Frustration w/Autocad workflow/standards in small LA firm

[Don]

Is there any manual (or professional) out there that could give us guidance to our AutoCAD systems?

 

I was never able to grasp the intricacies of sheet sets and such. I learned all my CAD skills on Vectorworks, so I have always had to hand off sketches to junior personnel.

 

But I think I know just enough that when I overhear staff working on different plot sheets and each asking, “are you working on the base plan” that we have some strange xref’ing policies. And their reluctance to use annotative text. And quirky fonts that no other office uses.

 

Since I’m not facile with CAD, my declarations don’t go too far.

 

I know the US Park Service has some standards to go by. I’ve downloaded the PDF’s but they look like they need some updating, and we need soup-nuts descriptions of best ways to set up detail sheets, how to set up file structures and archives. Best practices stuff.

 

Our luck we’ll figure it out and then have to move to Revit.

[Thomas J. Johnson]

I’d gladly come to your office and help you get your system (process) dialed in for $150/hr. Your question is just too obtuse to easily answer in this forum. There are many ways to skin a cat but the simplest is always the best. The least number of steps required to get to the prize wins. If you don’t have a standard process for doing standard work, then you’re wasting time and money. AutoCAD is not rocket surgery but it’s easy to end up with a fist full of tangled fishing line if you’re not careful. Passing projects around, with different people doing things differently to the same file is just setting things up to fail. Success with AutoCAD is all about having a plan, being deliberate in your execution and sticking to layer, x-ref and naming standards. Lazy, sloppy work kills.

Those are the broadest terms I can use to answer your question. Hope that helps…

[Brett T. Long]

Don, I think that Thomas said it pretty well. I own my practice and still do much of the AutoCAD production and design work. I am also a Certified AutoCAD instructor with several years of teaching under my belt and it is still a bit of a struggle to keep the standards and x-ref files sorted out from project to project. The unfortunate thing about AutoCAD drafting standards, is that you may get them all dialed and immediately be forced to conform to another firm’s standards. It happens to me all the time. I have some fantastic and simple standards that are beautiful and I used to have to toss them out the window when others took the lead. Over the past few years I have developed strategies that work well regardless of the team.  I do provide consulting for customizing standards and setting up drafting processes which can all be done via Skype, email and phone.  Feel free to contact me if you think you might be interested.

[Zach Watson]

Thomas, I like the reference you gave, ‘rocket surgery’. 😀

[Jason T. Radice]

There is also the National CAD standard which many gubming agencies subscribe to. That sets up a universal layer management style and naming convention. You can slap together a CD set anyway you want to, but the simpler the better. X-refs are always difficult and you really do have to tailor their use to your office. Once you get going, nobody should be in the base x-ref. Your firm should develop a standard that everybody must learn and live or die by as consistency in documention is key for efficiency, error checking, and clarity of drawings (really? Using quirky fonts? are they five years old?) Nobody should be using any fonts that don’t come standard in AutoCAD out of risk they will not appear properly when files are transferred or PDFs sent.

[Author]

Posts