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In this months issue…
CAD Leadership Part 8 – Traits 4 & 5
What CAD Manager want from the Users
Survey Says – What features are you using?
Go to the August – CADD Manager Journal
To Send a Project you can gather all the associated files in a transmittal through eTransmit. When you want to gather all files together for in-house purposes – use Archive. Both of these tools are available on the right-click menu when you select a project name. They do the same thing only eTransmit has the Transmittal functions included.
The Refresh Project button updates project data to match the latest information if constructs have been added or deleted. Click this button frequently if you are working in a networked project. It is also available in the Project Navigator.
To rename a project, first close it, then right-click on it, and select Rename Project. The Rename Project File dialog box will open and you can enter a new name. When you make the project current, it will ask if you want to re-path the project. I recommend that you repath when you rename a project.
To move a project from one directory to another, close the project, right-click and select Move Project. A Browse dialog box will appear where you can pick the new location. Moving will automatically repath all the files. You will need to navigate to the new location to make the project current. DO NOT use windows explorer to move a project.
WHY ARE THESE OPTIONS GRAYED OUT?
To rename or move a project you must first close it. Right-click on the current project name and select Close Current Project.
You may also want to close projects when you are working on non-project based drawings so you do not make changes to the project by mistake. This is critical to remember. Get the right project up when you need it and close the project when you don’t need it.
Better late than never…??? I have been busy and have not had time to replace last months survey – sorry. So I may leave this one up longer.
This month…
Investigating Your Standards
There are some quick topics in CAD that sometimes generate differing opinions.
Tell us what is in your CAD Standards Manual.
A sheet list table is a listing of all the sheets in a project by number and
name. Typically it is inserted on the cover sheet of a project but can be
placed on any sheet.
This can be automatically generated from the Sheet Set Manager.
1. Open the sheet file that you want to contain the sheet list table. This must be a Sheet that exists in the current Sheet Set.
2. Right-click on the Sheet Set title and select Insert Sheet List
3. In the Insert Sheet List Table command select the table style name
and make any necessary changes – most often you will accept the
default. Click OK.
4. An alert box comes up warning you that any manual updates to the
sheet list table will be lost when you update the table.
5. Specify an insertion point for the table.
- To update a sheet list table, select the table, right-click and select Update Sheet List Table. The sheets will be updated.
- All the other Table modification tools are also available on the rightclick menu. Remember: any customization you make to the table will be overwritten when you update the table.
- Each sheet name and number in the list is hyperlinked to the actual sheet. To move quickly to that sheet hold down the key and
select the sheet name or number.
Elements are objects or collections of objects that are like blocks in that they can be used over and over in drawings.
They can be office furniture layouts, room layouts, restrooms, equipment and more.
Elements are typically referenced into constructs.
If you realize that you need to use a construct in several places you should convert it to an element.
To convert a construct to an element, drag the construct to the element category. The Add Element dialog box will appear and you can change the name and description if you want to.
- Elements can be referenced into other elements.
- Elements need to be referenced into a construct to be used in views. If you want to use an element then reference it.
- Elements are located under the Constructs Tab in PNav under the Elements Folder.
- You can reference an element directly into a sheet for detailing.
When you create a file in ADT you will most likely be working with Xrefs at some point. Constructs can be made up of individual objects such as walls, doors, windows, and floors but there are also elements that need to be referenced. Sheet files will definitely use Xrefs.
Project Navigator helps you attach and keep track of these Xrefs, but you may also need to see the reference relationship, update references, and repath files so their references will be found.
- To reference an object into another file (such as an element into a construct or a construct into a view), you drag and drop the item from the Project Navigator into the drawing file. This is critical. Do not use the Xref Manager like in regular AutoCAD. This is because PNav creates XML files for each file. It remembers what is connected to what.
- To update or reload an Xref you will need to use the Xref Manager. However, do not use the standard Xref tools in the Xref Manager to attach reference files in projects.
You can show the References attached to a construct without having to open the drawing. In the PNav, select the construct, right-click, and select Show External References (or, click on the button at the bottom of the Constructs and Views tabs).
- Show External References is just a viewing tool. You cannot do anything with the reference files in this dialog box.
Buried under the ADT Content Browser is a tool to place Fire Rating symbology in a Wall. This may be an option to some who may not want to fiddle with embedding the fire rating symbology into their wall styles.
What it does is use “idrop” technology to place the lines inside of walls. You pick one end of the wall and then the other end and the line is placed in the centter of the wall.
It is located in Content Browser (CTRL + 4), Documentation Tool Catalog – Imperial, Miscellaneous, Fire Rating Lines.
It uses custom linetypes that are included with ADT.
They are (from top to bottom):
Aec_Rating_1Hr.
Aec_Rating_2 Hr.
Aec_Rating_2 Hr.-Smoke
Aec_Rating_4 hr.
Aec_Rating_Smoke
Many thanks to my co-worker Julie for uncovering this.
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