Project Navigator... in ABS2007

[finney13]

I could use some input here. I am the only one in our office running ABS. Everyone else is either ACAD or LT. In learning to use ABS, I needed to get in and get going, so I imported the Sheet Set Manager from ACAD and have been using that to set up projects and open drawing files.

I am looking at the Project Navigator now, and see some of the advantages. Mainly curious if anyone has had similar issues? The project set up process is a bit different, and there are other people in the office that set up projects also, so I am wondering if there is a way to take an existing project and bring it into the project navigator.

If anyone knows of a good resource, let me know.

Thanks for the help.

[david_peterson]

Hi Ryan,
I think their may be a few other posts here on PN and PN setup. (I'll try to see what I may be able to find). As for a resource on how to use PN, Paul Aubin has a free download of Chapter 5 (http://www.paulaubin.com/resources.php) of his book. It covers the "how to" set up a project in ADT (which I believe should be the same for ABS). With PN, comes a different mind set. You have 4 different drawing file types.

Constructs (things you can find in the building after it's be put up. If it isn't part of the buliding, it should be in a construct. The only exception here is the column grid)
Views (Views are created from the construct (x-ref) and then annotation or anything else that isn't going to be in the building after it's built)
Sheets (sheets contain views. Sheets should never need to be modified other they the sheet number and maybe some title block stuff, but otherwise the idea here is that sheets are always ready to print at anytime)
Elements (Elements are kind of like blocks. If you have a 10 story hotel and the kitchen layouts are always the same, you may want to us an element for them. Elements get x-refed into the constructs, views or sheets (depending on what's in them)
Levels in PN seperate a buliding vertically. Divisons can be used for many things.
Hope this helps.