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Anybody have a copy of their company's CAD Handbook?


tzframpton

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I have the honor of now creating my company's CAD Handbook. Mostly for record keep & to pass on to new employees. Thing is, I'm looking to see if anybody has a copy on PDF or Word format so I can look over and get an idea/starting point for doing my own for Venture Mechanical.

 

I already know all the things I want to cover, but I want to do a great job. It will need to be updated to when things change, and I want to have a great starting base so when things do update it will be painless and easy. Can anybody out there hook a brutha up? Thanks!!

 

- Tannar :)

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Standards? We don't need no stinkin' standards!:lol:

 

CADalyst Magazine's CAD Management corner has several excellent articles regarding this subject should you get stuck. Here's a link to get you started...

 

http://search.cadalyst.com/results.php?cx=008600089690839190750%3Af7ucb4sfdoq&q=company+standrads&cof=FORID%3A9&sa.x=3&sa.y=4#1361

 

When you're done with yours can you send me a copy?:lol: :lol:

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Standards? We don't need no stinkin' standards!:lol:

 

CADalyst Magazine's CAD Management corner has several excellent articles regarding this subject should you get stuck. Here's a link to get you started...

 

http://search.cadalyst.com/results.php?cx=008600089690839190750%3Af7ucb4sfdoq&q=company+standrads&cof=FORID%3A9&sa.x=3&sa.y=4#1361

 

When you're done with yours can you send me a copy?:lol: :lol:

haha, sure I'll send you a copy. thanks for the link mang. :)

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Based upon my reading might I suggest the following items be contained in your CAD Standards Manual:

 

File Naming / NumberingStandards

 

File Location Standards

 

File Backup Standards

 

List of Standard Sheets, Titleblocks and their sizes

 

List of Standard Scales

 

List of Graphics Standards

 

Sheet Layout, Standard Blocks, Line Weights, Dimensions, Symbols and Blocks, etc.

 

Layering Standards

 

List of Text Styles and Fonts

 

List of Hatch Patterns and Linetypes

 

List of any custom Aliases and LISP files

 

Plotting Standards

 

Contents of Temple Drawings and their locations

 

That should keep you busy for the remainder of the week. When you're done writing it all up, come back and I'll have a few more suggestions for you.

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Styk: I don't know why I like you so much but here's another helpful hint. Google the phrase "CADD standards" (include the quotation marks) and you'll get a truckload of hits to online references. I checked out one for the state of Nevada and it was 210 pages (PDF) long! Happy reading. Hope you had nothing planned for the next month!

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Awesome, Mark, Thanks a lot for the links. I'm already 3 sections in the new manual. Now I have about 50 more to go.... lol

 

I basically did what you did in your 2nd post. I got a notepad and wrote down all the sections I need to cover. It seriously came out to about 50 (not just AutoCAD, but our plotter, file management, etc...). It definitely helped me out when you did that in your post. Thanks bud, when I get going on it, I'll PDF it and PM you what I have for you to look over. :)

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Stykman: Your welcomed. I'd be more than happy to take a look and contribute whatever I can in the way of constructive commentary.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I was promoted to CAD Manager last week and the first job on my plate is to create a company CAD Standard.

 

I've decided to do it in AutoCAD so that I can save a read-only copy of the pages on the server and anyone needing help can save a copy to their hard drive and follow along with the directions in a file that's set up already for whatever task they're tackling.

 

Jon

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  • 3 weeks later...
I have the honor of now creating my company's CAD Handbook. Mostly for record keep & to pass on to new employees. Thing is, I'm looking to see if anybody has a copy on PDF or Word format so I can look over and get an idea/starting point for doing my own for Venture Mechanical.

 

I already know all the things I want to cover, but I want to do a great job. It will need to be updated to when things change, and I want to have a great starting base so when things do update it will be painless and easy. Can anybody out there hook a brutha up? Thanks!!

 

- Tannar :)

 

 

 

---- You can try your local library ... they usually have up-to-date material on CAD packages.

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the one thing i found useffull at college was also doin a little tutorial on profiles/workspaces - that way can keep to the standards BUT have cad setup for how i use it best - just my thought for a penny:)

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  • 1 month later...
  • 2 weeks later...

Standards are much harder to enforce than they are to write.

 

People bring in their own standards as they have gotten use to those

 

My suggenstion is to write lisp routines around those standards. Make it easier to use your standards than without. In fact, Write your standards around the lisp programs you can write.

 

Even with this, it will still need enforcing. The hardest thing (by far) about drafting is modifying a drawing created by someone else because there are so many ways to draw. I'm all for standards.

 

Bringing in so many variables and making Autocad so powerful also made an infinite number of standards. It is debatabe of Autocad has become easier or harder

 

You seem to be preaty cluey and can write powerful lisp programes.

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  • 5 months later...
Standards are the guideline. It's the manager's job to enforce the standards (within reason - no beating employees with birch branches).

 

C'mon, just this once? :P

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Standards are much harder to enforce than they are to write.

 

People bring in their own standards as they have gotten use to those

 

My suggenstion is to write lisp routines around those standards. Make it easier to use your standards than without. In fact, Write your standards around the lisp programs you can write.

 

Even with this, it will still need enforcing. The hardest thing (by far) about drafting is modifying a drawing created by someone else because there are so many ways to draw. I'm all for standards.

 

Bringing in so many variables and making Autocad so powerful also made an infinite number of standards. It is debatabe of Autocad has become easier or harder

 

You seem to be preaty cluey and can write powerful lisp programes.

i have been in charge of company standards for about 2 years now. i have learned that you cant make people draw differently, but you can establish layers, blocks, penweights, file naming schemes, xref usage, etc for them to follow.

 

my goal has been to streamline the look much more than dictate how to get there. i also dont buy into making everything a lisp routine. it may work and be efficiant, but it makes anyone new coming in dependant on a lisp routine to do simple tasks, and eventually they become drones that dont really know how to use autocad. out of the box and free of lisp, ACAD has an amazing number of ways to get to where youre trying to go.

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yeh I guess people will always draw how they see fit, I see lots of stuff and im like why did you do it that way when you can do it like this, sometimes they even know about other ways its just ways they know best even if there slower!

 

ps. this thread has been dragged up:huh: lol

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yeh I guess people will always draw how they see fit, I see lots of stuff and im like why did you do it that way when you can do it like this, sometimes they even know about other ways its just ways they know best even if there slower!

 

ps. this thread has been dragged up:huh: lol

i used to work with a guy that used grips for everything. he was fairly fast at it, but its like, there are a hundred better ways to get that result than by just using grips.

 

i currently work with a guy that sees xrefs in black and white. he would rather draw "everything" in a base xref and just xref it around into the sheets. his argument is that its just one change thats universal. while in theory its a good idea, but just ridiculous to work with if you want to do something like a simple enlarged plan of some sort.

 

now that i have been drafting for 10+ years, i do my best to utilize a variety of tools in autocad for my drawings. i have been places where companies dont even use paper/model space for layouts. ugh!

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