One View on Two Separate Sheets?

[ryan.88885]

Is there any method, trick, or tool to allow the same view on separate sheets?

Specifically I"m beginning to deal with addendum's in a Revit project and am looking for a way to show changes on Addendum sheets without having to duplicate a view with detailing. I'm worried that 3 months into construction my list of duplicated views will be a mile long when I'd rather use the Addendum sheet to zoom in on existing drawings/views as they change.

Any advice or tips others have is appreciated. Thank you.

[david.kingham]

For addendums I would export to dwg, this way they never change, you'll have a digital record of the addendums you issued.

[Alex Page]

Personally, I go with dwf's..they are locked in and you have a free viewer

[mlgatzke]

I use PDFs. They're a more standard format, everyone already has the viewer, thus the viewer will stay around for many years to come, they're viewable even on a Mac, and (in the case of addenda) there's no need for the layer or 3D capability of DWF or the re-editing capability of DWG.

[Alex Page]

used to use PDF's as well, but I really like the format of dwf's, file sizes are smaller/ booklet easy to look at, easier to print full size (A1) with no resolution probs.

[mlgatzke]

used to use PDF's as well, but I really like the format of dwf's, file sizes are smaller/ booklet easy to look at, easier to print full size (A1) with no resolution probs.
If you use Adobe Acrobat to create the PDF and use the right settings, there is no resolution problem. Many people try to get by cheaper by using a cheaper PDF utility. That's the problem. Also, the file sizes are not always smaller with dwf. It's really a **** shoot - sometimes PDFs are smaller and sometimes DWFs are. Be careful not to trust Autodesk's published claims. Test it for yourself. It all depends on the project, what the views are set up like, and if you're using Advanced Modeling Graphics or renderings in the PDF/DWF. YMMV. Also, by using Acrobat, you CAN get the multi-page PDFs (what you're calling a "booklet"). I do it all the time.

About 2 years ago, this same debate created a head-to-head comparison at AU among us Reviteers. We had one laptop with a DWF open and mine with a PDF open. Both looked identical in clarity - no matter how close we zoomed. Also, the file sizes were similar. Again, YMMV.

[Haden]

Specifically I"m beginning to deal with addendum's in a Revit project and am looking for a way to show changes on Addendum sheets without having to duplicate a view with detailing. I'm worried that 3 months into construction my list of duplicated views will be a mile long when I'd rather use the Addendum sheet to zoom in on existing drawings/views as they change.I don't know if I'm speaking for Ryan, but if I understand his question right, I have the same need, and none of the responses in this thread have addressed this particular issue. I agree with those who have said that addenda should be archived as either .pdf's (my preference) or .dwf's, but that's really not the point to be made here.

Specifically, we need the ability to take a portion of a large sheet (whether it be one drawing, part of a drawing, or multiple drawings) and place that portion on an 8.5x11" sheet with its own title block, and in that title block make reference to the large sheet that it came from. Simply creating .pdf files or .dwf files is not the answer -- we need a way to print a smaller portion of the sheet, and slap that mini title block and supplemental (8.5x11) sheet number on it. I know this could be done using a piecemeal approach, but Revit is already so smart about understanding how architects work, I think this is really one more aspect of project work that it needs to understand and accommodate.

I tried making a callout of a view on the sheet, but that does not bring over the revision clouds and tags, which is a VERY important part of an addendum. I finally had to duplicate with detailing as Ryan has mentioned, and I agree 100% with him that this makes for unnecessary clutter and duplication of effort.

Also, this is a little on a tangent, but Revit needs to have built-in parameters for sheets that indicate sheet size. I have defined my own sheet parameter for sheet size so that I can group them in my browser structure by size (8.5x11, 24x36" etc.), but each time I create a sheet, even though I select my titleblock for a given size, I have to remember to go back and change the properties of the drawing sheet so that the sheet size parameter is not blank, but instead matches the size of the titleblock with which it was created. Does anyone else have this same technique, or agree that it would be useful?

<edit> Maybe the first and last messages in this thread should be moved to the wishlist, and the others moved into one of the many threads discussing .pdf vs. dwf. <edit>

[Steve_Stafford]

...none of the responses in this thread have addressed this particular issue...

Specifically, we need the ability to take a portion of a large sheet (whether it be one drawing, part of a drawing, or multiple drawings) and place that portion on an 8.5x11" sheet with its own title block, and in that title block make reference to the large sheet that it came from.Thanks for taking the time to put your thoughts down.

What happens to the portion of the larger view once it is part of this smaller sheet? Is all the work (change) done on the larger view? The function of this is to avoid plotting and issuing a large sheet again when only a small area is affected? True?

What about an area of the project that requires a change that isn't already on a sheet or at least not at a scale that communicates well, like an enlarged view of a room that wasn't done before. You'd have to create a new view and that view could go on a smaller sheet, true?

What if there was a "snapshot" concept in Revit where you could draw a region to tell Revit to create a view of another as a static "image" of that region. Does such a concept begin to solve the problem?

[gravelin]

Just another case where it will be useful.
Sometimes we have to place the site plan on 1/2000 or 1/5000 scale on EACH sheet of the project.
And the plan must be Up todate.
If we have 100 sheets, we need to create 100 duplicate views.
It will be useful to have something like legend views relative to all the project.

[Haden]

Sometimes we have to place the site plan on 1/2000 or 1/5000 scale on EACH sheet of the project...If we have 100 sheets, we need to create 100 duplicate views.
It will be useful to have something like legend views relative to all the project.
I agree as well. This thread followed that same line of thinking, talking about the need for key plans: http://forums.augi.com/showthread.php?t=23730&highlight=plan

[Haden]

What if there was a "snapshot" concept in Revit where you could draw a region to tell Revit to create a view of another as a static "image" of that region. Does such a concept begin to solve the problem?
I think that's the idea. You really will want to do your revising and clouding on the main sheet, but be able to issue this 8.5x11 title-blocked snapshot sheet so that the changes can be quickly faxed or emailed for quick printing at the jobsite, etc.

There may also be times as you describe when you want to create a new 8.5x11 sheet with views that have not yet been placed on a large sheet as well, but that's already possible. (Again, though, the sheet size parameter would help.)

[kwise]

Is there a way to put a dwf onto a titleblock in, say, word or cad?
Thanks for your help.

[cphubb]

We have experimented with a few different ways of dealing with the addendum and construction changes.

First we .pdf the set prior to construction bid etc.
When we get a change to issue on small sheet we create a new small sheet and name it appropriately so we can find it again.
We then modify the linework/model for the change in the original view.
We have a parameter added to the view properties so we can file them in the browser.
We duplicate the view with detailing change the type parameter and place it on the small sheet and circle the original on the large sheet. Create a pdf of the large sheet and the small sheet. We send the small sheet out and paste or reprint the large sheet for our set.
We do end up with many duplicate views but subcatagorized under different headings in the browser. Try it it works :-)

[Rols]

We do it similarly, with the archiving of pdf's and using a parameter to sort the views in the browser.
Instead of duplicating the view, which creates duplicate reference bubbles wherever it's referenced, we use a callout in the detail view. That way, there's only one callout what you would hide. You have to copy any linework into the new detail, which can be handled by copying it to the clipboard, and then using paste alinged and the "same place" option. It works like a charm.
You also have to copy the revision cloud from the original detail to the revision detail. The problem I'm having though, is how do you tag a revision cloud in a detail/drafting view?? The tag command seems to be unavailable in drafting views.
Mr. Stafford, as for new details done within revisions, we still place them on a large sheet, so that complete construction/as-built sets can be printed.

[nole]

And Callouts doesn't help?

[tim.76721]

I think that this will work. Create a new sheet (View > New > Sheet). This will be you sketch sheet on 8-1/2 x 11 (i.e. sheet SK-01). Then go to the sheet with the revision on it. For example Floor Plan sheet A-1. Zoom in to the area with the area that you would like to be on the sketch sheet. Then we use a program printkey 2000 to screen capture the area. Save that to a file (for example SK-01 floor plan.jpg). Then go to the sketch sheet and import the image (file > inport > image). This does not have to be to scale, if you fax it then it will not be to a scale.

This way all you are doing is taking a snap shot of you larged sheet and placing it on the small one. Also you will always have a record of it.

Hope this helps.

Tim Ridley

[LarryG]

This subject has been addressed in another thread with similar results - a collection of "Here is how we approach the problem:" responses. I think there has been good input so far but here is our "approach" with some explanation as to why, followed by how I see this working in the future.

1. All CD Sheets are printed to PDF for reproduction, state plan review, official record and daily project team reference. I like a lot of what DWF has to offer but until they are accepted by the KIP plotter in my office and at our Repro. company, we'll be using PDF. (I am told new KIPs are shipping with DWF capabilities and upgrades for existing units are to follow.)

2. All revisions are made in the Revit model.

3. Potential revisions that may not be accepted or that are a series of alternatives are handled with design options. New views are made to depict the design options and handle the annotation. Once an option is accepted or declined, the rejected options are removed and their views deleted.

4. Revision clouds are generally placed in the view - not on the sheet, unless the revision is to a schedule or a note block. The Settings/ Revisions... feature is used to coordinate the revisions and feed the revision schedule in the title block - Awesome!

5. When a revision is issued, we plot the full sheet to pdf and that sheet becomes the new sheet in the online reference set.

6. To issue the revision on "paper", we place the full sheet PDF into PageMager on a template that contains the required title block information. The PDF can be easily cropped to display only the desired revision and correct scale is maintained. We have PageMaker revision templates for 8.5x11 and 11x17 in both horizontal and vertical formats.
7. We then print the completed revision sheet to PDF for distribution and for our record. The PageMaker file is not retained.

It's actually quick and easy. This method avoids all of the issues with making duplicate views, copying detail lines and annotation issues. The downside is the cost of PageMaker if you don't need it otherwise. InDesign, Quark, Illustrator, etc. probably work as well but cost as much or more. I am going to look into MS Publisher..... I'll let you know. I may set up a station in the office to be used primarily for performing this function.

It is also possible to export to a raster image and use other means of page layout but I am concerned about drawing scale getting messed up. (Why is it that when you export out of Revit at 300 dpi, you get a very large 72 dpi image? - please fix that.)

IN THE FUTURE, I am confident that Revit will possess a method by which we will capture a vector or vector/raster image of a view, like the snapshot idea mentioned earlier, possibly using DWF technology and perhaps not unlike how we can currently capture a rendering, and we will be able to place it on a sheet for just this purpose.

[tc3dcad60731]

Basically what all of you are trying to say is either duplicate the view, export the view, or just do some other means of getting what you need done BECAUSE you can not place the same view on different sheets or on the same sheet right???

Well for addendums and revisions all of the suggestions sound good BUT....

I had a floor plan with alot of walls on it that also had alot of dimensions and notes that were needed. I ended up doing one view with dims and tags, then duplicated to get the notes on where they needed to go. Personally, it would be nice to have just been able to place the view again on a seperate sheet like you can in ACAD. (Strike me down dead I just regressed and compared to ACAD)

~chants Revit is great, Revit is great 100 times~

[Haden]

I understand that the Revit writers intended to have a one-to-one correspondence of drawings on sheets so that references were not ambiguous, but maybe there could be a way to give the options of picking either A/A101 or A/R12 to select whether a given callout should reference the overall fullsize sheet that a drawing is on or the 8.5x11 supplemental revision sheet that it also appears on.

Oh, and also, I would like to be able to have the 8.5x11 sheet use a smaller superimposed cropping boundary from the view placed on it so that a portion of a fullsize plan drawing could be issued on an 8.5x11 sheet. Maybe this function should even be reserved for just having a portion of a fullsize SHEET on the 8.5x11 sheet rather than just a second placement of the actual drawing. That way, no matter how the revision clouds and deltas were put in (drawing or sheet), the smaller sheet would still "see" the revision clouds and deltas. And, to make it even cooler, the titleblock of the 8.5x11 sheet should automatically have fields which can reference the overall sheet which has been exerpted on it, with revision and date information borrowed from the titleblock of the big sheet.

This is my vision for revisions and small sheets. . .

[pratticole]

Did anybody encounter the following problem with duplicating views that had revision clouds that were set to "issued" in the settings menu.

Revit refused to duplicate the views "with detailing" with the error message that says "Issued Revision Clouds cannot be modified". They way I got around the problem was to un-check the "Issued" box under settings and then duplicating the view.

I'm not sure whether its a lack of understanding the system on my part or whether its a glitch in the program. Btw, I'm using 8.1.
Thanks

[janunson]

6. To issue the revision on "paper", we place the full sheet PDF into PageMager on a template that contains the required title block information. The PDF can be easily cropped to display only the desired revision and correct scale is maintained. We have PageMaker revision templates for 8.5x11 and 11x17 in both horizontal and vertical formats.
we use the same technique except without step 6 - we just issue everything on full-sized sheets. Using an online plan room also makes this an easier solution - because of the effort required to manage a plan room, we want to keep sheet numbers continuous throughout the project. Bulletins, addendum, rfi's, anything that relates to a sheet in the set gets issued on that sheet. saves a lot of hassle and organization effort.

[aaronrumple]

My solution has been to just issue the whole damn sheet.

We send them out in PDF anyway, so who cares how many extra pixels there are? Contractor doesn't then have to do all that old school cut and past to update his trailer set. Just put the new sheet in and file the old sheet.

[Scott D Davis]

We print addenda full sized on different colored paper, usually pink. You can tell immediately in the job trailier if the construction set of drawings is using the addenda or not.

[janunson]

We print addenda full sized on different colored paper, usually pink. You can tell immediately in the job trailier if the construction set of drawings is using the addenda or not.
My solution has been to just issue the whole damn sheet.

We send them out in PDF anyway, so who cares how many extra pixels there are? Contractor doesn't then have to do all that old school cut and past to update his trailer set. Just put the new sheet in and file the old sheet.Exactly... Sometimes the processes we use are dependant on technology. This is one of them. Digital printing, Online Planrooms, PDFs... these technologies have made it unnecessary to do all the cutting and pasting and sketch sheets that we used to have to do. Sometimes I think it's better to look at the process and the assumtions underlying it before trying to make new technology imitate a process that is based on limitations that no longer exist.

[jontramos]

After a bit of exploration CA in Revit, we have determined...

- It is not practical to use Revit for adding views to ska title blocks because it causes you to duplicate the view.

- Duplicating a view has multiple problems. You then have to choose "duplicate" or "duplicate with detailing". If you choose regular "duplicate" you lose any of your detail lines, text, dims, etc. If you choose "duplicate with detailing" you keep your view specific detailing & notes, but you also just duplicated ALL of your view tags (int elevs, etc) as well. This causes you to have double the amount of views listed in your project browser. (all from just trying to create one single ska. imagine having 100 of skas to make)

- Duplicating elevation views is impossible without adding another elevation symbol.


THEREFORE...

- Use Revit to make changes to the model during CA. This will keep your project up to date until project completion.

- Instead of struggling to get a view onto a ska titleblock in Revit, print the "visible portion of view" to pdf, and then drop that pdf onto a template pdf title block.

- The pdf title block we use has interactive fields so you can fill in the ska number, title, date, etc. Once satisfied with the ska, RE-PDF it so that the interactive fields are no longer interactive, and nobody can modify it.

I have attached an example of this interactive PDF ska titleblock. Check it out, it works great.

Hope this is helpful,

Jon

[dpollard909366]

Jon - I like your style, very smart way of managing SK's! check plus.

[david.kingham]

I created a pdf with text fields but now I can't add pages. Is this how you combine the pdfs Jon?

[Fred Blome]

After a bit of exploration CA in Revit, we have determined...

- Instead of struggling to get a view onto a ska titleblock in Revit, print the "visible portion of view" to pdf, and then drop that pdf onto a template pdf title block.

- The pdf title block we use has interactive fields so you can fill in the ska number, title, date, etc. Once satisfied with the ska, RE-PDF it so that the interactive fields are no longer interactive, and nobody can modify it.
JonGreat solution. What are you using to create the pdf title block form and to insert in the pdf? Acrobat Standard?

[david.kingham]

I used Adobe Designer which is part of Acrobat Pro

[phyllisr]

I know this could be done using a piecemeal approach, but Revit is already so smart about understanding how architects work, I think this is really one more aspect of project work that it needs to understand and accommodate.
My 2 cents on this issue...

When we committed to a Revit migration, we did so with full knowledge that the whole Construction Administration phase was a big challenge. We thought long and hard and finally determined that everything else was so excellent that we would live with the problems and hope it got better. Managing change orders, responding to RFIs, getting revision clouds to display precisely where and when we want has become a work-around, complex "make it up as we go" process. Piecemeal, as you suggest. The only mitigating factor is that we have fewer change orders because of internal coordination - most are design changes, owner changes or unanticipated field conditions.

Currently, we use Duplicate with Detailing but do not like it much. Too many views to manage in a large project. Add the problems with multiple bid packages, CA for one phase concurrent with CDs for another, sheets issued with some packages and not others, sheets changed from one package to the next and more, it requires photographic memory and complicated naming conventions to keep track of everything. Since Revit is so inherently intuitive and does not require all this effort during other phases, improving the Construction Administration process and tools will go a long way to advancing BIM generally and Revit specifically.

This is such a broad issue requiring careful analysis and solid understanding of Construction Administration that it is not really a "wish list" item for a quick-fix. I would strongly encourage the development team to tackle this as a whole concept worth dedicated research and serious attention.

(Added Note: The "double PDF" suggestion has serious appeal and I will do a little experimenting. We have limited Adobe licenses - Bluebeam is available for general users but I suspect I can make something work. Very creative and thoughtful approach.)

[Fred Blome]

I created a pdf with text fields but now I can't add pages. Is this how you combine the pdfs Jon?With Acrobat Pro, I don't see how to insert a pdf file into the form as a single page. I can cut&paste a couple of ways, but the image goes to bitmap and unscaled. How are you doing this?

[dbaldacchino]

All posts I've read so far make it clear that Addendums are still a problem in Revit and I personally don't like most of the workarounds involving other 3rd party software, pasting jpgs etc.

I recently came across a thread (my apologies for not pasting a link) that mentioned the use of phasing. The contributor suggested creating a CA phase. The view with the change was duplicated with detailing and this new view was set to the CA phase. Any changes done to this view left the CD set untouched. Walls that needed modification were demo'd and re-created in the new phase. Any linkework, dims, notes etc. created in the CA phase would not appear in the original views. This way one could conceiveably create a new letter size titleblock (or tabloid) and drop this view set to the appropriate phase to this sheet. Using parameters one can easily sort out Addenda sheets and views from the original. I thing I would name my phases just like the addendas are issued....Addendum1, Addendum2, etc.

If one wanted to print a "record set" (incorporating all addendas into the original), one would select all the views placed on the CD set sheets in the project browser and set their phase to CA.

We have not tried this yet as we are still on our first Revit project, but so far out of all solutions I read about, this sounds to be quite promising and potentially the most elegant and "Revit-Like" as the information is managed in a BIM-like way.

[Fred Blome]

With Acrobat Pro, I don't see how to insert a pdf file into the form as a single page. I can cut&paste a couple of ways, but the image goes to bitmap and unscaled. How are you doing this?Okay, I think I've got it. Here's a Acrobat method :

Acrobat Designer: create form with a "image field" to contain the drawing. The image field can be formated to maintain scale or scale to fit. I used maintain scale.
Revit: Print to an image file.
Acrobat Reader or Pro: Open form and click on Image Field to get an open dialog box. Image goes in at scale.
To create the image file, I printed from Revit to SnagIt 7.2 and from there saved file to .png. Since Revit has terrible control over print window I needed some way of cropping. That can be done with SnagIt before saving the file.

I also tested printing from Revit to a png file using a custom size that was just smaller than the Image Field in the form to save the cropping step. SnagIt doesn't have a custom size option, so I printed to a custom pdf size, and opened that file up in Adobe Pro, then saved to png. There probably is a direct to png driver out there that would save that last step.

I tested Revit's Export>Image... using jpeg but scaling was lost.

[jontramos]

I created a pdf with text fields but now I can't add pages. Is this how you combine the pdfs Jon?

great question. I have found that if you merge multiple sheets into a single pdf, the interactive fields will automatically infill in with the same information for all of the sheets. This is bad. Instead you should re-pdf the ska sheet once the information is in there. This will prevent any changes being made to your sketch.

You can merge several PDF's by selecting multiple pdf files --> right click--> combine in adobe acrobat. then just follow the wizard. see screen shot.

I have acrobat 7.1 pro.

- jon

[jontramos]

With Acrobat Pro, I don't see how to insert a pdf file into the form as a single page. I can cut&paste a couple of ways, but the image goes to bitmap and unscaled. How are you doing this?

There is a tool in acrobat that will allow you to select vector based objects, and copy / paste into a different pdf file without losing print quality or scale. The tool is in the advanced editing toolbar and is called "TouchUp Object Tool" see screenshots. It works but it can be a bit fussy when pasting multiple view onto a sheet.

The other method is to open the pdf of your view in photoshop, set resolution to 150, or 200 (this will not affect scale, just image quality). Now you can easily crop out unwanted elements using photoshop tools. then save (as a photoshop pdf), and you can use the TouchUp Object Tool to copy / paste into your titleblock.

don't forget to re-pdf once your done to make sure your items are "locked in"

- Jon

[jontramos]

All posts I've read so far make it clear that Addendums are still a problem in Revit and I personally don't like most of the workarounds involving other 3rd party software, pasting jpgs etc.

I recently came across a thread (my apologies for not pasting a link) that mentioned the use of phasing. The contributor suggested creating a CA phase. The view with the change was duplicated with detailing and this new view was set to the CA phase. Any changes done to this view left the CD set untouched. Walls that needed modification were demo'd and re-created in the new phase. Any linkework, dims, notes etc. created in the CA phase would not appear in the original views. This way one could conceiveably create a new letter size titleblock (or tabloid) and drop this view set to the appropriate phase to this sheet. Using parameters one can easily sort out Addenda sheets and views from the original. I thing I would name my phases just like the addendas are issued....Addendum1, Addendum2, etc.

If one wanted to print a "record set" (incorporating all addendas into the original), one would select all the views placed on the CD set sheets in the project browser and set their phase to CA.


I agree that Revit needs improvement in the CA realm... & I will leave that up to them to figure out how to solve the problem.

HOWEVER, the main flaw with this approach, is that there is no way to duplicate with detailing an interior elevation. If your change affects any interior elevation you would have to insert a new interior elevation symbol. And of course, any embellishment you have done to the original (dims, notes, detail lines) are all missing and you would be forced to do them again. I am not a fan of doing things twice... isn't that the point of revit?

The best (my opinion) way to handle ska's is to make the changes in your model using the views you have already set up. Then use a 3rd party software like acrobat (or whatever your preference) to handle the ska sheet layout. The best part of this solution is that at the end of construction your model will reflect all of the changes you have made during the construction process. If you were dilligent you should be able to hide all of your revision clouds, and print out a record set for the owner thus helping the project close out process go a bit smoother.

- Jon

[david.kingham]

There is a tool in acrobat that will allow you to select vector based objects, and copy / paste into a different pdf file without losing print quality or scale. The tool is in the advanced editing toolbar and is called "TouchUp Object Tool" see screenshots. It works but it can be a bit fussy when pasting multiple view onto a sheet.

The other method is to open the pdf of your view in photoshop, set resolution to 150, or 200 (this will not affect scale, just image quality). Now you can easily crop out unwanted elements using photoshop tools. then save (as a photoshop pdf), and you can use the TouchUp Object Tool to copy / paste into your titleblock.

don't forget to re-pdf once your done to make sure your items are "locked in"

- Jon
I like this method Jon and it works great with the pdf you uploaded but the one i created gives me an error when I try to insert the page....You cannot insert pages from an Adobe XML form into another PDF file.

Any idea why I'm getting this error?

Thanks

[jontramos]

I will take a quick look at it if you want to upload it.

[david.kingham]

Here ya go...Thanks

[jontramos]

Your form is really great! Nice check box action. When I try to add a page I get an error (see attachment 1). This makes me think that your problem is in the security settings. I have never spent any time playing around with security settings, I really can't help you... BUT you should look in the document menu --> security settings. I bet you will find your solution somewhere in there. (see attachment 2)

- Jon

[greg.mcdowell]

I think I already know the answer to this but I'm going to put it out there anyway... how would you, or could you, do this with a DWF?

I'm attempting to push our office more towards the DWF side of things (for many reasons that have been stated elsewhere and far better than I can) and am looking for a solution that might start solving some of these issues.

[dbaldacchino]

Thanks for the reply Jon...your point regarding the inability to duplicate elevations is extremely valid. Using Phases one can edit the existing elevations and preserve the bid-set, but you'd have to change the view's phase for it to update in the sheet. Then you're stuck with a full size anyway. This definately has to be re-thought.

[david.kingham]

So I tried pdfs, dwfs, duplicating views, etc. for sketches and I was horribly dissapointed by all of the methods...after racking my brain for a week i think I've come up with a very good solution...All i did was add a filled region to my 8.5x11 SKA titleblock that has a hole in it (that is in a generic annotation so it wont cover up the lines in the titleblock, draw order would have been nice here) I simply place this titleblock in my sheet temporarily, print it out to whatever format I need and then delete it off my sheet...seems to work great!

[dbaldacchino]

Awesome, you got to this before I did hahaha. The only drawback of this is the fact that you cannot "keep" it....you can keep it by doing a pdf, but you get the point. And the other drawback is if you wanted to print at a different scale than what's on your sheet, you'd have to scle up or down depending on that. We typically print NTS because they're faxed anyway!

[cstanley]

another potentially nice way this could happen is if the sheets would support a callout.
you could place a "callout" on the sheet. the boundary of the "callout" would be "cloud-style" and would capture whatever is on the sheet, including the views. then we have a cloud that could have the appropriate tag, all is referenced, etc.

really, i would just be happy to be able to make a callout of a sheet, to be placed on another sheet. then the SK sheet would have the intelligence of being tied back to the original sheet.

right now i am liking the pdf form creation.

as more and more projects actually go through the entire construction phase (as opposed to being done through DD and then exported, or shipped off, which i'm getting the feeling is commonly the case) this stuff really needs to be addressed by the factory.