Dumb Question Probably

[Kemphas]

So, i have noticed all drawings start right to left ABCDEF... and bottom to top 123456...

 

I made a paper space template before noting this.. and mine is ABCDEF Left to Right and 123456 Top to Bottom.... Its exactly opposite of other drawings i see.. Why would conventional wisdom not be left to right top to bottom?

 

Is there a reasoning I am missing? someone said details A1 but thats stupid in my opinion..

[ReMark]

What types of drawings are you talking about?

[Kemphas]

2d electrical for controls systems and mechanical brackets at times.

[ReMark]

I've seen it both ways. Heck, if you look at the template files that come with AutoCAD the metric manufacturing template has it the way you want but the imperial version is just the opposite.

 

Do you work for a company or are you an independent contractor?

[Jack_O'neill]

If you are working for a company and they have a spec, do it that way. If no spec exists, just try to do it the same way every time. If you're independent, do it the way the client wants it. He who writes the checks is right (at least as long as they don't bounce).

[Kemphas]

Work for a controls system company.. my Corp office didn't have a adequate template so I ended up just making one and they kind of adopted mine... I have been kind of being placed in the roll of re-drafting and documenting our standard package product's when I'm not out in the field or designing new control packages... so...

 

figured i would ask so i dont look like a jack *** unknowingly.

[SLW210]

Usually Numbers are horizontal and Letters are vertical. Most government jobs I have worked on spec Right to Left and Bottom to Top. Private companies vary.

 

I do not use them on my borders. They are just for identifying a location on the drawing.

[ReMark]

I think the examples I've seen have the letters running horizontal and the numbers vertical but I've been drinking Cruzan rum cream tonight and I just might have blurred vision. Hiccup.

[Kemphas]

[ReMark]

Looks good to me.

 

Five more letters and we could play B I N G O !

[Kemphas]

um.. there's 17 numbers... and 10 letters, you would need 16 more letters...

[ReMark]

Who's countin'?!

[Dana W]

Who's countin'?!

 

All six gone already huh?

[Kemphas]

Another dumb question probably... Why does everyone have one page per drawing file? I build the entire project (including programming notes, Customer BOM's, Company BOM's and more) inside model space and just Mview them to seperate sheets.

 

I always see batch plot files for a project hat include multiple DWG's...

 

Now i can imagine a product which would have multiple standardized products and you just batch plot multiples.. but if project specific whats the purpose?

[ReMark]

Personal preference for one. The other reason might be file size. I'm sure there are at least three more good reasons as well.

[Mike_Taylor]

One company I worked for used Solidworks/ACAD, so they did that to simply keep a similar file storage system. It really erks me when I see it done. Another guy I worked with simply didnt know how to rename his layout tabs when he use ACAD and got into the habit of one layout per drawing.

[Kemphas]

I guess my drawings are 10 - 20 pages only, maybe larger projects.

 

One thing i really dislike having to do, multiple files or just one... is updating all the drawing details.. .Is there a way i can have a Excel Spread Sheet that i fill out with a standard template for revision history's, draft person, Engineer, and customer details.

 

I have done Excel Data Link before but constantly have problems with re-locating the files or editing them without deleting them, editing them in excel and than re-adding them.

 

Can i embed an excel file so i dont get constant data link errors?

[ReMark]

If one is consistently working with multiple sheets (like for a project) then Sheet Sets is the way to go. Taking care of global changes, like those you mention, would be much easier to handle.

[Kemphas]

Can you make sheet constants by layer?.... such as if i update draft person or revision it updates on all sheets?

[Jack_O'neill]

Another dumb question probably... Why does everyone have one page per drawing file? I build the entire project (including programming notes, Customer BOM's, Company BOM's and more) inside model space and just Mview them to seperate sheets.

 

I always see batch plot files for a project hat include multiple DWG's...

 

Now i can imagine a product which would have multiple standardized products and you just batch plot multiples.. but if project specific whats the purpose?

 

All depends on what it is. That's fairly common with my mechanical (tool and die, that sort of stuff) clients to want one part per drawing, followed up with an assembly view. Architectural customers do all sorts of different things. I have one that uses multiple layouts, but wants a max of 25 per file. Everything is drawn 1:1 in model, and there is a .... frame... for lack of a better word...around what ever it is. This frame is a rectangle that is a scaled up even number multiple of the size of a single viewport in a D size layout. It also has an attribute in the lower left corner that is the page number. Both of these are on non printing layers. Titleblock is in the layout.

 

I have another that wants the titleblock, dimensions and everything in modelspace, but wants up to 50 pages per file. Layout is simply a D size sheet (usually) with a viewport for each page.

 

My strangest customer, does everything on a layout tab. Drawings, titleblock, dimensions..everything. The only time they use model space is for 3d work. When doing 2d work, you simply scale up the titleblock you want to use until it is big enough to go around whatever you're going to put on that page. I've gotten files from them to revise that had lots and lots of layout tabs. Don't know why, but their checks don't bounce so I don't care why.