CAD layering standards for LAs

Viewing 8 posts - 1 through 8 (of 8 total)
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  • #154237
    Regina M. Flanagan
    Participant

    The National CAD Standard (NCS) from the National Institute of Building Sciences includes AIA layering guidelines, but these standards docs are $$$ and I don’t know how applicable they are to LAs. What is a good common resource for LA CAD standards? Thanks.

    #154244
    Jason T. Radice
    Participant

    You can generally find the general idea of the standards to download somewhere to view for free (google search), which include LA layers. As well, you can create your own layers as needed as long as they fit the conventions. I’ve pretty much always used a similar system, and it has worked out very well, especially when dealing with many different discipline’s contributions in the same file.

    #154243
    Regina M. Flanagan
    Participant

    I have followed a similar protocol – developing my own definitions for layers – but I’m really interested in learning about the standards used in a professional office. Do you follow AIA conventions, for example?

    #154242
    Jason T. Radice
    Participant

    Well, they aren’t just AIA standards, the idea was that all the allied professions would adopt them to make file sharing and references actually work, which is getting to be critical for using REVIT. And I do use the NCS and have for many years.

    #154241
    Andrew Spiering
    Participant

    Hi Regina,

    Great question!  Here is the pdf version of AIA CAD Layer Guidelines.  I typically use a modified version of the layer naming convention, but always prefix layer names with L- to designate landscape layers.  For example, L-WALL, L-PAV, etc. 

    Also, here are a couple of other discussion on Land8 that you might want to reference:

    Layer Naming Conventionhttps://land8.com/forum/topics/cad-layer-naming-convention-can-anyon…

    AIA CAD Standards – https://land8.com/forum/topics/aia-cad-standards

    #154240
    Regina M. Flanagan
    Participant

    Thanks Andrew. Now I can finally get a look at the AIA guidelines… and decide what is useful. I have been using my own nomenclature (as many in this blog have advised me to do). However,  I believe it’s always a good idea to start from the accepted standards and then improve them rather than reinvent the wheel. I’ll check out the other discussions, too.

    #154239
    Goustan BODIN
    Participant

    I just found out you can also define layer filters in the layer manager : saves a lot of time when there are too many to deal with.

    I made a filter for planting (all), one just for trees, one for all other plants

    Then some other for master plan, paper space, etc…

    By default, you can already select which Xrefs in the drawing you want to display.

    great tool 😀 

    #154238
    Robert Anderson
    Participant

    Regina,

    I have developed more than one set of CAD standards and the firms that I have worked for are as varied from Engineering firms to Land Planning and Landscape Architecture. In each of these circumstances my clients have asked that the basis of design is the National CAD standard.

    The other guidance that you have received here is very good as well. You should develop your layers and line weights based on your workflow. I would suggest to you that you do adhere to a naming convention that, in the event you share your files, someone can make sense of.

    Also AutoCAD has numerous ways to filter layer names so I would suggest you start with a prefix to keep them separate from other disciplines. Best of luck.

Viewing 8 posts - 1 through 8 (of 8 total)
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