writing a CAD best practices primer

[Maverick91]

My company is a small to md-sized consulting company, made up of mostly engineers and architects acting as project managers for our clients. We use CAD mostly for engineering graphics in reports, presentations, and the like. Rarely do we produce anything like real construction drawings, although we still need the ability to do so.

I’m the only full-time CAD tech – the de facto CAD manager, if not in name. We do have other users in other offices, usually engineers with just enough CAD knowledge to get by. I get a lot of questions about CAD, how to do things or what not to do.

I’ve come up with the idea of writing a CAD primer – something between FAQ and CAD standards. I want to put together something easy to read that gives what I think are best practices. Does anyone have advice or experience with this? TIA

[dgorsman]

1. BYLAYER
2. Open the program, then the drawing. Know which profile you should be using.
3. BYLAYER
4. Text and dimension styles: know what you should be using
5. Did I mention BYLAYER yet? Yes? Good.
6. Layers: know what you should be using
7. Appropriate level of detail: don't go overboard
8. TrueView. You don't always need to do something *to* the drawing.
9. Line types: know what you should be using, and which file they should come from (ideally, automated)
10. I mentioned BYLAYER already, yes? Think I'll add that again, just to be certain.

[Wanderer]

As you say FAQ, Doug, that should be your starting point.

I had a CAD Standards manual for our external consultants, but, internally, I opted for a ppt tutorial (or the same content covered in a Camtasia video, as they preferred to consume the information). It just basically walked through the proper steps for their necessary tasks. One section on opening drawings, one section on taking measurements, making notes, setting up the plotters, plotting, emailing drawings.

It was all stuff I'd walked people through or they'd had questions about. Lots of screenshots, along with the text steps (#1 people tend to be visual #2 some people aren't familiar with common language for common program components #3 giving text and visuals gets them used to the way you say it, so you can email instructions more easily next time, and not necessarily have to use screencaps).

[tedg]

What the others have said and....
I would create a master template (.dwt) on your server; with layers, layouts, plotstyles, standard blocks, dimension and text styles (etc) all ready to go, and set everyone who uses AutoCAD up to automatically "open" an new drawing using that template under their preferences.

If you document "what to use when and how" (as others mentioned) along with this template, that will help you, help them, help you

I have a couple of engineers that like to dabble, and to ensure they use the right standards, I have a template they open up and start working. And so if I ever need to "use" their work, it's closer to right than if they started a blank drawing.

Just something else to think about.

[cadtag]

Teach them that using the 'STANDARD' style is verboten, especially if they have developed the bad habit of ever changing that from the default OOTB settings. Text, Dimstyles, MLeader, Table styles, etc. should _always _ be defined in your template to be what _you_ want them to be, and have appropriate names.

Appropriate can be either a descriptive name that says what it's used for, or a generic name that uses a company identifier. Using STANDARD simply makes inter-organization work far more messy than it ever needs to be.

[jaberwok]

Teach them that using the 'STANDARD' style is verboten, especially if they have developed the bad habit of ever changing that from the default OOTB settings. Text, Dimstyles, MLeader, Table styles, etc. should _always _ be defined in your template to be what _you_ want them to be, and have appropriate names.

Appropriate can be either a descriptive name that says what it's used for, or a generic name that uses a company identifier. Using STANDARD simply makes inter-organization work far more messy than it ever needs to be.

+1.

Of course, the best answer (when possible) is to make sure engineers don't have access to CAD stations.

[Maverick91]

Here's my outline so far:

Drawing file
• Starting from scratch with a template
• Open an existing drawing

Drawing Name

Units

Drawing entities
• Properties set to BYLAYER
• Exceptions to BYLAYER

Layers
• Use
• Naming

AIA Layer Naming

• Properties

Cross-reference files
• Layer for xrefs
• Xref drawings
• Images
• PDFs

Dimensions

Printing
• CTB file setting
• Plot stamp

Drawing cleanup
• Purge
• What not to purge
• Audit

Sheet Set Manager

File Tranfers
• Newforma
• ETransmit

[Iceberg]

I.have found that engineers like CAD for basic stuff like plotting, editing text adding notes etc. Find out, if you don't know, what the engineers plan to do in CAD and focus on those basics first. This should help them get a bit more familiar with the interface and performing the tasks they are interested in doing. If you are using layout tabs you might want to explain how to toggle between them and how to batch plot. I would also discuss the value of using grips especially with right clicking. There are many basic ways of editing drawings by using grips. The export and publish features on the ribbon are good features to discuss as well.

Also explain why somethings needs to be set a certain way like bylayer. Instead of saying layers need to be bylayer explain why layers need to be set to bylayer. I have found that when given an explanation about why something is done or not done helps people understand and in my experience have seen less people deviating from what is the standard.

I think your outline is a good starting point.

[duhvinci]

I don't normally post a reply that doesn't actually say something but, that's some good advice Iceberg.

[CAtDiva]

I don't normally post a reply that doesn't actually say something but, that's some good advice Iceberg.

You could always click the "Yes" under "Did you find this post helpful?" and/or give him some Rep (the nice thing about Rep is you can put in a comment too).

On the other hand, this way, we all get to see that you think it was good advice.