{"id":3523,"date":"2006-07-03T06:47:25","date_gmt":"2006-07-03T13:47:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.caddmanager.com\/CMB\/?p=3523"},"modified":"2016-02-11T16:51:52","modified_gmt":"2016-02-11T23:51:52","slug":"seven-deadly-sins-of-autocad-users-part-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.caddmanager.com\/CMB\/2006\/07\/seven-deadly-sins-of-autocad-users-part-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Seven Deadly Sins of AutoCAD Users \u2013 Part 2"},"content":{"rendered":"

First published in AUGI Hot News July, 2006 – see Part 1<\/a><\/p>\n

Last time we looked at four of the seven deadly sins that AutoCAD Users might make. \u00a0They included not reading the book, not developing standards, going overboard on enforcing the standards at all costs, and using software like we did in older releases. Let\u2019s turn now to the rest of the list.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Sin #5: Creating your own personal pentable, CTB or STB<\/b><\/p>\n

This is one of my most annoying issues that comes along. \u00a0Plotting is already a difficult task at best and when someone creates their own settings files, it gets worse. \u00a0This is one of the main reasons people have difficulty plotting other people drawings.<\/p>\n

In a multi user environment standardizing the methods of plotting can reap enormous benefits. \u00a0Plotting is one of the first and highest levels of user frustrations that occur. \u00a0So many times I have seen users struggle to get the output to look just right and fail. \u00a0They cannot match what the last user did. \u00a0It does not match from project to project or file to file.<\/p>\n

It most often relates back to the creation of \u201cspecial\u201d CTB files or unique STB files. \u00a0Users need to stop creating \u201cone off\u201d output that no one can reproduce. \u00a0I have seen it over and over again. \u00a0One user wants a little more thickness to some lines and so they create a CTB to get it done. \u00a0They store it on their local machine and create the plots. \u00a0The next guy who tries to plot can never reproduce the image because they don\u2019t have access to the file.<\/p>\n

Set a standard and have every user, every project, every file follow it. \u00a0I have worked in very large deployments, multiple hundreds of users \u2013 all using the same CTB or STB file for all plots. \u00a0Yes there will be client plotting requirements that demand differing pen settings, but only if demanded.<\/p>\n

Set all the systems to point back to a shared location on the server for the pen settings and plot styles. \u00a0Make the folder read only. \u00a0Keep it clean.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Sin #6: Exploding<\/b><\/p>\n

Back in the day there were many valid reasons to explode stuff. \u00a0Explode was created to \u201cunblock\u201d blocks and reduce things down to the basic structures and entities that comprised the block.<\/p>\n

I have so many violations in this area that it is overwhelming. \u00a0It appears that many users see this as the universal answer to every problem they have with data. \u00a0They explode hatches and blocks and attributes and dimensions and tags and tables and fields and\u2026<\/p>\n

Exploding is not the answer. \u00a0It actually creates more problems. \u00a0The root problem is not know what kind of data it is and not knowing how to work with it. \u00a0I think long and hard before I explode something. \u00a0The general rule is if I have to explode it to get it to work right, then I created it wrong. \u00a0If I have to explode it to get it to work right then I don\u2019t know how it was created. \u00a0I need to learn more about the object types and how to work with them. \u00a0I need to learn the behaviors of objects and why they are doing what they are doing.<\/p>\n

Exploding should be the last ditch effort to get something to work. \u00a0Actually you are not getting it to work at all. \u00a0You are working around it. \u00a0You are negating any kind of intelligence that was built into the object and forcing it to conform to your level of understanding.<\/p>\n

Next time stop and think about what the object is. \u00a0Ask someone if they know why it is not working right. \u00a0Learn what you have to do to work with the data.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Sin #7: Not saving your work<\/b><\/p>\n

\u201cSave it or lose it\u201d. \u00a0I have worked in an environment where that was beat into my head. \u00a0All new users need to be reminded about saving their work. \u00a0If you failed to save your work \u2013 you lost it. \u00a0In the old days (circa 1985) system glitches, crashes and hiccups happened all the time. \u00a0The hardware failed. \u00a0The power failed. \u00a0The software failed. \u00a0We have come a long way.<\/p>\n

There still exists a need for saving your work on a regular basis. \u00a0How many of us have been burned by failing to save our work in a timely fashion and the system locks up. \u00a0If we have been burned by this, we hopefully learn from it.<\/p>\n

You may say that the system does an AutoSave and you don\u2019t have to worry about it. \u00a0Most users do not know the AutoSave settings on their machine nor do they know how to recover the AutoSave file when needed. \u00a0It is better to get them in the habit of purposeful saves on a regular basis. \u00a0My rule is that I save whatever I don\u2019t want to lose. \u00a0If I like to place my data in jeopardy for 30 minutes without a save, I better not complain about redrawing something when I lose it.<\/p>\n

I regularly save my work every 5-10 minutes and after major milestones I don\u2019t want to lose. \u00a0If Ii have just struggled with some knotty problem and gotten the graphics to behave, I save. \u00a0I set my AutoSave to 15 minutes and use it as a backup. \u00a0I hopefully will never have to rely on my AutoSave because I am saving my work.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

BONUS – Sin #8: Not using OSNAPs<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Oh my Gosh! \u00a0Does this still happen? \u00a0Oh yeah \u2013 it does\u2026 all the time.<\/p>\n

I have seen so many users who consistently fail to use OSNAP. \u00a0This is so basic that it is embarrassing to mention. \u00a0When users fail to use OSNAP even once, it can cause a ripple into all areas of the drawing. \u00a0One bad piece of graphic can infect and entire project.<\/p>\n

When OSNAPs are ignored while creating blocks it compounds the misery. \u00a0Getting the primary geometry in place correctly is critical to all your efforts. \u00a0This is a basic drafting method that must be drilled into new users. \u00a0Keep on them until it becomes second nature. \u00a0Don\u2019t let up until they get it right. \u00a0Don\u2019t forget to warn them about OSNAPing from 2D to 3D.<\/p>\n

If you have failed in this area (we all have at some point), rededicate yourself to OSNAPing all objects, all the time.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Conclusion:<\/b><\/p>\n

Well, as you have guessed, I could go on and maybe never cover your area of \u201csinfulness\u201d, or something you have seen in others. \u00a0To name a few areas that would be nice to discuss I would include\u2026 Not XRefing correctly, Text sizes that are all over the map, Not drawing to scale, Not Spell checking, Not Use Paper Space or maybe Drawing things twice.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

First published in AUGI Hot News July, 2006 – see Part 1 Last time we looked at four of the seven deadly sins that AutoCAD Users might make. \u00a0They included not reading the book, not developing standards, going overboard on enforcing the standards at all costs, and using software like we did in older releases. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,4],"tags":[],"series":[],"class_list":["post-3523","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cad-management","category-tips"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.caddmanager.com\/CMB\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3523","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.caddmanager.com\/CMB\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.caddmanager.com\/CMB\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.caddmanager.com\/CMB\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.caddmanager.com\/CMB\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3523"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.caddmanager.com\/CMB\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3523\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3525,"href":"https:\/\/www.caddmanager.com\/CMB\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3523\/revisions\/3525"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.caddmanager.com\/CMB\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3523"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.caddmanager.com\/CMB\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3523"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.caddmanager.com\/CMB\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3523"},{"taxonomy":"series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.caddmanager.com\/CMB\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/series?post=3523"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}