formatting fields

[Wanderer]

has anyone had any problems setting up/keeping the desired field formatting in their tables?
and any tips you've used to get around those things?

[RobertB]

What type of formatting on what type of field?

[Wanderer]

any and all.
text style, size, color, alignment, merged cells, borders.

I am really just curious for any input from people that have used this feature...

[RobertB]

So you are not talking about Fields (as data in a cell), but Tables and their cells.

MatchProp does a good job in many cases, as does some coding. I will be presenting some tables-related functions at Autodesk University this year.

[philh]

In AutoCAD 2005,Double click cell in the table you want to ad a feild to, then right click and select insert Field.
If you want to insert a block...
Single click the cell in the table, then right click and select insert Block.

The single click and double click to edit a table in a cell messed me up, but now I have the hang of it.

[RobertB]

... Is there a way making a sheet set with your pre-existing blocks with the attribute fields so it automates like the autocad examples do? I just started looking into this and any info would be appreciated.

In addition to any other replies, please see the Sheet Set forum, and this walkthru. Oh, and the May/June 2004 AUGIWorld has an article on sheet set setup also.

[mrjohnson]

In addition to any other replies, please see the Sheet Set forum, and this walkthru. Oh, and the May/June 2004 AUGIWorld has an article on sheet set setup also.

Robert,
When I attended the AutoCAD 2005 seminar I came away wondering the same thing as Cathryn, if not a little more. I was wondering why did they spend the time to even create "Fields" when a simple correlation table of a title block name and the attribute names and their uses would have given Acad 2005 immediate compatibility with 95% of all the drawings out there. As I understand it, as soon as you remove a sheet from a sheet set you loose all the sheet set related information and automation. My drawings have to live and stand on their own. They move from project to project and I can't see how to integrate this kind of requirement into the new "Fields" scheme. It seems to me that an extra switch on an attribute to make it auto-sheet set updateable would have been all that was needed. That way the sheet set could read all the title block (or whatever) data out of the file and write back to what is set to auto-change. Once the file goes back into an as-built set, all the attribute data is preserved. If I am missing the point, please let me know.

Thanks,
Mike Johnson
CAD Support
Micron Technology, Inc. - Lehi, UT

[RobertB]

Good points. However, please bear in mind that SSM and fields are in their first release. I'm sure there will be further improvements as time goes by.

A sheet set was intended to stand alone with a project. My biggest hangup is that a resource drawing can only belong to one sheet set. So that makes standard details a bit more complicated than neccessary.

Athough in times past we took one drawing from a project and copied/modified it to another project, there isn't much more complication in simply performing a SaveAs on a drawing we want in another project. Granted, the full sheet info cannot go along for the ride, but it never did in our firm anyway.

[mrjohnson]

Robert,
Thanks for verifying that I had not missed the key points about Fields. The problems you list about the limitations of Fields and Sheet sets (single project use only) are a very large problem when you are on the client/owner operator side of the equation. We have many tens of thousands of drawings and had to write our own Drawing File Manager that reads out the title block information and stores it in a database. This allows us to have our drawing data move from project, to issue package, to export and import to A&Es, and back to our As-Built directories. Many times we may only change one discipline base file under a project and all the other discipline base files still remain in the As-Built directory (same goes with our standard details). That way we set up a basic PROJECTNAME variable string to support the base As-Built and Details paths and then only have to modify the Working project paths as we move from project to project. If the Sheet Set software was a little more flexible/configurable and would auto-scan the standard title block/s (back to attributes again) as a file was added to a project, think of the added convenience. It shouldn't be any harder to also allow for direct modification/update of the attributes from the Sheet Set manager (what would be the difference?) than it is for Fields. As a facilities owner I would be able to make a Master Sheet set (drawing status and all) for all my files and then create Project Sheet sets as needed for the plant upgrades. This would allow me to easily transmit a Project Sheet set to any A&E (with the correct XRefs) and receive it back again. Then all the Sheet data would auto-update and we wouldn't have to write software to make up for these short-comings. I know that any large company will have these same issues if they keep a good organized drawing set. Don't you think better/easier coordination between owners and their A&Es would be a good thing for AutoDesk?

[RobertB]

Still good points. Why don't you codify them concisely and post them in the wishlist?