Multiple Concept Drawings in Project Navigator

[douglass]

Okay, first post time.

I work for a small firm that is starting its first projects using ACA. Lucky for me the first job we're working on using the project manager is a small one, a renovation to an existing motel. We are preparing concept drawings for this project, and I was wondering what would be the most time- and headache-saving way to go about preparing multiple sheets that contain some of the same information (I'm only asking this question because it doesn't seem like you can simply copy a "sheet" in PN).

This is how I tried it:

The "Plans" sheet contains 3 views:

First Floor Demolition Plan
First Floor Plan
Second Floor Plan

So far we are not doing any work to the second floor, so that viewport and all of the text will be the same in all of the concept sheets. I have different constructs made for the different concepts, and each one has its own view. Each time we've made a new concept design, I created a new sheet, dragged the model space views into it, and copy-pasted the annotation from the previous concept's Second Floor Plan.

So my big question I guess is: Can you copy a sheet in Project Navigator?

As I'm typing this I'm thinking "maybe it would be easier to put my annotation in the 'view' instead of the 'sheet'." Any thoughts on that? Our standard is to put all annotation in paper space, but if thats not how ACA is supposed to work I might as well start getting used to it.

[dzatto]

Okay, first post time.

I work for a small firm that is starting its first projects using ACA. Lucky for me the first job we're working on using the project manager is a small one, a renovation to an existing motel. We are preparing concept drawings for this project, and I was wondering what would be the most time- and headache-saving way to go about preparing multiple sheets that contain some of the same information (I'm only asking this question because it doesn't seem like you can simply copy a "sheet" in PN).

This is how I tried it:

The "Plans" sheet contains 3 views:

First Floor Demolition Plan
First Floor Plan
Second Floor Plan

So far we are not doing any work to the second floor, so that viewport and all of the text will be the same in all of the concept sheets. I have different constructs made for the different concepts, and each one has its own view. Each time we've made a new concept design, I created a new sheet, dragged the model space views into it, and copy-pasted the annotation from the previous concept's Second Floor Plan.

So my big question I guess is: Can you copy a sheet in Project Navigator?

As I'm typing this I'm thinking "maybe it would be easier to put my annotation in the 'view' instead of the 'sheet'." Any thoughts on that? Our standard is to put all annotation in paper space, but if thats not how ACA is supposed to work I might as well start getting used to it.

Welcome to AUGI and congrats on your first post.

Funny you said that. As I was reading your post I was asking myself "Is he annotating in the sheet set?"

That is precisely what you are supposed to do, all annotation goes in the view. The sheet is ONLY for setting up the border and plotting. That's it. I've always put annotation in models space. I know some people still do it in paper space, and it's a big controversy between the two schools of thought, but I've never liked doing it that way.

For your different concepts, you can do a construct for each one. I've done that before. I added a new category for each concept under my constructs. You can also create a new division and put a concept in that division. Need a new concept? create a new division. Both work quite well.

Once you annotate in your view, then I think you solved your problems. Just drag whatever view you need onto your sheet. When setting up the sheets, also look at fields. PN will automatically fill in the fields for you once you set up your templates. Mine fills in the date, project, address, city, state, etc. automatically when I create a sheet.

I highly recommend getting Paul Aubins book "Mastering Autocad Architecuture 2008", or 2010 depending on your version.

Also, there is a project navigator specific forum you may want to browse around for some tips and hints.
http://forums.augi.com/forumdisplay.php?f=395
That's how I learned. Paul's book and AUGI.

There's so many tips and tricks and ways to do it. This just came to mind:
You can copy constructs, and also take plans that are out of the project and save them into the project. Copy constructs by right clicking it in PN and choosing copy, then right click and paste. Then you can rename it.

If you have a drawing that isn't in the project, open it and then go to the constructs tab. Right click and choose "save current drawing as construct". that's a big time saver sometimes.

let me know if you have any questions. I know I kept putting off learning PN because I didn't understand it. Once I finally decided to just do it, I was up and running in a few days, and after a few weeks I wondered why I didn't do it sooner.

Oh to answer your original question: No, i don't think you can copy sheets in PN since they reference multiple views.

[tra1133]

Instead of copying sheets, do as dzatto says and set up your info in fields. We have sheet templates with fields for anything that is redundant from sheet to sheet. There is nothing that says you can't also add field info that runs outside of the titleblock (depending on what you are doing) for project specific info (we have a client that asks that their project number be added to all sheets).

When you create a new sheet, have it open a project specific sheet template that can be customized for each project and still maintain the same info from project to project.

We place ours in a project folder template that when we either create a new job for an existing client or a new client already has our folder structure, templates, and any other Navigator files set up already. We just copy it in Windows Explorer, rename it, go into ACA and make the necessary changes (New Project) in the Project Browser.

Hope this helps.