Multiple templates in a Sheet Set template?

[Bryanherron]

Currently, we have one drawing template with several tabs for each different category of drawing in the set, (title page, survey data sheet, plan & profile, cross-section, etc.) With this setup, we have a dwt with over 600 layers and a myriad of styles, blocks and all that goes along with that. So all of our drawings are heavy. It's an inheritted sytem we are trying to get away from asap. So we broke that dwt apart and now have a title page dwt that has nothing in it that doesn't go on the title page, a plan & profile dwt that has nothing that doesn't belong in the P&P's and so on. Now, our end goal, unelss a better idea is proposed, is a sheet set template that is already populated with all the dwts, so that when we start a new project, the sheet set manager already houses everything we need. The only thing I have come up with so far is to simply take all the dwts and save them as dwgs in a folder structure that can simply be copied to a new project folder structure, rename each dwg per project, then open up a new sheet set and import them all in, which is the process we are trying to figure out how to eliminate. Maybe it's a programatic solution. Any ideas?

[Opie]

The workflow you have is the current one that we use. To get a programmatic solution, you would need to go with either .net or vba. The exclusion of AutoLISP is is due to how SSM was compiled.

[rkmcswain]

You don't need to open a new sheet set, and import the sheets.

Let's say you have a sheet set (.dst) that has a set up like this: (A simple example)



01 -- Cover
02 -- Notes
03 -- Project Layout 1
04 -- Project Layout 2
05 -- P & P Sheet 1 of 4
06 -- P & P Sheet 2 of 4
07 -- P & P Sheet 3 of 4
08 -- P & P Sheet 4 of 4
09 -- Details 1
10 -- Details 2
11 -- Plat
12 -- Agency Sig Page



So you create this one time.
Many of these never need to change filename (presumably 01, 02, 03, 04, 09, 10, 11, 12).
Sheets 05-08 can vary in name if need be.

When you get ready to work on the next project, copy the .dst and sheets 01, 02, 03, 04, 09, 10, 11, 12 into the new project folder. SSM will auto-relative path everything, so all you have to do is add sheets 05-08 as they are built for this job.
We did this for many years and never had an issue.

[Bryanherron]

Rkmswain, great suggestion, but I'm not sure it will work for us. All of our projects files are preceded with the project# and I have not had any luck changing a file name that was being used in a sheet set, without deleting the sheet and adding it back in. Maybe I am just doing it wrong.

- - - Updated - - -

Opie, good to know that lisp is not an option.

[rkmcswain]

@Bryanherron - Hmmm, that is one reason we did NOT add project numbers to the file names. In our case, the project number is the folder that contains the files, so no need to duplicate it on each file.

Good luck.

[MMccall]

When I came to my current firm I tried to get them away from the project number being part of the file name but they wouldn't budge. I did get them into a multiple dwt system and implemented SSM for any project that is more than two sheets.

We use 9 possible dwt files to start a new drawing. Each dwt has just the information (layers, styles, xrefs, title blocks, viewports, layer settings, etc) that is anticipated to be needed for thay type of drawing. Systems are setup with the location of the templates but no template file is specified for the QNew command. When a new drawing is started it is started (Qnew) the user is presented with the folder for the templates and they choose the appropriate template for the drawing they need to create. After a drawing is created then an SSM is created using a template SSM with all the custom properties needed to coordinate with the title blocks that are already in the drawing templates. Then the sheets are added to the SSM by either selecting the tab and adding it to the SSM of importing them from the SSM. No drawings are started from the SSM.