Page setups - how many is too many?

[gilmer]

And how many is not enough?

I currently provide 7 for the Layout tab:

A size 1=1 to .pdf
B size 1=1 to .pdf
E1 size 1=1 to .pdf
A size 1=1 to default printer
B size 1=1 to default printer
E1 [full size] 1=1 to plotter
E1 [half size] 2=1 to plotter

All are, by default landscape orientation, and to get portrait the user must toggle themselves.

There was a discussion today that 7 is too many choices and that only 3 should be provided:

E1 [full size] to plotter
E1 [half size] to plotter
E1 size to .pdf

And to get anything else, the user must make their own adjustments.


Any thoughts?

[CADDmanVA]

I really think it depends on how your office works, but this is ours...

Arch D
Arch C
Letter Size CutsheetWe're doing a lot more B Size plotting now, so I'm thinking about adding it in. As far as plotter goes, they all default to the "relevant" plotter for the layout. i.e. C and D go to the wide format, letter and B go to the laser. That's my two cents! :beer:

[Brian Benton]

I really think it depends on how your office works, but this is ours...

I agree. It's best to keep the list small, or course, but one for each sheet size you use seems reasonable to me. If you "never" use any of those in your list, then take it out.
Before paper space we would often set up templates at our most often used scale, but that could get out of control. The fewer you set up the less you have to maintain. Your list seems fine to me.

[dgorsman]

Looks OK to me. Here, we mostly do reduced size plots so its a bit easier - 3 printers upstairs, 3 downstairs. The departments are split by floors so I can split the page-setups by drawing type. Everything is fit-to-page, which also makes things easier.

Its easy to get overwhelmed with combinations of printers (and photocopiers now too), paper sizes, pen tables, etc. Pick a few commonly used combinations, anything else is up to the user.

[cadtag]

IMHO -- only put the ones that are in constant use in your normal template drawings -- wading though a long list is somewhat of a pain in the somewhere. BUT - you don't want your users to waste time reinventing the wheel, so create another template drawing to store less commonly used pagesetups. When a C-Size is needed for a given device, they can import a 'standard' pagesetup from there instead of recreating it each time they need it.

[gilmer]

all good points . . . and well taken.

Maybe I should have been a bit more descriptive by saying that I think I have covered all of the common plotting possibilities for the way our office works:

- A, B, and E1 .pdf
- A, and B to any one of five laser printers via 'Default Printer'
- full and half size to the Oce plotter

Granted, some are more common than others, but all are used often enough. I think the opposition to this 'long list' comes from only wanting to see the truly popular 3 choices and make people set manually the other 4 when needed. I do not think 'struggling' through a list of 7 is too much to ask from the users for the sake of only having a list of 3.

Any thoughts on what this threshold might be?

I mean - we struggle through the list with File > Open all the time and it really doesn't bother me . . .



I like the idea of having a 'secondary' set that is not always on the list but easily loaded. I will take that approach to providing the equivalent configurations above in metric units.


chris

[dgorsman]

If you have some LISP or VBA skills, you may want to consider putting in a button/menu/tool palette item or two that add those additional page set-ups programmatically. That would keep the list short but easily expandable by the user when required.

[gilmer]

Good point! That is what we are working towards. I have 20+ years of LISP and about 5 or so of VB/VBA.

The 'manual' selection of page setups is a temporary solution for streamlining the plotting effort and exposing the users to this 'neat thing' called page setups. Lately I have been 'playing architecture' instead of 'playing CAD Manager' - you know what I mean . . .

The hurdle we can't seem to agree on is how many options to provide.


chris

[sschwartz85916]

I provide two.

Full size
Half size

Unless of course there is a special circumstance where a client requires a custom dwf size half sized sheet. Then I provide that for them also. Anything beyond that gets deleted!!! :veryevil:

BTW, I have seen some other firms have in upwards of 27 sheet setups. It is a very large company, they must have a reason... they must.... right???!!! :shock:

[dxarhoulakos]

I created a Pull Down Menu.

See attached.

[gilmer]

I provide two.

Full size
Half size

Unless of course there is a special circumstance where a client requires a custom dwf size half sized sheet. Then I provide that for them also. Anything beyond that gets deleted!!! :veryevil:

BTW, I have seen some other firms have in upwards of 27 sheet setups. It is a very large company, they must have a reason... they must.... right???!!! :shock:


Thanks for the reply...

Does you full size or half size choice go straight to the plotter? to .pdf file? Do you rely on your users to make this toggle?

Do you ever print to 8.5x11 or 11x17? Is that a manual setup for your users?

I am providing a few extra page setups beyond full size to the plotter and half size to the plotter to take the place of having to manually adjust plot parameters to get these other plots [fulll .pdf, half .pdf, A size, B size] that are pretty common in our office.

I am interested in hearing about how your users get to these other plot possibilities, if they are even required in your office.

thanks - chris

[gilmer]

I created a Pull Down Menu.

See attached.

This is where we are headed. But until I get there, I thought I would roll out the page setups and at least provide easier access to a new plotter.

Chris

[dxarhoulakos]

I provide two.


BTW, I have seen some other firms have in upwards of 27 sheet setups. It is a very large company, they must have a reason... they must.... right???!!! :shock:

Very possible. My last company we were on 6 floors in one building (300 users).

each floor had 2 OCE's, 3-4 Copier/printers.

and we worked on imperial and metric projects. we had a lot more then 27 page setups.

but using the pull down menu you dont have to have every single one in your drawing. you just choose the one you need from the pull down.

look at my previous post with the pull down menu.

i created a page setup for almost every scenario, but if you opened any one of our drawings, you would only see a handful that are needed for that drawing.

Full Size
Half Size
11x17 Scale to Fit
PDF
DWF
of course these apply for every paper size used.

If I added them all up, there would be quite a bit.

[CADnemi]

I created up a 'page setup' template file so each person can import only what they need for each file. So in each file you would only have 2 or 3: the main page set-up, 11x17 quick plot and plot to pdf. My problem is getting people to use them!

[CADDmanVA]

...My problem is getting people to use them!

Heh heh heh! Welcome to AUGI...in more ways than one!

You'll soon learn we all have that problem around here.