I'm thinking that adopting the NCS (with minimal changes) should work rather well (the only version I've found to date - in any detail - is the guideline presented by the WesArmyMil Cad Standards rev 1.8+).

Good luck with all of that, it will be an uphill battle. I hope you have the backing of senior management.

You won't "find" the NCS on the net as it is copyrighted and can be bought here
http://www.nationalcadstandard.org/about.php

[s_morgan_b]

The last small company was a horrific battle for standards with several guys. Had one guy tell me that because he was older than I was (I would have been mid-30s at the time) that he had no intention of listening to me, of partaking in the standards process and would do things the way he wanted (I'd been at the company for some time wherein he was a new hire) - he stated this in no uncertain terms (and rather colourfully at times). When I left the company, I dropped the whole standards project (as implemented) into his hands.

[Harold Pei Jr]

[QUOTE=s_morgan_b;776557]
Its going to be rather all encompassing and I am *not* looking forward to this as people here have done whatever they want, for how ever long they've wanted, and trying to break those habits will be difficult at best.
QUOTE]

I say carry a big stick. Or a shotgun would work just as well.

[mats.157144]

Ladies and Gents,

An excellent thread which got me starting on producing a draft CAD manual for my employer. I will try to share whatever comes out of this work with the rest of you.

My company is a small consulting engineering firm in the HVAC/P segment. I started here in December 2007 and soon realized there were no documented standards or guide lines except for an 'analog' layer table many times copied and scribbled on. We have around 10 AutoCAD users and versions ranging from 2004LT up to 2007. I have the management's blessing to see how we can improve productivity, conformity and quality by implementing a simple standardized environment so I will be hanging around here a lot. ;)

Thanks to all who contributed with actual material to start from and all good comments. :beer:

Cheers,

[lem_102074329]

The key to setting up standards & making sure everyone adopts it is to make it enjoyable.

Sad to say but most people these days are lazy. So if you show them all they need to start a new dwg file is to click the template & its all setup & ready to go. They'll happily do it next time, not necessarily because they want to conform to the standards but because its easier for them.

The easier & more straight forward you make it the better success you will have with your standards. A excellent example of this is Dynamic Blocks, if they don't use them its more trouble than its worth.

So far its worked quite well for me, even considering I'm younger than most of the other design & drafting staff.

[Harold Pei Jr]

For my starting template, I have it pointing to the template we're supposed to use for creating new drawings. That way, I just have to open a new drawing and I have my company's standards in there.
Yes, I am that lazy.

[lem_102074329]

No that's not lazy that's just smart & correct. That's the way it should be done. Just make sure its read only even though it's a dwt file & make sure your the only person with access rights to it within your office.

[Harold Pei Jr]

The way we're set up, we each have a copy of the file.
There are only three people that would change anything in it, myself being one of them. Actually, maybe four. Everyone else just doesn't want to go looking for it.
Mind you, it's not hidden deep within a folder maze, but they just don't have the time to play with any of the support files. Plus, I think most people think that how we set up our Civil 3D support folder is some big, magical mystery that is too difficult to understand. :mrgreen:

[dood]

Might I suggest converting your cad manuals from word docs to html and posting them on a company intranet.

Lots of advantages:
can be searchable
links to standard documents, letterhead
table of contents is linkable to the chapters

If you dont' have a company intranet that too I also suggest. It can be a simple static page or a full blown content management system. It didn't take long for everyone in my office to make it their homepage. Menu Links sorted by county, state, discipline or trade, easily access company forms, contact information etc.

I recently moved to a content management system based intranet (drupal) and the entire site is searchable, menu links are collaborative (anybody can add or modify), not only the cad manual but employee manual is online. The manuals are collaborative meaning any employee can modify or add pages (revisioned of course). The manual is full of standards and guides and practically takes care of itself. Our project manager app feeds project info to the front page. Event tracking (fancy calendar) - its the bomb.

attached are screenshots of my old intranet homepage

[robert.1.hall72202]

Might I suggest converting your cad manuals from word docs to html and posting them on a company intranet.




Good idea. I have sharepoint in my office.
I can post the cad standards and run an autocad wiki for tips n tricks.

[-Brian-]

and run an autocad wiki for tips n tricks.


well that sounds interesting. Can you elaborate on that a bit?

[robert.1.hall72202]

well that sounds interesting. Can you elaborate on that a bit?

A wiki, unlike a blog, can be edited by anyone.

All of my cad users can post tips to the wiki page.
I have a running list of autocad tips that were provided by the employees.

[CADDmanVA]

All of my cad users can post tips to the wiki page.
I have a running list of autocad tips that were provided by the employees.

...and works like a charm if they actually DO it. [Grumble]

[danalcantara_jov]

Thanks a lot! This will be a great help for our designing company which has just started.