Please comment on a memo sent round, highlighting company CAD standards

[H-Angus]

Why would CAD standards refer to the CUI?
They are about producing drawings and should be broadly applicable to any CAD software and any release.

£0.02

Agreed, our text sizes etc are still loosely based on hand drawing standards.

[jrebennack]

Quote:

"• D Text to be used as a company standard, M Text not to be used."

What? DTEXT blows!

[jaberwok]

Quote:

"• D Text to be used as a company standard, M Text not to be used."

What? DTEXT blows!

Horses for courses.

What's sauce for the goose isn't necessarily sauce for the gander.

[Doodlemusmaximus]

I feel your pain here, seems that you'll have a really difficult problem trying to get somewhere with this guy.


Just take it one step at a time softly, softy breaks no eggs is the old saying. You'll not want to aggravate the situation as he could have been there for a while and is firmly entrenched. try suggesting (nicely) to get him on board, even by trying to get him thinking it came from him maybe. Failing that, smile think about how much you get in your bank account and look for pastures new, passing the problem onto someone else.

[jcotey]

Spenner,
Has the IT guy ever seen a copy of the National CAD Standards? Version 4 should soon be available.
I remember when when the CAD team was the IT team as well. But the two fields have since been seperated in most businesses. Sounds like he's out of his realm.
Good luck with that.
Jon

[Richard McDonald]

Whilst I totaly agree with CAD standards and god help anybody that doesn't confirm to them if I ever get to the lofty position of CAD Manager.

Why is it that so many standards out there try to constrain draghters to a particular way of working within CAD. What the standards are there for is to ensure that all drawings look like they come from the same company and that anybody within that company can pick up a drawing and edit it with ease.

Does it realy matter if its dtext or mtext both edit on the same command. One of the most annoying ones i've come across is all sections must look right, great until you want to do a sectional elevation on a left facing wall.

Another thread on here was talking about having company standard pgp's. Is the next step all tool bars have to be in the same place.

Company standards should be followed but lets make them sensible and logical to follow without dictating how people should produce the individual elements otherwise they will just rebel as its easier.

[dgorsman]

DTEXT vs. MTEXT can make a difference if objects are being automatically processed. While it would be nice if designers could do everything they wanted, adherence to what the client wants comes first; the company, second; the designer... thats well down the totem pole.

And yeah, toolbars are going to be locked into place for a month or two after we upgrade to 2008 (from 2005). Its going to take at least a week to train the "power users" how to manage the workspacs, dashboard, toolpalettes, etc. in the CUI, let alone the other 40-some-odd users. Giving the that kind flexibiltiy right off the bat would have me running around trying to show each of them individually how to do it - and fixing the resultant problems the next day.

[cadpro78]

[• Text font style, height and width to comply with company standard.


• D Text to be used as a company standard, M Text not to be used.
• Lower left justification to be used unless required for text setout.
• Dimension to be set to company standard, in said dim layer, text to be ‘Romans’, text height 2.5mm, with oblique arrow heads, as set out in standard company templates.
• Arrows to be drawn polyline and not leader dimensions, the size of which relative to text height.
• Gridlines to be drawn in the grid layer using Polylines, grids to have node points at all intersections.
• X-ref’s only to be used for drawing frames, unless approved. This resolves binding issues when e-mailing drawings.
• Group is not a company standard and will not be used.
• Layers to be kept to a minimum, added layers should only be introduced if needed, each object does not require its own layer!
• Drawing number system to be followed at all times, see attached sheet

===>>>> Maybe like 1 or 2 of those things seems reasonable like the text height and having uniform office standard,...but this guy needs to have his head examined IMO. Arrows to be drawn polyline and not by leader dim? Xrefs only to be used for drawing frames? All I got to say to these "rules" are apparently he wants people working very slow and not get stuff down. I know I wouldn't be signing that sheet of paper and explaining the reasons why I wouldn't sign a document like that.

[tedg]

Wow!
One question, has this IT guy ever done any cadd work?
I mean real in-the-trenches, full time production?

Maybe he should stick to IT and leave the drafting to the professionals.
It appears he doesn't know enough about it to set policy.

I understand that if it's a small company, you don't need to do too much fancy stuff, but polyline arrows instead of leaders? Xrefs with permission? No Mtext? Come on!

I know it's been already asked but.. Is there an actual cadd manual? Are there templates and blocks, dimension styles, text styles set up to help speed up the process?

I agree with the others, come up with some scenarios to point out some of the issues. Scenarios using the bad, money-costing methods, and some time & money saving methods for the IT guy (and his boss) to look at and compare.

Like just having the approved layers, dimension styles, text styles (etc.) set up in a template does wonders for production. If they want a specific arrow head on their leaders, set up a dimstyle with a user-arrow so you can grip it and move it like a leader.

[jmctamney]

Wow!
One question, has this IT guy ever done any cadd work?
I mean real in-the-trenches, full time production?

Maybe he should stick to IT and leave the drafting to the professionals.
It appears he doesn't know enough about it to set policy.

I understand that if it's a small company, you don't need to do too much fancy stuff, but polyline arrows instead of leaders? Xrefs with permission? No Mtext? Come on!

I know it's been already asked but.. Is there an actual cadd manual? Are there templates and blocks, dimension styles, text styles set up to help speed up the process?

I agree with the others, come up with some scenarios to point out some of the issues. Scenarios using the bad, money-costing methods, and some time & money saving methods for the IT guy (and his boss) to look at and compare.

Like just having the approved layers, dimension styles, text styles (etc.) set up in a template does wonders for production. If they want a specific arrow head on their leaders, set up a dimstyle with a user-arrow so you can grip it and move it like a leader.

After doing CAD for 13 years now I've come to one conclusion regarding CAD standards. There is no such thing as a CAD "standard" it's more of a CAD "guideline" giving the user some leeway to get thier job done. With most people being on subscription you should be constantly updating the "standard" for new features. We are in the process of re-working ours because we are trying implement annotative text and multileaders.