.dwt vers .dwg

[Jedidia]

If a template file is basically a .dwg file, why use a template?
Why not just use the existing drawings (assuming layers, line types etc are the same)? Does .dwt's provide any benifit?

[CADTutor]

It's really a convenience thing. It avoids the necessity to start AutoCAD and THEN open a blank drawing with all your settings. You can specify which template to use in the shortcut icon so you could have a range of icons for various configurations. Also, a DWT file is less likely to be changed by accident and is better in multi-user environments - only one user at a time can open a writable DWG file.

[Kate M]

Also, if you have a DWG with your settings, you have to "saveas" every time you use it, or risk overwriting your template. DWT files open with "drawing1.dwg", so you never save on top of it.

[Broman]

Basically you will find that you never want to start every new drawing from scratch (.dwg). Starting from scratch means you have no colors, no layers, no paper layouts, no text styles, nothing....

Starting with a template (.dwt) means that you can open a template file, create a workspace and define all of the things aforementioned (above) and do a save on the .dwt to save all of those settings for future use. This way you can start with the same workspace every time you start a new drawing.

Here is the catch - after you have created a template, you open it and start to draw, then you need to do a saveas (drawing1.dwg - or whatever you want to call the file) in order to convert it from a template (.dwt) to a drawing (.dwg). Otherwise you will save over your template, and every time you open the template you will have stuff drawn in it.

So you will always have a .dwt file (or more than one) to begin your drawings, but you will never save any drawings on that type of file - you will do a saveas and save all of your drawings as....well, drawings (.dwg). And after you save your drawings as a drawing file - then you can use that little save (qsave) button on the toolbar to save as you edit/add to your drawing.

Did any of this make sense.....?

[Broman]

POST KILLED....