'exhibit' drawings for properties

[smcgypsea]

Has anyone a solution for creating multiple 'exhibit' drawings for "Real Estate" to present to property owners? Attached is an example of adjoining exhibits.

Here's the details:
I have a street improvement project. 80+/- properties/owners/etc. I have to create 80 drawings (1 for ea. property), 8x14, showing ex. property lines, ex. R/W etc. and prop. R/W, construction easements, etc. And show adjoining owners, property lines with a lighter lineweight, smaller text, etc.
My dilemma, all entities must change for each drawing, larger, smaller, lighter, heavier, corresponding to the property in question. Is there an easier way than to create the 80 files, copying in only the lines and text I need to show and then change the lines, text, etc?

I am still learning the functions of LDD and Map so any pointers would be greatly appreciated.

[KJBIKE7]

Use alot of blocks, so you make one change and they all change. Set up your first layout with all the standard items possible, then copy and rotate viewports as necessary. With the text and names, have it in model space, then with each viewport, do a change space so it automatically moves to paperspace and you can adjust colors as needed. Or the text is in model space as reference and freeze that layer when done. Layout tabs will be helpful, but we discovered 30 layout tabs in one drawing is just to big. Otherwise it is a tedious job. Good luck :)

[jpaulsen]

Are you using 2008? If so, you can change the layer properties independently in each viewport. So you could have one drawing with 80 layouts. This should work provided you created your C3D styles using layers.

[sinc]

So you could have one drawing with 80 layouts.

One drawing with 80 layouts?

Boy, that makes me cringe... :shock:

[sinc]

I am still learning the functions of LDD and Map so any pointers would be greatly appreciated.

An important point to remember is that this is the Civil-3D forum.

If you are using LDD, any pointers you get here will do you no good, as Civil-3D and LDD are completely different programs.

So, are you really using LDD, or are you using Civil-3D?

[smcgypsea]

well, not sure whether 80 layouts are what I intend. Right now I have 80 dwg files, per parcel.

My current solution is 80 files with property lines, property owners, record bearings copied in. I then change line color of property in question, and mtext color of the property in question. THen I label (bearing, dist) property lines, and then tag and create a tag table for easements. Save, saveas, then move on to next, changing colors as I go, erasing what I don't need, etc.

Another solution, might be to xref the base drawing in twice, one for 'background' properties, with their layer colors changed to what I need. The other xref just minutely larger than the property in question, with its colors changed to what I need. Then I will still be able to label and tag as necessary.
Our CTB file then will help with lineweight (bold v/s light). I haven't come up with kinks yet, but I also have not finished with the new idea, other jobs have become more 'critical'.

I wanted a more automated process for creating, updating files, rather than selecting lines/text and changing their layer/color etc. manually for each drawing.

If anyone has gone thru this process, or similar, let me know. "THERE'S GOT TO BE A BETTER WAY" she screamed. Right now, making these easement-parcel-drawings is the MOST time consuming part of each job.

[smcgypsea]

I have to open ldd to get my civil design workspace, so I was assuming...
then change to land desktop in order to label the bearings. I get confused easily. Maybe it's the way this package is loaded? The bosses said, "work with this software..." so I do.
My self-training is in basic autocad, and have self-trained thru this software package too.
Tutorials and these forums have really saved my job, and my ***...

Thanks for allllll your understanding, patience and wisdom. It is VERY appreciated that people are willing to share their intelligence!

[sinc]

If you are switching between LDD and Civil Design workspaces, then it sounds like you are running Land Desktop.

Civil-3D is a completely different program, and Parcels in Civil-3D are very different from Parcels in Land Desktop, and both of those are very different than Map Polygon Topologies, which are another similar feature.

Unfortunately, I don't know of an easy way to do what you want with any of the three. We've actually had the same issue here. We've also had to rotate every lot, so that the "front" of the lot was on the bottom of the page, regardless of what that does to the north arrow. Doing that for a 100+ lot subdivision is no fun at all.

I think it may be possible to come up with an automation solution that will at least help, but the solution would probably need to work in very different fashions for Civil-3D Parcels, Land Desktop Parcels, and Map Polygon Topologies.

[brian.hailey933139]

Sinc,

Perhaps there is a way to help automate this process using the plan production tools. Most likely you have an alignment along the road adjacent to the lots. Set up a template the way you need it, create the viewframes from your alignment, and adjsut them for each lot.

Just thinking outloud.

[sinc]

I don't know. Being a surveyor, I haven't tried using the plan production tools yet. They might help. Of course, we would have to be able to both directions along the alignment. When we need to do this (which isn't very often, luckily), they generally want the road at the bottom of the page. So the plan production tools would need to be able to work in both directions along the alignment. Do they do that?

There are two things that would make it MUCH easier: 1) ability to data reference parcels, so we can create all our parcels in a base drawing, and change the appearance of each lot as-needed in other drawings, and 2) a much-improved labeling system, that is capable of semi-intelligently choosing the label style that will best-fit on the line or curve. And ideally, a label set that is determined based on the Parcel Style, so that we can place all parcel segment labels on an entire Site all at once, simply by setting all the Parcel Styles correctly and then picking the Site.

[brian.hailey933139]

I don't know if you have heard of any of the new features in 2009 but, you will be able to label parcels and their segments through an xref now.

[sinc]

Ah, I had mentioned that as a stop-gap measure, which would allow us to get around some of the issues involved with not being able to data ref Parcels. We still need to be able to data ref parcels, but this will help for a number of things.