Changing Linetype

[Dana W]

There are industry standards and there are drafting standards. Industry standards are fairly industry specific for things like how different views are shown and called out, what details are always required, and for any tolerances that may be required. still, these will vary from shop to shop.

 

Drafting standards have more to do with how easily the drawings are read and understood. I consider standard number one to be "If I have to build this thing, can I use this drawing to do it?"

 

Almost any object can be nearly completely illustrated with one each of top, front, and side, and one section view. Then, auxiliary and detail views will be needed for anything that does not show up in the four main views.

 

Since nobody there knows anything about CAD drawing, in a way that makes you lucky in that you can make up some of your own standards. Give a good deal of consideration to how easily the drawing lets one visualize the object. You can do this by varying your line weights depending on where they are, as in which lines are nearest to the viewer. For instance, the major outlines and edges would be the heaviest, with any solid lines inside of them being lighter, then hidden, center, and hatch lines being lighter still. This would lead to layers named for the usage of the line work. You might also want some layers named for different kinds of hardware and fasteners. Give your dimensions their own layer, text their own, etc., etc.

 

Watch out. Any discussion of layer use usually opens up a widely varying rainstorm of how best to use layers, here on the forum.

 

You will find that this is an evolutionary process, and a couple of years from now you will open one of your old drawings and think to yourself how rudimentary it looks.

[Dana W]

I am sure I am treading on your overwhelmed threshold, but here is an interesting option you can move toward when there is time available for you to get into it.

 

Through the use of a "custom" plot style, (myplotstyle.ctb) file, (color dependent plot style) you can make all your layer line weights the same line weight, (default) and let the plot style decide how thick to actually print them on paper based on which color the line work is, even though your final plot will probably be in black on white.

 

If you were to get into the plot table editor, you will see that there are parameters for the incoming (drawn) color, output line weight, and output color. What happens is, the drawn color will trigger the line work of that color to be plotted at the line weight contained in the ctb file no matter how thick it is in the drawing.

 

OK, I will lay off for now, but this is a good way to go eventually.

[Evelynn]

Yes, it's a lot right now, but I am really glad you're posting things like these, because I would obviously need to eventually have all my technical dwgs have a uniform look. At one point, I drew up a template for all of my drawings, but I either didn't do it right, or I don't know how to use it. I decided to revisit it later, and just start on my drawings for now (Still not sure whether or not that was a good choice). Keep posting. I need this input!

[ReMark]

A short tutorial on creating a template file in AutoCAD can be found here:

 

http://www.we-r-here.com/cad_07/tutorials/level_4/4-1.htm

 

One other thing to consider is whether or not you'll be making use of paper space layouts. Ideally, your title block and border should be placed in your layout not in model space. Some users will also place all general notes in their layout as well.

[Evelynn]

Yeah, I seem to remember only using my templates in paper space or something like that. There was something about where you do your dimensions too. Right now I've got em in model space, but there really aren't that many, so they'd be easy enough to change if I had to redo them. I have a table (kind of a legend for numbered multileaders) that I'm to put into my paper space, because apparently my boss likes the look of that. So. I guess that's happening. Thanks for that tutorial. I can definitely use it. I'll be running through a few other tutorials on dimensioning today too, because that's also a mess haha.

 

Thanks again, guys!

[ReMark]

Dimensions and text can be placed in model space or in the layout. There are pros and cons to each method. We place ours in the layout.

 

Should you prefer to put these entities in model space you might want to consider using a feature called "annotative scaling". Annotating scaling can also be applied to hatches, blocks, and multileaders.

[Evelynn]

Just found a tutorial on annotative scaling. Gosh I love the internets. Thanks