AutoCAD Management/Standards Framework
Hi All,
I work for the Architect wing of a large multidisciplinary company and I am ashamed at the disgraceful lack of CAD standards currently in our company/projects. However we are starting to put things right implementing new systems and procedures across the disciplines.
Unfortunately a lot on emphasis is being put on the content such as what layer naming standard we should use, line styles etc. I view that as the easy and not so important part. I'm more interested in how the standards are delivered into Microstation and AutoCAD and also in making the experience as seamless and easy to the end users (has to be easier for them to use the standards and systems in their work than not at the end of the day).
My Problem is : having worked on both Microstation and AutoCAD. Microstation has quite clear and logical multi tier systems in place for implementing cad standards. In a nutshell allowing you to implement/define default company standards and resources centrally, which can be added to / overridden by project standards configuration files located centrally also. Then finally there is the user config files which define how a particular user wants his interface set up etc.
This is all easy integrated into the Microstation user experience:
1. User fires up Microstation, a single line of script in the startup script causes it looks at server for company configuration files resources and standards etc.
2. User select project from project list, setting project specific resources.
3. User chooses name from user list, loading up his environment/interface on any machine in any office in the company.
We can and hopefully Will being implementing the above framework on our Microstation systems.
AutoCAD is causing me more problems. Admittedly I'm not so familiar with AutoCAD customization but the guidance seems vague and I haven't found much information on the various methods AutoCAD offers for implementing a framework. As far as i can see there are the obvious profiles, which can contain references to project configuration files (incedently : project configuration files seem to be hidden away from any obvious and usable interface for the end users). Also there are all sorts of resource files and options of using startup lisp files, VB macros and ARX files etc.
It seems to be surprising hard to roll out a similar system to that offered by Microstation on AutoCAD. Basically at this early juncture of my investigations it looks like I'm going to have to mess with login server startup script to copy across some standard files, which reference server resources/configs etc, programming some kind of a custom interface in AutoCAD to make choosing an appropriate project config with associated standards/resources easy to the end user, and then find a way to still allow the user to set up the interface as he/she wants it with the selection of custom macros/menus/tools available to him/her (ideally on any machine in the company).
I'm sure the must be an easier way to implement something roughly like the above within AutoCAD and would appreciate some hints/links on where to start or available guidance articles etc on the topic. I seem to just be trawling up little nougats here and there at the moment and research is going slowly.
We are also currently rolling out the Project Wise document management system which may further complicate matters!
(Hmmm.... a bit of a long winded explanation/plea in hindsight.)
Cheers,
Richard Radford.
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