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I'm wondering about what the complications may be or things to be concerned about with regards to moving and storing xrefs that were created from outside of the company. We are in a position whereby we will receive xrefs from contractors which may be bound or unbound and our company is considering storing the unbound versions on the file server however I am concerned as to whether or not the links will be maintained if there is a move and how they should be stored. Also what particular requirements we may have to provide our contractors prior to submission for the unbound versions. I'm also concerned about whether or not there needs to be a flat folder structure with all disciplines stored in the same place. I fear that the solution of putting them on the file server may not be quite as easy as I suspect that on receipt they may be placed in differing locations of which the references would need to be redirected. Any advice is greatly appreciated

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)

Morning CAD monkeys, you all have my permission to take 5 and have a coffee. Whilst you're doing so, has anyone come up with a workaround for my problem; my client uses a document management system that only supports autocad dwg files. The contract states I must use their title block, set up with attributes. We put the drawing on their template, it uploads (usually enough time for coffee and a biscuit), the system populates the attributes then you can download the 'issued' revision. How do I work around this if I want to use Inventor? There is also a bit of a problem with the ctb file and layers but I can work around this by setting up inventor dwg template to suit. Any and all help appreciated. cheers Doove

Hello, I am running ACAD Architecture 2011, and would like to set up a recurring automatic Sheet Set Archive to back up my project once a week, while i'm not at my desk, i.e after hours. Does any one have a LISP routine or perhaps ideas how to write one to do this? Thanks for any suggestions. I'd like for it to run the command _ARCHIVE at periodic (weekly) intervals, and automatically name and place the generated .zip file in the network location i designate... Is it possible?