The Folders tab displays a tree view of any location — your hard drive, network, or the Internet — that you can access. This tree view is very similar to that of Windows Explorer. Click the plus sign next to a drive or folder to display its contents. Use the vertical scroll bar to display any location.

A selected drawing displays its named components in the content area on the right side of the palette. (Use the Views drop-down list to choose the type of display that you want.) You can also click the plus sign next to a drawing to display these components in the tree view. Then click a component type, such as blocks, to see a list of the blocks in the drawing, as shown in Figure 26.1. Click Preview on the DesignCenter toolbar to see a preview in the preview pane of blocks, drawings, and raster images. Click Description to display a description, if one is saved.

Figure 26.1. The DesignCenter with the Folders tab displayed.

Finding named components and drawings

What do you do if you don't know the location of the drawing that you want? Suppose you know the name of the layer but not the name of the drawing that contains that layer. The DesignCenter includes a Search feature to help you.

Figure 26.2. Use the Search window to locate drawings and drawing components.

Here's how to use the Search window:

• Click the Look For drop-down list to choose what you're looking for. You can look for blocks, dimension styles, drawings, drawings and blocks, hatch pattern files, hatch patterns, layers, layouts, linetypes, table styles, text styles, and xrefs.

• Click the In drop-down list to specify the drive that you want to search. By default, the Search subfolders check box is checked so that the search looks in all folders and subfolders within the drive.

• Use the tabbed area to specify the name of the components that you want. The tab's name and content change, depending on what you chose in the Look For drop-down list. For example, if you chose Layers, the tab is called Layers and asks you for the name of the layer. If you're looking for drawings, you have three tabs to work with:

  • The Drawings tab enables you to look for a drawing by filename (the default), title, subject, author, or keywords. Choose one of these options in the In the Field(s) drop-down list. Then type the text that you want to look for in the Search for the Word(s) text box. You can use the wildcards * (to substitute for any number of characters) and ? (to substitute for any one character). Specifying a drawing's title, subject, and keywords is discussed later in this chapter.

  • The Date Modified tab enables you to search by the last date that the file was saved or modified. You can specify a range of dates, or look in the last x days or months.

  • The Advanced tab enables you to search for text in drawing descriptions, block names, attribute tags, and attribute values. You can also search here by drawing size.

• When you've created your specifications, click Search Now.

Note

See Chapter 18 for information on creating block descriptions when you create a block. The main reason for creating a block description is to display it in the DesignCenter and use it in a search on the Advanced tab, as just described.

For more information on searching for drawings, see the section "Finding drawings" later in this chapter.

Using the Favorites folder

The Favorites folder is a Windows convention that helps you to find files that you use often. This folder contains shortcuts to actual files. The files remain in their original locations. You'll find an Autodesk subfolder within the Favorites folder where you can store shortcuts to drawings and other files that you use often. You can then easily open the Favorites folder and find these files. Favorites is one possible place to keep drawings that contain block libraries.

To add a shortcut to Favorites, right-click the drawing (or other file) in the DesignCenter and choose Add to Favorites.

Warning

If you right-click in the Content pane and choose Add to Favorites, the DesignCenter adds a shortcut to the entire content of the folder. This is great for adding all the items in a folder at once, but if you do it inadvertently, you could end up with more files than you want in Favorites. To add one item, remember to select it first.

To move, copy, or delete shortcuts from Favorites, right-click the content pane and choose Organize Favorites.

As soon as you have the item that you need in the Content area, you need to insert it into your drawing. If you used the Search window to locate a file, then you can also insert directly from the results that you find. You can either drag the item onto the drawing area or right-click it and choose an option. Sometimes these two methods provide slightly different results. In this section, I explain how to insert drawing components into your drawing.

Inserting blocks

In Chapter 5, I explain that you can use the Units dialog box (choose Application Button

You can insert blocks in two ways:

• If you drag the block's icon onto the drawing area, the drawing uses Autoscaling, which compares the current drawing's units with those of the block, and scales the block appropriately, using the value set in the Units dialog box. The block takes on the default scale and rotation.

• If you double-click the block's icon or right-click it and choose Insert as Block, the Insert dialog box opens, where you can specify the insertion point, scale, and rotation.

The DesignCenter provides several controls that help you manage its display.

If you make changes in the structure of a folder while the DesignCenter is open — for example, by deleting a drawing by using Windows Explorer — right-click the navigation or content pane and choose Refresh. The DesignCenter re-reads the data and refreshes the list.

To dock the DesignCenter, right-click the title bar and choose Allow Docking. Then choose Anchor Left or Anchor Right to dock it to the left or right of your drawing window. To collapse the DesignCenter down to its title bar when you're not using it, right-click the title bar and choose Auto-Hide; whenever you move the mouse cursor off the DesignCenter, it collapses. Just move the cursor back onto the title bar to expand it again. You can anchor the DesignCenter at the same side as other palettes; its title bar becomes shorter to fit. When you expand it, it rolls down to its full length. To avoid unwanted docking, either uncheck Allow Docking on its title bar or press Ctrl as you drag. These instructions apply to all palettes in AutoCAD and AutoCAD LT.

STEPS: Using the DesignCenter

When you create a new tool palette, you add a tab to the Tool Palettes window. To create an empty tool palette, right-click in the Tool Palettes window and choose New Palette. A label appears so that you can name the tool palette. Type the name and press Enter. When you have a new tool palette, you're ready to add tools to the palette, as I explain in the following sections.

You can add descriptive text and separator bars to any tool palette. For example, you can include instructions that explain a tool and organize commands into groups by using separator bars. To add text or separators, right-click any tool palette and choose Add Text or Add Separator from the shortcut menu.

The easiest way to create a new tool palette is from the DesignCenter, discussed in the previous section of this chapter. When you use this method, you simultaneously create not only the tool palette but also its contents. To create a new tool palette, follow these steps:

Another way to add content tools is to drag content directly from an open drawing. This method is the only way to add gradients to a tool palette, but it works with any other type of content as well. Just select the object, then click and drag it onto the tool palette. The tool palette assigns a name, but you can change it to anything you want. Right-click the tool and choose Rename. Type the new name and press Enter.

When you drag content from your drawing, you're creating a tool by example. The properties of the tool match those of the object in your drawing. For example, if you drag a hatch on layer object onto a tool and then use that tool to hatch a closed object in your drawing, you create a hatch on layer object.

You can add commands to tool palettes. You choose your method depending on the amount of customization that you want and how you want to organize your commands. You can add commands by dragging objects from a drawing or by dragging commands from the Commands List pane in the Customize User Interface Editor (covered in Chapter 33).

Dragging objects from your drawing

You can drag drawing objects, such as circles, text, and so on onto a tool palette. AutoCAD creates a command tool that draws an object with the same properties as the original object. For example, if you regularly need to enter text on the Annotation layer by using the Annotation text style, select some existing text with those properties, and drag it onto a tool palette. The tool is now called simply MText. Right-click, choose Rename, and enter Annotation or another meaningful name. This command tool contains the properties of the object that you used.

Note

When you click the selected object to start dragging it, don't click it on the grip handles. When you click, after a moment you'll see the drag-and-drop arrow cursor, and then you can drag the object to the tool palette. To drag a table, you must drag-and-drop with the right mouse button; otherwise, you simply select one of the table cells.

When you create certain types of command tools, the tool palette recognizes the command as one of a group of commands, and creates an entire group, or flyout, of command tools that all use the same properties as the original. This technique works with dimensions and common drawing geometry objects, such as lines and circles. Note, however, that the tool palettes include these flyouts by default.

Note

If you are using the AutoCAD Classic or AutoCAD LT Classic workspace, you can drag toolbar buttons onto a tool palette. Choose Manage tab

You can copy an existing tool to create a new tool, whether a content tool or a command tool. You can then change the tool properties. You can use this technique to create related, but slightly different, tools. For example, you could include a hatch on two different layers. You could also include variations of a dynamic block.

To copy a tool, right-click the tool and choose Copy from the shortcut menu. Then right-click again and choose Paste. The next section explains how to change tool properties.

Each tool on a tool palette has properties that you can set. The available properties vary slightly, depending on the type of tool. The properties specify how that tool is inserted into a drawing. Tools inherit their properties from the object that you dragged onto the tool palette. However, you can change the properties. To set the properties of a tool, right-click it and choose Properties to open the Tool Properties dialog box. Figure 26.5 shows the Tool Properties dialog box for a hatch pattern.

Figure 26.5. The Tool Properties dialog box for a hatch pattern.

The middle section of the dialog box contains Insert, Attach, or Pattern properties (depending on the type of content), and the bottom section of the dialog box displays General properties.

To specify any property, click the rightmost column for that property. Either type a new value or choose from the drop-down list. After you're done, click OK to close the Tool Properties dialog box.

Setting tool palette options

To work most comfortably with the Tool Palettes window, you can adjust its display options. These options are the same as for the DesignCenter, discussed previously in this chapter. An additional option, Transparency, opens the Transparency dialog box. When the tool palette is transparent, you can see the drawing through it. You can specify the amount of transparency or turn it off. Then click OK.

Note

Transparency is available only when hardware acceleration is off (which it is by default). Hardware acceleration is governed by your computer's video card and helps to speed up the display. If you want to use the transparency feature, you can use software acceleration instead (and see if it affects your display speed). Choose Application Button

Right-click any blank area of a tool palette and choose View Options to open the View Options dialog box. You can change the size and layout of the tool icons on a tool palette. Use the slider to change the size of the icons. You can choose to apply the changes to the current tool palette or to all tool palettes. Choose from the following display styles:

• Icon only. You see the icon displaying the drawing, block, or hatch, but no text.

• Icon with text. Text is displayed beneath each icon, and the icons are arranged in columns. This option displays much more on a tab than the list view.

• List view. You see one column of icons, with the text to the right of each icon.

Click OK when you're done.

You may have one set of tool palettes for architectural work and another for mechanical work. For whatever reason, you may want to display one set of tool palettes at one time and another set at another time. For this purpose, you organize tool palettes into groups. I explain how to create these groups in Chapter 29.

To display the various groups, right-click the title bar of the tool palette and choose the group that you want. Using groups helps to avoid clicking through too many tool palettes. After all, the point is instant access. However, you can always display all the palettes by right-clicking and choosing All Palettes.

Inserting a tool from a tool palette is as simple as dragging the tool onto the drawing area. The tool is inserted by using the properties specified in the Tool Properties dialog box (discussed previously in this section).

Tools know how to behave. Drag a gradient or hatch into an enclosed area and it automatically fills the area. Drag an xref onto a drawing and you get a prompt, at the command line, for the insertion point. Tools automatically use their properties so that you get a circle on its proper layer or a hatch with the proper scale.

If you want the flexibility to insert a block or hatch with more than one setting, you can insert another copy of the item onto a tool palette. For example, you can place two copies of a hatch pattern on a tool palette and set their properties to different spacing. You would then rename the tools to make the differences clear (for example, lightning1 and lightning 2). You can also copy a tool and then modify it, as I explain in the section "Copying a tool" earlier in this chapter.

STEPS: Creating and Using a Tool Palette

The CAD Standards tools facilitate the process of checking drawings against standards. You can check the following in a drawing:

AutoCAD checks for both names (such as layer names) and properties (such as layer color and linetype).

Here's the general procedure for setting and maintaining standards with the CAD manager's tools:

You can test drawings against a standards file one by one (interactively) or as a group (batch auditing).

Checking a drawing against standards

Note

If you just finished associating a standards file with a drawing, you can click Check Standards in the Configure Standards dialog box.

Figure 26.9. The Check Standards dialog box guides you through the process of checking a drawing against a standards file.

The Check Standards dialog box lists all the problems — items in the drawing that don't match the standards file — that it finds, one by one. Here's the procedure for using this dialog box:

1. You see the first problem in the Problem section of the dialog box.

2. Use the Replace With section to choose a replacement for the nonstandard item. This section contains all eligible replacements according to the standards file.

3. Look at the Preview of Changes section to see how the replacement will affect your drawing.

4. To make the replacement and standardize your drawing, click the Fix button.

   To ignore the problem and go on to the next one, click the Next button.

   AutoCAD continues to display problems that you can fix or ignore. After you're done, you see the Checking is complete message, along with a short report explaining how all the problems were handled, as shown in Figure 26.10. You can click the Next button again to recheck the drawing.

5. Click Close to return to your drawing.

Figure 26.10. The completed standards check report.

For information on batch checking (checking standards for many drawings at once), see the "Checking standards for multiple drawings" sidebar in this chapter.

When you fix nonstandard objects — for example, layers or linetypes with nonstandard names — AutoCAD purges these objects from the drawing. For example, after you change the layer Layer1 to the layer Notes, objects on Layer1 are changed to the layer Notes, and Layer1 is purged.

Specifying CAD standards settings

You can specify how the CAD standards feature functions to provide real-time notification and automatic repair. To specify CAD standards settings, choose Manage tab

Figure 26.11. Use the CAD Standards Settings dialog box to specify how you want CAD standards checking to work.

In the top section, Notification Settings, choose one of the following:

• Disable standards notifications. No real-time notification of standards violations. You can still check standards by using the Check Standards dialog box at any time.

• Display alert upon standards violation. Displays a message if your drawing is associated with a standards file and you make a change that puts the drawing in noncompliance with the standards file, as shown in Figure 26.12.

• Display standards status bar icon. Displays an icon on the AutoCAD status bar. The icon has an exclamation point if there is a nonstandard object in the drawing. A balloon appears to notify you that a standards violation has occurred. Click the Run Check Standards text or the icon to open the Check Standards dialog box so that you can fix the problems.

Figure 26.12. The alert message notifies you of a standards violation.

Checking standards for multiple drawings

What do you do if you want to check standards for hundreds of drawings at once? For this scenario, AutoCAD has created Batch Standards Checking, shown here. Here's how to use the Batch Standards Checker:

1. From the Windows task bar, choose Start

   
   

2. On the Drawings tab, click the + button and select the drawings that you want to include. Click Open. After you click Open, you can click the + button again and add drawings from a different folder. Use the Remove Drawing (Delete) button to delete drawings and the Move Up and Move Down buttons to change the order of the drawings. If you also want to check external references, check the Check External References of Listed Drawings check box. Note that you can't check password-protected drawings.

3. On the Standards tab, choose to check each drawing against its associated standards file if you have associated standards files for all your drawings. Otherwise, choose to check the drawings against the standards file(s) that you select. To select a standards file, click the + button, choose a standards file (.dws), and click Open.

4. On the Plug-ins tab, choose the standards that you want to check. This tab is the same as the Plug-ins tab of the Configure Standards dialog box, discussed earlier in this section.

5. Click Save on the Batch Standards Checker toolbar. In the Batch Standards Checker - File Save dialog box, save the standards check file. A standards check file (.chx) contains information about which drawings and standards files you're using for the batch standards check. AutoCAD gives the file a default name, but you can change the name if you want.

6. 

In the bottom section, Check Standards Settings, check Automatically Fix Non-standard Properties to automatically fix noncompliant drawings. Automatic fixing applies only to a situation where a drawing object has a name that matches a standard but has different properties. For example, if a standards file contains a layer named OBJ that has a blue color and the current drawing has an object on the OBJ layer that is red, the object will be changed to blue to match the color of the OBJ layer in the standards file.

Check Show Ignored Problems to display any problems that were not fixed in the standards check report.

From the Preferred Standards File to Use for Replacements drop-down list, choose a standards file to use by default in the Replace With section of the Check Standards dialog box. This standards file is used only if you choose to automatically fix nonstandard properties and the associated standards file, because the drawing does not provide a suitable replacement.

Layers are an important part of maintaining drawings standards. Many people have strict rules about which layers are allowed in a drawing. Xrefs can be especially troublesome in this regard, because layers from the external drawings are added to your drawing. AutoCAD can notify you when new layers are added to a drawing. This notification is based on the layers existing when you open the drawing, not on a standards file.

Figure 26.13. Use the Layer Settings dialog box to specify when and how you receive notification about new layers in your drawing.

By default, layer notification only applies when xrefs add new layers to a drawing, because xrefs are the most common means of adding layers without your knowledge. However, you can choose the Evaluate All New Layers option, especially if you use templates that already contain all the desired layers.

The Notify When New Layers Are Present check box and the other check boxes below it determine if and when you see a notification window. For example, if you choose to evaluate all new layers and specify notification when you save, when you add a layer and save the drawing, you see the notification bubble shown in Figure 26.14. Click the link in the bubble to open the Layer Properties Manager.

Figure 26.14. This bubble tells you that new layers have been added to the drawing.

When you open the Layer Properties Manager in this way, you see only unreconciled layers. (AutoCAD activates the Unreconciled New Layers filter for your layers.) These are layers that have been added to the drawing (either consciously or via xrefs) but that you haven't yet reviewed. You can perform one of three actions:

When you create a template (as I explain in Chapter 2), after saving, the Template Options dialog box opens. Here you can decide if you want drawings created from that template to use reconciled or unreconciled layers. If you choose the default option, Save All Layers As Unreconciled, you can add layers without notification until you save the drawing. Saving the drawing creates a baseline, after which the notification starts. If you save layers as reconciled, then any new layers are considered unreconciled and you'll be notified about them according to your settings in the Layer Settings dialog box.

If you receive drawings from clients or colleagues, you might find that their layer system doesn't suit yours. Manually translating one set of layers to another to fit your layer standards could be a tedious job. The LAYTRANS command changes the layers of objects by specifying sets of "from" and "to" layers. For example, you can change all objects on layer1 to the layer objects. Use this feature to maintain layer standards.

Setting up the layer mapping

On the Translate From side of the dialog box, you see the layers in the drawing. (Layers with a white icon to their left are not being used. You can right-click them and choose Purge Layers to purge them from the drawing.) Select layers by clicking them. You can also select multiple layers. You can type a selection filter in the Selection Filter text box to select certain layers.

Note

See the section "Filtering the layer list" in Chapter 11 for more information about filtering layer lists.

To load existing layers, click Load. In the Select Drawing File dialog box, you can choose a drawing, a drawing template, or a drawing standards file. Click Open. The layers from that file now appear in the Translate To list. Select the layer to which you want to translate.

Figure 26.15. The Layer Translator.

To define a new layer, click New. In the New Layer dialog box, type a name for the new layer and specify its color, linetype, lineweight, and plot style. Click OK.

To specify how layers are translated, map layers in the current drawing (listed in the Translate From list) to the layers to which you want to convert (listed in the Translate To list). Select a layer in the Translate From list, then select a layer in the Translate To list, and then click Map. The mapping appears below in the Layer Translation Mappings list. Finally, you're ready to translate your layers. Click Translate, and AutoCAD takes care of the rest. All objects on the Translate From layers are now on the Translate To layers. The translation process also purges unused layers from the drawing.

Tip

You can select more than one layer from the Translate From list by pressing Ctrl for each additional layer. You can select a contiguous group of layers by clicking the first layer in the group, holding Shift, and selecting the last layer in the group. Then from the Translate To list, select the layer that you want to map that group of layers to, and click Map. You can also quickly map all layers with the same name by choosing Map Same.

To access the information for the first time, click the down arrow to the right of the Search text box at the upper-right corner of the application window, and choose Search Settings to open the InfoCenter Settings dialog box. You can set the following:

Click OK when you're done. After you specify the settings, click the Communication Center button to open the Communication Center window. From this window, you can click any link to access its source on the Internet.

Drawings contain many named objects, such as layers, text styles, dimension styles, and so on. Sometimes you need to rename these objects in order to maintain CAD standards and consistency. To rename objects, type rename

Figure 26.16. The Rename dialog box.

To rename objects, follow these steps:

The drawings that you need to deliver may have one drawing with three layouts, another with one layout, and a third with four layouts. You need to deliver sheets, which are layouts, but they can be hard to manage when some layouts are in one drawing, some in another, and so on.

When you work with sheet sets, you can pull content from resource drawings that have many layouts or a few, but you create new sheets, and each sheet is a drawing. For this reason, the sheet set structure creates new drawings, each with one layout.

You manage sheet sets and their individual sheets in the Sheet Set Manager, as shown in Figure 26.17. The Sheet Set Manager is a palette like the Properties palette. For example, you can auto-hide it in the same way. To open the Sheet Set Manager, choose View tab

Figure 26.17. The Sheet Set Manager is the home base for your sheet sets.

The Sheet Set Manager has three tabs:

Many AutoCAD users who work with multiple drawings create a folder structure to help organize the drawings. Sheet sets work the same way. You should start by creating a folder for your sheet set. If you want, you can create folders for categories. In the architectural example shown in Figures 26.17 and 26.18, the categories are Floor Plans, Elevations, and Sections. These become subsets in your sheet set. Finally, you should create a subfolder for your model space drawings, which are the drawings that you'll use to create the sheet set.

Figure 26.18. On the left, you see the Sheet Views tab, which displays the views on your sheets. On the right, you see the Model Views tab, which contains the source drawings for your sheet set.

If you plan to use existing layouts as sheets, they should ideally have only one layout, especially if more than one person sometimes accesses drawings. Only one sheet in a drawing can be open at a time. Also, before you import existing layouts or create new sheets, you should first prepare your template — as I explain in the "Setting up sheet set references" section — especially if you plan to use the automatic numbering and referencing features of sheet sets.

To create a sheet set, open the Sheet Set Manager and choose New Sheet Set from the drop-down list at the top of the palette. The Create Sheet Set Wizard opens with the Begin pane displayed, as shown in Figure 26.19.

Figure 26.19. The Create Sheet Set Wizard helps you to create sheet sets.

You can choose to use an example sheet set that you've already created or that comes with AutoCAD, in order to use its structure. If you want to work with existing drawings, choose the Existing Drawings option. Then click Next. If you chose to use an example, the next screen allows you to choose the sheet set. Choose one and click Next. The following steps assume that you have chosen the Existing Drawings option.

On the Sheet Set Details pane, shown in Figure 26.20, you name the sheet set, add an optional description, and specify the location of the file that contains the data for the sheet set; the default location is automatically entered for you but you can change it. Sheet set files have a .dst filename extension, and you can store them in the same folder as the sheets. Click the Ellipsis button to open the Browse for Sheet Set Folder dialog box. There you can navigate to a folder or create a new folder by clicking the Create New Folder button. Then click Open to return to the wizard.

You can click the Sheet Set Properties button at this point to specify various settings, but you have access to these properties from the Sheet Set Manager, so you can skip the properties at this stage. Click Next.

Figure 26.20. You need to name the new sheet set and specify the location of its DST file.

If you chose the Existing Drawings option on the first pane, you now see the Choose Layouts pane of the wizard. Click Browse to add existing drawings that have layouts that you want to include in the sheet set. If you've created only model space drawings and want to create new sheetsinstead of including layouts from these drawings, you can skip this pane and click Next. However, if you have layouts that you've already set up, browse to a folder and click OK. You can continue to click Browse and add more folders if you want. You can then uncheck any folders that you don't want to include.

Click Import Options to open the Import Options dialog box. Here you can decide whether you want the sheet name to include the drawing name before the layout name. You can also choose to use your folder structure to create subsets. For example, if you have folders named Floor Plans, Elevations, and Sections, you could automatically create the subsets that you see in Figure 26.17. Click OK to close the Import Options dialog box and return to the wizard.

Click Next to display the Confirm pane of the wizard. This pane summarizes the choices that you made in the wizard. If you want to change something, click Back. Otherwise, click Finish. You can change everything later except for the sheet set filename and location. Clicking Finish creates the DST file in the location that you chose.

The Sheet Set Manager now displays your new sheet set. If you didn't import any layouts, all you see is the Sheet List tab with the name of the sheet set. If you did import layouts, they're listed. You're now ready to set the properties of your sheet set.

Setting properties

Before you go any farther, you need to set the properties of your sheet set. These properties ensure that every aspect of the sheet set works the way that you want it to. You can separately set properties for the sheet set as a whole, for subsets, and for individual sheets. To set sheet set properties, right-click the name of the sheet set at the top of the Sheet List tab of the Sheet Set Manager, and choose Properties to open the Sheet Set Properties dialog box, as shown in Figure 26.21.

Figure 26.21. The Sheet Set Properties dialog box.

The Sheet Set Properties dialog box always contains the sheet set name and sheet set data file (DST) location. Complete the rest of the properties as follows:

• Description. Click this item and type a new description, or edit an existing description.

• Model view. Click this item to display the Ellipsis button. Click the button and then click Add to browse to a folder containing drawings that you want to use for your sheets. Click Open and then click OK to return to the Sheet Properties dialog box. You can add more than one location. These drawings contain model space content that you want to place on layouts for your sheets. For easy organization, create a Model views folder inside the sheet set folder, and place your drawings there. The folders that you enter here appear on the Model Views tab of the Sheet Set Manager.

• Label block for views. A label block labels a view and usually includes the view name, view number, and scale. To choose a label block, click this item and click the Ellipsis button. In the Select Block dialog box, click the Ellipsis button to choose a drawing that contains the block that you want. (If your block is in your template, choose AutoCAD Drawing Template [*.dwt] from the Files of Type drop-down list.) Click Open. If the drawing contains only that block (in other words, if the drawing is the block that you want to use), choose the Select the Drawing File as a Block option. If the drawing contains several blocks, use the Choose Blocks in the Drawing File option. You then see a list of the blocks in the drawing. Choose the block that you want (you can choose only one label block) and click OK. If you want to use the automatic numbering and referencing feature of sheet sets, you need to set up this block, as I explain later in this chapter in the "Setting up sheet set references" section. If you want different blocks for different subsets, or if you don't use a label block, leave this item blank.

• Callout blocks. Callout blocks point to other drawings. For example, on a floor plan, a callout block marks the location of a section view that is on another sheet. To choose a callout block, click this item and click the Ellipsis button. In the List of Blocks dialog box, click the Add button. Then in the Select Block dialog box, click the Ellipsis button to choose a drawing from the Select Drawing dialog box that contains the blocks that you want. (For a template, choose AutoCAD Drawing Template [*.dwt] from the Files of Type drop-down list.) Click Open. If the drawing contains only that block (in other words, if the drawing is the block that you want to use), choose the Select the Drawing File as a Block option. If the drawing contains several blocks, use the Choose Blocks in the Drawing File option. You then see a list of the blocks in the drawing. You can choose multiple callout blocks, because many drawings contain variations of this type of block. Click OK twice to return to the Sheet Set Properties dialog box. If you want to use the automatic numbering and referencing feature of sheet sets, you need to set up this block, as I explain later in this chapter in the "Setting up sheet set references" section. If you want different blocks for different subsets, or if you don't use callout blocks, leave this item blank.

• Page setup overrides file. You may want to override page setups (which I explain in Chapter 17) if you imported layouts with varying setups. You may want to plot the entire sheet set with one page setup, rather than use page setups that came with individual layouts. You save these page setups in a template. Click this item, click the Ellipsis button that appears, choose a template, and click Open. You can create this template later and then go back and specify it.

• Project control. This feature provides a location to enter project information, including a project number, name, phase, and milestone. This information then appears in the Details section of the Sheet List tab of the Sheet Set Manager.

• Sheet storage location. This folder defines where sheets are stored. If you didn't specify this location when you created the sheet set, click this item, click the Ellipsis button, choose a folder, and click Open. Note that if the sheet set already contains sheets, changing this location doesn't move existing sheets; it only affects the location of new sheets that you create.

• Sheet creation template. Click this item and then the Ellipsis button. Then click the Ellipsis button in the Select Layout as Sheet Template dialog box. Choose a template (or a drawing or standards file) and click Open. You can then click a layout in the template. Click OK.

  Warning

  If you want to use the automatic numbering and referencing features of sheet sets, don't create any sheets before you've set up this template.

• Prompt for template. If you want your sheets to automatically use the template, this item should be set to No. If you sometimes vary your templates, set this item to Yes so that you can choose a different template when you want.

You can create custom properties. You create custom properties to automatically insert text in your titleblock, using AutoCAD's field feature. After you create these properties, they become fields that you can insert. (See "Inserting Fields" in Chapter 13 for a discussion of fields.) A custom property can apply to a sheet set or an individual sheet. Common sheet set custom properties are client name, project name, or project address. A typical sheet set custom property would be the drawer's or proofer's initials, if more than one person works on the sheets in the sheet set.

To add custom properties, click the Edit Custom Properties button. In the Custom Properties dialog box, click Add. Then enter a name and a default value, and choose whether the property is for a sheet or a sheet set. (Adding a default value helps you test the fields when you set up your titleblock.) Click OK. Continue to click Add and define custom properties. When you're done, click OK to return to the Sheet Set Properties dialog box.

Warning

After you create custom properties, you can't change their name. To do so, you would need to delete and re-create the properties.

When you finish setting your sheet set properties, click OK to return to the Sheet Set Manager and your drawing.

One of the more exciting features of sheet sets is the ability to automate the completion of text in the titleblock, as well as the numbering of sheets, titleblocks, and callout blocks. However, this feature is also fairly complex. You can omit this feature and still get significant benefits from sheet sets, such as the ability to plot the entire sheet set all at once and automate the creation of viewports. In this section, I explain how to configure the label and callout blocks so that the automation features work properly.

The secret of this feature is the use of fields, which I cover in Chapter 13 (in the "Inserting Fields" section). You can use the fields in two ways:

The advantage of using attributes is that text cannot easily be changed. If you're a CAD Manager and want to reduce errors, you might choose to use attributes. Of course, if you already use attributes, you might find it simpler to continue to use them. On the other hand, you might want the increased flexibility and simplicity of Mtext, especially if you don't currently use attributes. One of the reasons for using attributes is to place text; using Mtext with fields works just as well to specify text placement.

When your sheet set is configured and you've created your sheets, you're ready to use your sheet set. You can create viewports on your sheets, insert callout blocks, plot or publish sheets, archive and eTransmit sheets, and create a table that lists all the sheets.

Plotting and publishing

Automation of plotting and publishing is one of the advantages of sheet sets. You can plot or publish an entire sheet set or just part of it, directly from the Sheet Set Manager.

To publish the sheet set, click the sheet set name and choose Publish to DWF. If you plan to publish to DWF format, choose Sheet Set Publish Options from the Publish drop-down list. The Sheet Set Publish Options dialog box opens, where you can specify options for publishing to DWF. For example, you can decide whether you want to publish to single-sheet or multi-sheet DWF format. You can also specify a password and decide how much data you want to make available. For more information about the PUBLISH command and the DWF format, see Chapter 28.

Note

The PUBLISHCOLLATE system variable determines whether a sheet set is published as a single plotting job or as separate jobs for each sheet. The default value, 1, publishes the sheets as a single job. However, to publish sheets as a single job, all sheets must be the same size, and you need to choose the Publish Using Page Setup Override option from the Publish drop-down list on the Sheet List tab of the Sheet Set Manager. Change the value to 0 if you might need to have other plotting jobs interrupt the sheet set. You can also publish the sheet set in reverse order; choose Publish in Reverse Order from the Publish drop-down list. On the same menu, you have options to add a plot stamp, manage plot setups, and open the PUBLISH dialog box.

To plot or publish a subset or sheet, right-click the subset or sheet and use the options on the shortcut menu.

Note

You can include or exclude subsets and sheets when publishing the rest of the set by using the Include for Publish setting. Right-click the sheet set name and choose Publish

You can override the Include for Publish settings for subsets. Right-click the subset name and choose Publish

You should use the Autosave feature to regularly save a backup of the drawing to the hard drive. The default time is set to 10 minutes, but automatic backups can still be useful. Choose Application Button

The Autosave time counts from the most recent time you saved your drawing. Therefore, if you manually save more often than every 10 minutes, the feature doesn't create an Autosave file.

Backing up to the hard drive doesn't provide sufficient security. Hard drives can fail. Every time you exit AutoCAD or AutoCAD LT, you should back up every drawing that you worked on to some type of external storage medium. Backing up drawings for storage is called archiving.

You'll probably want to invest in one of the many types of removable backup systems. These come in six main types:

If your drawings are really important to you, back them up twice and store one backup set off-site. This way, if some disaster strikes your office, you haven't lost everything. Remote backup services provide this type of archiving for you, and you can access your files through the Internet.

The secret to backing up is to create a schedule and then stick to it. For example, you may do a complete hard-drive backup once a week, and do drawing backups at the end of each day. Many software backup programs exist that let you choose what you want to back up and reduce the process to the click of a button. Each situation is different, but take the time to think about your needs, create a system, and let everybody know about it. Then do it.

Let's say your client calls and says, "I want to see the apartment building on Fourth Street that you did three years ago." How do you find the drawing? One low-tech way is to keep a book of 8½ × 11 plots. Using the PUBLISH command (which I explain in Chapter 28), you can plot out a week's drawings overnight and put them in a book. Amazingly, it doesn't take that long to leaf through even a few hundred pages. (You usually have some idea of when you did the drawing.)

A number of third-party drawing management programs are available. Some of these enable you to view and manage drawings created in other CAD programs as well. Some also manage workflow by letting you route drawings to team members.

Here's a short selection of the many drawing management programs that are available:

You can store and manage drawings online. Web-based services, such as Autodesk Buzzsaw (www.buzzsaw.com), let you store drawings online, view them, mark them up, organize and track them, and access them.

Before backing up drawings, purge any unused layers, blocks, text styles, and so on to reduce file size. (I cover the PURGE command in Chapter 11.)

If you know that a drawing is on the hard drive, then you can use the Find function from within AutoCAD or AutoCAD LT. Click Open on the Quick Access toolbar. In the Select File dialog box, choose Tools

Figure 26.24. You can use the Find dialog box to set criteria for finding drawings.

To search for drawings with the Windows' Search feature, choose Start

You can specify drawing properties that you can use in the DesignCenter and even in Windows Explorer. These properties are therefore available to people who can access your drawings but who don't have AutoCAD or AutoCAD LT.

To specify drawing properties, choose Application Button

On the Summary tab, you can specify a title, subject, author, and keywords. You can also write comments. At the bottom of the dialog box, you can specify a base for relative hyperlinks in the drawing. For example, you could use www.companyname.com as the base. AutoCAD or AutoCAD LT would then attach this base to the beginning of links in the drawing.

You can also use the Custom tab to create custom properties and give them values. This lets you create a simple database of your drawings that you can search by using the DesignCenter's Find dialog box. When you're done, click OK.

To access a drawing's properties in Windows Explorer, navigate to the drawing and right-click it. Choose Properties from the shortcut menu.

Note

The Express Tools contain a command, PROPULATE (on the command line, type propulate

Password protection ensures that unauthorized people don't open your drawings. You create a password when you save a drawing.

To create a password for a drawing, type securityoptions

To password-protect a drawing:

You can also change or remove a password:

The dialog box displays the current encryption type. To specify a different encryption, click Advanced Options. Choose a new encryption type from the list and a key length, and then click OK.

When a password-protected drawing is opened, the Password dialog box appears. To open the drawing, type the password and click OK.

A digital signature uses software that confirms who signed the drawing and that it has not been changed, as well as nonrepudiation (so that signers cannot claim that they never signed the drawing). To use a digital signature, you need to purchase a digital ID. You can use digital IDs in both AutoCAD and AutoCAD LT.

Generally, you would use a digital signature when you send a drawing to someone else. That person can then verify that the drawing is from you and has not been changed. If the person sends the drawing back to you, you can verify that the person has not changed the drawing, because changing the drawing invalidates the digital signature.

To attach a digital signature to a drawing, follow these steps:

When a digitally signed drawing is opened, the Digital Signature Contents dialog box appears, verifying the digital signature and the fact that the drawing has not been changed since it was signed. Click Close to close the dialog box.

Note that making any changes to the drawing invalidates the digital ID. If you make changes or try to save a drawing with an attached digital signature, a message appears asking you whether you want to continue. When you re-open the drawing, the Digital Signature Contents dialog box appears, displaying the fact that the digital signature is invalid.

A drawing with a valid digital signature has a checkmark attached to its icon in Windows Explorer. The drawing itself also sports an icon in the status bar.

When AutoCAD or AutoCAD LT is loaded, it opens one or more temporary files as part of its normal functioning. Note the following two points regarding these files:

However, if the program or your entire computer crashes, you may be left with one or more .a$ files. A good guideline for erasing .a$ files is to only erase those from yesterday or earlier. Leave today's alone.

Tip

If you don't see the date and time of the files in Windows Explorer, choose View

You can also specify where you want these temporary files. You might want to place them on a hard drive with more room. If you're on a network, you might want to place them on your local drive so that there is less traffic back and forth on the network. To find or change the current location, follow these steps:

The most common cause for a corrupted drawing file is a program crash, but power surges and system crashes can also be causes. If AutoCAD or AutoCAD LT detects an error in a file during loading, it attempts to fix the problem automatically. In many cases, it is successful.

When it isn't, you can try the AUDIT and RECOVER commands. These commands search the database for errors and try to fix them. If they cannot fix an error, they simply move on, letting you recover at least part of the file.

If you have a drawing open and see an error message that AutoCAD or AutoCAD LT can't read the file or part of it, follow these steps:

Use RECOVER when you can't even load the drawing. Follow these steps:

The DWGCHECK system variable controls how your drawings open when they have errors. Look up this system variable in Help to find a setting that gives you the information and control that you need. Here are some other tips for opening a recalcitrant drawing:

Thanks to Darren Young of Minnesota CADWorks, Inc., (www.mcwi.com) for these suggestions.

If you can't repair a drawing, perhaps you have an archived copy that you can use. If not, AutoCAD and AutoCAD LT automatically create backup drawings that have the same name as your drawings, but with a .bak filename extension. You can change the extension to .dwg and open it. You may also find one of the .a$ drawings. You can also try changing the extension of this file to .dwg.

Tip

If your computer doesn't show filename extensions for BAK and A$ drawings, open Windows Explorer and choose Tools

If you want to troubleshoot a persistent crash, try turning on the log file. Choose Application Button

Note

The Express Tools contain a command, MOVEBAK (on the command line, type movebak

Yes, AutoCAD does occasionally crash. You may see a message with a Continue button, which you can click to try to continue working on your drawing. If not, the Drawing Recovery Manager tries to make recovering from a crash easy by displaying available backup drawings for you. You see a Drawing Recovery message explaining the process of recovering a crashed drawing.

The Drawing Recovery Manager palette then opens, where you see a list of drawings that are available for recovery, as shown in Figure 26.26. You can select one to see it in the drawing area. You can easily and quickly choose any one of these and open them to see which one you want to continue working with. AutoCAD automatically deletes old drawing recovery files.

Figure 26.26. The Drawing Recovery Manager displays backup drawings in one place so that you can open them after a crash.

After a crash, the AutoCAD Error Report window opens so that you can send information to Autodesk about the crash. This information helps Autodesk design AutoCAD to be more stable.