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

[Caddy79]

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 lol

And sometimes they may even know a faster/better way to do it.

[Jack_O'neill]

i have been places where companies dont even use paper/model space for layouts. ugh!

The last place I worked for before the big layoffs started had several locations scattered around the country, and every single office had a different way of doing things. Even the titleblocks were arranged differently.

Most of the guys at my location would make use of paper space, but our location on the east coast would write somebody up for doing that. A 200 page set of drawings was 200 individual files, and everything was in model. You could get fired for using an x-ref, and everything, and I do mean everything was on layer zero. Our location had a very different set of "standards" but little was done to enforce them. For instance, dimensions were supposed to be on the "dim" layer, but some of the templates didn't have it. They had a "dime" layer instead. Some of the older drawings had a "dims" layer. We had a bunch of autolisp routines that would look for things on various layers, but half the time the layer name in the routine would be spelled differently from the layer in the template. These routines were on the protected "corporate" drives and only certain people were granted access to these drives. They never had time to fix it, or the usual excuse was that there were more people using them as is than just us we we needed to fix our templates. In the five years I was there, I never talked to anyone at the other locations that didn't complain about the same problem, but the corporate guys would not fix it. Some of the guys that transferred from the east coast location would still put everything on layer zero, but change the color of the individual objects to match the layer they were supposed to be on. In other words, the dimensions would be on layer zero, but would be yellow instead of cyan. The lisps I mentioned would ignore those objects all together.

The east coast location was so **** about their way being the "right" way that they had a lisp routine that they would use any time we sent them a drawing. It would explode all the blocks (I forgot to mention that they hated blocks too), move everything to layer zero, change all the colors to cyan, substitute their title block for ours and delete all the paper space view ports. Someone would then take the time to move all the layouts to individual files.

We had all sorts of standard details and assemblies that you could pull in to start a project and then modify as needed, but they suffered from the same anomalies. In the end, you could wind up with a couple of dozen layers that seemingly had nothing on them, but you couldn't purge them out. If you dug deep enough, sometimes you'd find a tiny line or some other little bitty thing on one of the layers, or maybe not. They'd be buried in a block somewhere.

Where I'm going with all this is to say that if it's been out of control for a long time, it's going to take a very long time indeed to get it under control. Standards can be a two-edged sword. They can make things more efficient and orderly if you are starting from scratch, but they can also slow things down considerably if they are strictly enforced after a time of not having standards. If you bring in an old drawing that is similar to what you're working on now, it can be very time consuming to clean it up and make it conform to the standards. And if you don't get support from any other locations you may have and outsourcers that get used, you'll be pulling your hair out.

[hontis]

the cad standards link does not seem to be working

[GCarr78]

StykeFacE...sorry to steal your "thread thunder" if im out of line I'll create a new thread...Its related, but with a twist.

Any of you guys work in firms with multi-disciplines? ie Engineering AND Architecture or Architecture AND Landscape Architecture, or a firm that does work in differenct sectors? ie Greenfield AND High desity? and have had to create interactive standards for the whole company?

I would like to chat on how to best go about that.

[NBC]

I do GCarr; and indeed it is potholed with troubles trying to agree a common standard across multi-disciplines.
You will need the full support of senior management at the very least

[GCarr78]

I do GCarr; and indeed it is potholed with troubles trying to agree a common standard across multi-disciplines.
You will need the full support of senior management at the very least

Yeah, that seems to be our main problem, Senior mngmt doesn't want to deal with it, however they don't understand how much more efficient everything would be if they were in place and enforced.

Were you successful administering your standards? How did you approach management?

[NBC]

I recently joined this company, and so am at the very early stages of getting senior management buy-in; I am having to learn some sales techniques, and a whole new language of words. It is proving somewhat tiresome trying to get my point across but I shall persevere as it is something I passionately believe in.
No standards = chaos.
Bad standards = chaos.
Multiple standards = chaos.
One robust standard (does it even exist?) = everyone knows the boundaries and the way of working = professional, quality and efficient outputs that clients want and need.

[Caddy79]

I have worked in an office which had structural, civil, civil structures, mechanical, electrical and survey drafting/engineering going on, it was pretty much chaos. At the moment I am setting up a drafting manual/standard for one section/division of the place that I am working for so it should be easier for me.

[Nick-H-]

did you manage to finish your manual? can i have a look

[Pineapple]

Unfortunately - no. I eventually got pulled in a different direction and had to put the manual on hold. I will eventually finish it, but who knows when.