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We have had some issues in the office regardingdrawing issues and revisions. I looked on this forum and found that many peopleare also confused about revisions. This is our Cad system. We have a standardset of directories under each project. They are Archive, Current, drgs-in,wblocks, xrefs. All drawings created are in the current directory. The filename is the drawing number followed by a -$. We use xrefs whenever a componentis typical for several drawings, i.e. architects backgrounds, notes, legends. Thesexrefs are saved in the xref directory. When we receive an updated drawing froma supplier/architect it is saved in the drgs-in directory under a sensible filestructure. That way anything we are sent is saved, unmodified. The xrefdirectory contains drawings that are repetitively used on our drgs. Typicallythese are building plans. The xrefs only contain what is in the model space fromthe architect and we change all colours to a faint grey. The linetypes arechanged to suit our standards. We draw in metric and architects tend to useimperial so linetype scale etc are changed to suit us. We retain the linetypes(i.e. hidden, centre etc). Underneath the model we write a string of text withthe information of where the xref was obtained from. The text contains the directoryand filename and revision. That way when you open your drawing with xrefattached there is a string of text at the bottom that tells you what architectdrg you are using. This text is created on layer defpoints so it won't plot.When we issue a drawing we save it into the archive directory under a directoryname suitable for the issue. The filename is saved as the project name (hyphen)drawing number (hyphen) revision. All xrefs are bound to the archived drg. Anyimages are copied into the archive directory and re-pathed. So now we have ourarchived file with the revision in the drg title bound and saved. Thesedrawings are never modified and are kept for reference only. We also save a pdfversion. We keep an AutoCAD copy as well as the pdf just in case further downthe line a client wants to revert back to a previously issued layout. As forrevision number/letters I believe that a drawing is always a unique document.That document can be issued for different reasons. i.e. Preliminary, Tender,Contract, Information, Draft, Costing etc etc. As far as I am concerned adrawing at 01 revision can be issued at any time of the project. So if I issuea drawing at Tender and there are no more changes then the same revision can beissued at Contract level. The revision numbers/letters on the drawing onlychange if the information on the drawing is changed. The purpose of issue isnot a drawing change. The purpose of issue is contained on the drawing issuesheet. If my drawing is issued at Tender I put a Tender issue block on thedrawing. If later it is issued for Construction then I will add a Constructionissue block above the Tender block on the drawing, but the revision will remainthe same. If a drawing is modified then the description in the revision boxesis added to the drawing. I leave all previous revision notes on the drawing asit shows the history and development of the drawing. Anyway thats what we do and it seems to work fine. We had an issue recently where a contract cad operator was changing 02 tender drawings back to 00 for contract issue. When you are on the shop floor working to a drawing and someone gives you a new drawing with a previous revision number on it you will be confused and may even ignore the new drawing thinking it is an error. A drawing serves to transmit information. That is its only purpose. The people building things from drawings don't care about complicated revision systems, they only want the latest drawing to work to. So 00 is superceded by 01 which is superceded by 02 etc. etc. (rant over)

Hi, Could anyone help me out with this issue I have. I'd like to create a routine that would help me issue drawings, only I am only just learning autolisps so it is rather confusing. The process is just to much when done manually. The steps that I usually do are bind all xrefs, purge then save the drawing with an added revision number at the end for instance drawingname_P1.dwg to an issue folder. Then print of a pdf with the same extension. It would be great if someone could guide me through the process or has a lisp that we could use as a basis. I have one that seems to work but not exactly. thanks