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Drafting often involves drawing many similar symbols. Whether windows, valves, or transistors, symbols are drawn many times over. Back in the days of manual drafting, there were two common solutions: trace the pencil around a green plastic template, or stick see-through photocopies onto the Mylar. The following article is an abstract of the eBook ‘Best CAD Practices’ by Ralph Grabowski. Graebert is happy to share with you some of the experience accumulated by Ralph as a CAD expert and as compiled in his eBook for which the reference can be found at the bottom of the page. Feel free to share feedback in the comment section below. With CAD software, there is just one solution: insert a previously drawn symbol. A single command — even just a drag’n drop action — places complex symbols without drawing a single line! The following figure shows an electrical drawing made with Turbo-CAD. The
The Construction Specifications Institute in 1994 created a drawing sheet naming system. The AIA’s system, in turn, is based on the CSIs. The following article is an abstract of the eBook ‘Best CAD Practices’ by Ralph Grabowski. Graebert is happy to share with you some of the experience accumulated by Ralph as a CAD expert and as compiled in his eBook for which the reference can be found at the bottom of the page. Feel free to share feedback in the comment section below. Called UDS for uniform drawing system, drawing file names are based on the order of a construction project. The system uses two characters, followed by three digits, such as AS102. Position Example Meaning 1 A Discipline
The following sections describe file name standards created by several industry groups: American Institute of Architects Construction Specifications Institute California Department of Transportation The following article is an abstract of the eBook ‘Best CAD Practices’ by Ralph Grabowski. Graebert is happy to share with you some of the experience accumulated by Ralph as a CAD expert and as compiled in his eBook for which the reference can be found at the bottom of the page. Feel free to share feedback in the comment section below. AIA File Naming Convention The American Institute of Architects uses a file naming system based on its CAD Layer Guidelines (Chapter 3). You will see some similarities between the file and layer names, although layer names are more extensive. The AIA naming convention recognizes two types of CAD files: Model files contain the model drawn full size, but plotted to scale Sheet files hold non-model
Looking for file naming conventions examples? This article gives some easy examples. Drawings must be given file names that allow you to identify them by project and discipline. Folders (subdirectories) are used to segregate projects. File names of drawings are related closely to the sheet numbers. If you decide to use a CAD drawing to produce a single plotted sheet, then the drawing’s file name is the same as the sheet number. If, however, a CAD drawing produces several different plotted sheets (either via toggling the visibility of layers, or via referenced drawings) — which is how CAD ought to be used — then the sheet number must differ from the drawing file name. In this chapter, we discuss several examples of drawing file name conventions. The following article is an abstract of the eBook ‘Best CAD Practices’ by Ralph Grabowski. Graebert is happy to share with you some of
Essay: Seeking Alternatives to AutoCAD At the time this book was updated, Autodesk stopped selling permanent licenses to its software. Licenses are only available as subscriptions, which means that when firms cannot pay the fee each year, the software stops working. This is a scary thought for firms, especially during times of recession, and so there is a new interest in alternatives to AutoCAD. Here is the story from a competitor. The following article is an abstract of the eBook ‘Best CAD Practices’ by Ralph Grabowski. Graebert is happy to share with you some of the experience accumulated by Ralph as a CAD expert and as compiled in his eBook for which the reference can be found at the bottom of the page. Feel free to share feedback in the comment section below. I have over the last decade seen people’s reactions changing when considering CAD alternatives. I think this
The Travails of Archiving Shane Beaman of Sealcorp Computer Products, New Zealand, began wondering about how to deal with drawings that are getting old. The problem of how to archive paper drawings formerly dominated; but now with CAD getting to be more than 30 years old, archiving old digital drawings is an issue. He wrote: Has anyone ever looked seriously at electronic drawing archiving and recovery? I want to be able to access design data created and stored electronically 15 or more years ago, or archived now for access in future years. How do I get information off old hardware stored on old design software that is possibly no longer readable by today’s software? I guess I would have to keep a copy of the old design software, but I wonder if it will still be readable, or able to be run on the new hardware. The following article is an
Autodesk User Group International does CAD managers a service with its pay survey, which answers your question, “How much should I be paid?” The 2011 survey showed that the range of salaries starts at $41,000 (0-2 years experience) to $67,000 (over 15 years experience), with pay tied to the person’s abilities and responsibilities. The mean salary was in the range of $50,000 to $60,000. (Amounts in stated in United States funds, and rounded to the nearest thousand dollars.) Those with a higher degree received a higher starting salary, but over time the salaries evened out. Nearly half of those surveyed had at least a bachelor’s degree. The pay tended to be lower in smaller cities as well as at smaller firms, and highest in Canada and Australia, as well as at larger firms. The following article is an abstract of the eBook ‘Best CAD Practices’ by Ralph Grabowski. Graebert is
Amit Kumar writes about Advanced PDF to DWG Conversion in ARES Commander ”The reason I like this feature is: 1. User can choose to maintain LineStyle as available in PDF 2. User can choose to maintain LineWeight as available in PDF 3. User can insert the drawing in the active layer, every content from PDF Drawing will appear in the active layer 4. User can use PDF Layer, all layers available in PDF will appear in the drawing.” Read the full article on CADblogbyamit
THE ROLE OF A CAD MANAGER As the manager in charge of computer-aided design (CAD), your role is to ensure the maximum efficiency of the CAD system — even though you may well be plagued daily by nit-picky problems, such as dry ink jet cartridges. The successful CAD manager is able to ease changes to CAD by carefully planning the process and keeping everyone informed. While the primary problem you will face is finding money for upgrades to the system, above all remember that your goal is to make it more efficient to get work done. When something makes the work more efficient, then implement it. The following article is an abstract of the eBook ‘Best CAD Practices’ by Ralph Grabowski. Graebert is happy to share with you some of the experience accumulated by Ralph as a CAD expert and as compiled in his eBook for which the reference can be
Amit Kumar explains how Relative Angles function in Coordinate Input “The reason I like this feature: User can create a line of required length at required angle This feature is extremely useful for civil survey drawings.” Read the full article on CADBlogbyAmitKumar. Learn more: Relative Coordinates in Angles with ARES Commander
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