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CAD Standards Manual


resullins

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Thanks! It took a while, and still needs some serious additions, but I'm hoping a month of reviewing some of the other engineer's drawings, and I'll get it finalized.

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Thanks! It took a while, and still needs some serious additions, but I'm hoping a month of reviewing some of the other engineer's drawings, and I'll get it finalized.

 

That's if you don't cut your eyes out trying to comprehend the drawings... But it is looking good.. even though I only read 3 pages in. :lol:

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Thanks! It took a while, and still needs some serious additions, but I'm hoping a month of reviewing some of the other engineer's drawings, and I'll get it finalized.
It most certainly is a work in progress, I can tell. But you've knocked out the hardest part... simply getting something on paper. Once something is "done" you can then review it better. Keep it up and continue on.

 

For the record, our CAD Standards Manual is never complete. I mean, it "is" but it's always in progress, with one or two version releases each year. We are a large company and we have monthly meetings about it and usually have to amend something. Last month's argument was regarding Plot Styles, and boy did topics get heated haha. Be glad you have a smaller group to deal with (I'm assuming?).

 

:)

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You have no idea how right you are. These people wouldn't know aesthetics if I hit them in the face with it.

 

And do those three pages include the index? Cause that doesn't even count!

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I had a quick glance through it.

 

"Note that if it is required to transmit .dwg files, all xrefs should be bound, and all objects exploded down to the basic geometry. If there’s any question about this step, have the CAD Manager review the files before transmission."

 

- That will be a huge issue that will cost your clients a lot of money and/or cost you their repeat business. If a client engages us to do work for them and they/you send us your exploded drawings, the client will have to pay us to make them into a workable state so that we can then do our work [the reason as to why this is needed and the cost of this would be communicated in full to the client; i.e. we tell the client to get the unexploded drawings to us, or it will cost them X for us to fix their other consultants drawings so we can do out work].

 

"No blocks, LISPS, programs, macros, or standards are to be altered or used in a non‐AVDB project."

 

- If one can't alter a block (where appropriate) then it defeats the purpose of using blocks.

 

"If your computer workstation did not come with AutoCAD installed, you will have to install it yourself."

 

- If I was a new employee (especially for engineers) and read that I would be thinking what have I got myself into...

 

You might want to reupload the pdf with some of the printing details removed also :)

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Well, we don't transmit .dwg files in a working form unless required, and then we have paperwork. But I have engineers that send confidential internal information willy-nilly, and that's a problem. So that phrase is meant to involve other people when the situation arises.

 

The blocks are NEVER to be altered by anyone but me. There's not another engineer in the company that knows how to edit a dynamic parameter, or that really knows much about annotative objects, so that phrase stands.

 

What would scare you about having to install AC? We don't have a full-time IT manager, and I work from home... or I would set them all up.

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Well dang, that's fairly restrictive... then again I can understand it a little because I've had my blocks effed up a few times before by other people. If they were smart about it, they'd copy the file with all the blocks onto their own computer, then proceed to edit them. :lol: That's what I'd do if I were restricted like that at least...

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Well, we don't transmit .dwg files in a working form unless required, and then we have paperwork. But I have engineers that send confidential internal information willy-nilly, and that's a problem. So that phrase is meant to involve other people when the situation arises.

 

As another consultant who might use your drawing though, it takes me extra work to remove your exploded blocks. This could cost our client money due to your practices. I couldn't care less about what type of blocks you use.

 

What would scare you about having to install AC? We don't have a full-time IT manager, and I work from home... or I would set them all up.

 

I'm not scared by installing it, although an engineer who hasn't used AutoCad before, let alone installed it or is the most computer literate person, might be scared of that...

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We're not a consultant, and no one should be using our drawings. And you're the exception if you don't care what we put in there. We've actually had another company steal almost everything we use. Their drawing sets are almost duplicates of ours. So that phrase isn't changing.

 

And if we're hiring someone that's scared to install a program on their machine, we have bigger problems than this standards manual.

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I guess I should clarify... we are installers. The only people that should be getting our drawings are the end user. We don't intend for our work to be used by other trades.... and pirating is a problem.

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Why not have separate things that you use when you send drawings to other people? For example, a title block that is specifically for drawings that you will send to another company. Or you could just send them nothing but PDF's... That might work too.

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That's what I'm stating... that we only send PDF's to other people. The manual clearly says no .dwg files, and that's what he's arguing, that I should send .dwg files to whoever requests them.

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All the information that they should need would be in the PDF. They shouldn't need .dwg files unless you guys some how screw up so bad that there is no avoiding that. Assuming that wouldn't happen, then you should never send out .dwg files.

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All the information that they should need would be in the PDF. They shouldn't need .dwg files unless you guys some how screw up so bad that there is no avoiding that. Assuming that wouldn't happen, then you should never send out .dwg files.

 

My point exactly.

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I am also currently working on a CAD standards manual which a rough draft is due in July of this year along with our design standards manual for both our electrical and mechanical disciplines.

 

I haven't had a chance to look at the document yet, but I will be this weekend in detail. From the quick glance I had our first 10 pages are nearly identical so I know I am off to a good start!

 

Its amazing how much information you can find to pack into it. My estimation is that mine will be about 35-40 pages and that only covering the basics. I know We will be trying to make this as comprehensible as possible as we are starting to do a lot of work with another firm and they may adopt our standards.

 

Also, on a side note, at a quick glance you're details look nearly identical to a project we recently did where we did a full data/comm design.

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@Mike: Good luck... it's a challenge, to say the least.

 

Ours is about to grow exponentially! We had an engineering meeting where we standardized some more items that I need to add, and I'm spending the next week reviewing people's drawings to see what else needs to be standardized. I'm looking down the barrel of a 75 page document I think!

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@Mike: Good luck... it's a challenge, to say the least.

 

Ours is about to grow exponentially! We had an engineering meeting where we standardized some more items that I need to add, and I'm spending the next week reviewing people's drawings to see what else needs to be standardized. I'm looking down the barrel of a 75 page document I think!

 

Wow, that's pretty crazy. I think our entire design standards manual (CAD Standards and Electrical and Mechanical Design Standards) will be pushing 300-400 pages, but that is 3 documents and we cover a wide variety of services (Medium-Low Volatge distribution, site planning and servicing, lighting, fire alarm, power requirements, data and communication, code review and analysis and we have a LEED certified engineer here as well plus all the mechanical sub disciplines). Plus we have licensed engineers in 5 provinces for both Electrical and Mechanical disciplines so we have to notify an discrepancies in there between the provinces.

 

Its a huge undertaking, plus we have to balance this with our normal production.

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Yeah, I had to keep mine to a size where our more *cough* useless engineers would actually read and be able to follow it. I feel like it really COULD be 700 pages.

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