Level and Project Management in Autodesk® Architectural ... · Project Browser from the File menu...

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Level and Project Management in Autodesk® Architectural Desktop and Autodesk® Building Systems 2006

The Drawing Management system in Autodesk Architectural Desktop (ADT) is a great tool for managing project drawings! Using this robust set of tools, we can set up the levels of our building and quickly generate floor plans and models relative to these levels. However, level management is only the beginning of the Project Management system in ADT 2006. In this information-packed session, we will explore the Project Browser and learn how to create, locate, and manage new projects. We will then explore the Project Navigator in complete detail and demystify terms like "Construct" and "Element." We will also explore Project Templates, Project Data, and XREF Cleanup. Once you have seen the ease of use and power of the Project Management System in ADT, you will never go back to doing projects the old way again. This session focuses on ADT 2006, but ADT 2004 and 2005 and Autodesk Building Systems users are welcome to attend as well.

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About the Speaker:

Paul Aubin - Paul F. Aubin Consulting Services

Paul is the author of several books on Autodesk Architectural Desktop including Mastering Autodesk Architectural Desktop, and the recently published Mastering VIZ Render: a Resource for Autodesk ADT Users coauthored with James D. Smell. Paul's background in architecture spans 18+ years. He is an independent consultant offering training and implementation services to architectural firms. He also serves as the moderator for CADalyst magazine's online "CAD Questions Forum" and has spoken at AU for many years. The combination of his experiences in architectural practice, as a CAD manager, and an instructor gives his writing and instruction a fresh and credible [email protected]

BD21-2— Level and Project Management in Autodesk® Architectural Desktop and Autodesk® Building Systems 2006

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Drawing Management Introduction This document contains a collection of tips and tricks that you will find useful when working with the Autodesk Architectural Desktop 2006 Drawing Management system. The Drawing Management system, also referred to as “ADT Projects” is a powerful system of tools used to manage XREFs, Levels and plotting Sheets for projects of all types and sizes in ADT. The Drawing Management Interface in ADT 2006 is comprised of two tools: The Project Browser which is used to browse, load existing and create new projects, and the Project Navigator Palette which is used to interface with all aspects of the current project. The Drawing Management system is a feature of Autodesk Architectural Desktop 2006 (ADT). Autodesk Building Systems (ABS), which is built upon the foundation of ADT, can also take full advantage of this toolset. If you are using the 2004 or 2005 versions of ADT or ABS, much of the content covered in this paper and this session will still be valid to you. However, please note that there are significant differences in the two versions and time and space do not permit full coverage of both versions. With this in mind the primary focus will be the current versions—ADT and ABS 2006.

Project Browser Project Browser is used to locate existing projects, load the current project and create new projects. Launch the Project Browser from the File menu (see Figure 1).

Figure 1 – The Project Browser (File menu)

1. Project Image—A custom-defined BMP image can be assigned to the project and displayed here. For example, load the client’s logo here.

2. Current Project Info—The Name, Number and Description of the current project will display here. 3. Back—Click to go back to the previous folder. 4. Up One Level—Click to go to parent folder. 5. Browse Project—Click to open a standard Browse Window to locate and load project files (projects have an APJ extension). 6. Project History—Click to browse for projects that were previously active (see image inset for additional history view options). While

in the History view, you can right click and remove items from the history list as well as reset the list. 7. Project Folder—Click to browse for projects within the folder tree. This option gives access to My Computer, My Documents, My

Network Places and any additional locations that you add to the AEC Project Location Search Path (see Figure 5–2 below). 8. Project Bulletin Board—The user-defined Project Bulletin Board Web Page, a fully customizable project-specific HTML Web page.

ADT starts with a simple generic page, you can load your own custom one in the Project properties. 9. New Project—Creates a new project within the current folder. 10. Refresh Project—Refreshes the current folder. 11. Project Bulletin Board Navigation Tools—Typical browser functions for the bulletin board page.


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Project Navigator The Project Navigator Palette (Window Menu or CTRL + 5) provides the complete interface to all files used in a project. Use Project Navigator to set up Levels and Divisions and to create, open and XREF Constructs, Elements, Views and Sheets (see below for terminology). Project Navigator behaves like other ADT Palettes and may be docked, floating transparent and set to auto-hide (see Figure 2).

Figure 2 – The Project Navigator Palette (Window menu)

ADT Projects are organized into several file types named Constructs, Elements, Views and Sheets. The Project Navigator Palette contains tabs to manage each of these (Constructs and Elements are both found on the Constructs tab) and Project tab for managing the project’s overall parameters such as Levels and Divisions. Icons appear along the bottom of each tab for common functions. To see a complete list of tools and commands, right click in the file list. (See Figure 2).

Drawing Management Features and Benefits The ADT 2006 Drawing Management system offers many features and benefits. Using Drawing Management gives you a logical easy to use interface to all of your ADT projects large and small. Drawing Management formalizes the relationship between the several disparate files used to create the typical ADT project. While Drawing Management is not required to use the other features of ADT 2006, doing so allows you to gain the fullest benefits from ADT. Most of the tools that would otherwise be separate and disparate functions are brought together into a unified process through the Drawing Management system. Drawing Management offers the following key features:

o Level Management—Once you have established each floor level in the Project Navigator, the software will manage all floor to floor heights in all project files.

o Clear Delineation of Project Components—With the introduction of Constructs, Views and Sheets, ADT 2006 presents a clear standard for location of model components, adding annotation and plotting.

o Ease of Use—Project Navigator introduces drag and drop ease to XREF Management. Simply drag a file from Project Navigator and the software takes care of the rest.

o Maintains a Project Database—All project files are tracked and maintained in Project Navigator. In addition, a comprehensive list of project data are maintained and can be fed to project schedules, tags, title blocks, filed codes and even project bulletin boards.

o Automated View and Sheet creation—Once you have determined the structure of your building (developed its Constructs) creating reports, adding annotation and setting up Sheets is made easy with a simple wizard interface and drag and drop.

o Integration of the AutoCAD Sheet Set functionality—Sheet Set functionality is fully integrated into Project Navigator making the organization, publishing, eTransmiting, archiving and plotting of Sheets easy and powerful.

o Automatic Re-pathing and View Regeneration—Whenever a change to file locations and file names occurs, Project Navigator will automatically offer to re-path all XREFs in the project. In addition, whenever a


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structural change to the building model is made, such as a change in Level or the addition of a new Construct, the software will automatically regenerate associated Views to reflect the change.

Level Management Projects in Architectural Desktop consist of a collection of drawings saved in one of four types. “Elements” (components without explicit physical location within the building) and “Constructs” (components with an explicit physical location within the building,) form the building blocks of a composite “Building Information Model.” Reports in the form of “Views” (for working) and “Sheets” (for printing) are developed from this Building Information Model to covey a particular subset of information. The basic framework of a project begins with an information store, or database, of descriptive project data. These data include items like Name, Location and Project Number saved in easily accessible XML data files. They also allow us to sub-divide the Building Model both horizontally into (physical) “Levels,” and functionally into (physical or virtual) “Divisions.”

o Division—A separation of building model data. Divisions typically represent a physical separation such as a vertical slice through a building model, (like a Wing, an Annex or an Addition.) They are most typically used for large scale projects.

o Level—A physical floor in a building. Levels can be established for actual building stories, and also for mezzanines, basements and other partial levels. You also use Levels to establish Grade level and Roofs. Create a level for any place where a person can walk – floors, mezzanines, crawl spaces, grade, roof, etc. (See Figure 3).

Figure 3 – Divide your building into Levels and Divisions to create your project structure

Clear Delineation of Project Components Standard industry practice and the US National CAD Standard (NCS) recommend the creation and maintenance of two types of file: “Model” files and “Sheet” files. This practice is widely used in the industry and offers many benefits.

o Model File—A file containing actual building data drawn at full size (1 to 1 scale.) This is a file in which all of the day-to-day work is performed.

o Sheet File—A file that is used exclusively for printing drawings. No data is saved in this file. It typically contains only a title block and external references to the project’s various Model files.

Model files are referenced to Sheet files for printing (or as appropriate, other Model files). Most daily work is performed in Model files. In contrast, Sheet files exist solely for printing final documentation sets for distribution. One or more Model files are “gathered” by the Sheet file, composed on a title block sheet, scaled properly with proper Display Configuration active, layers and objects visible, and then printed. The Sheet is saved in this state, (much like a saved “report” in a database,) so that documents can be printed any time, at a moment’s notice. To perform physical edits and design changes, return to Model files and perform them there. Those changes will appear in the Sheet file the next time the XREFs in that Sheet are reloaded.

The Sheet file’s “ready-to-print” status is maintained only if all project team members agree to work only in Model files and not in the Sheet files.


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Architectural Desktop 2006 seeks to formalize the creation of project files based on the Model/Sheet concept in the Project Management system tool set and accompanying procedures. To fully realize the goals of the Model/Sheet file system, ADT provides the “Project Navigation” system that we have begun to see in the passages above. This system incorporates the industry standard use of Model and Sheet files and introduces an additional layer of granularity (View files) to help formalize the process. This is necessary simply because Model/Sheet file recommendations as published in the NCS and its predecessor the AIA CAD Layer Guidelines, are not written specifically for ADT or even for AutoCAD. Therefore, when we apply these recommendations to the specific toolset offered by ADT, we find that the Element, Construct, View and Sheet framework greatly enhances our ability to fully achieve the NCS (AIA) Model/Sheet file intent.

Note: Some of the recommendations made in the UDS Module 01 (part of NCS 2.0,) refer to the earlier “AIA CAD Layer Guidelines - Second Edition” document. The overall intent of these documents has been summarized here. However, for the complete explanation of these recommendations and all supporting materials, you are encouraged to refer to the above referenced documents.

ADT 2006 Model Files:

o Element—A discreet piece of a design without explicit physical location within the building. Often they represent components that are repeated more than once in the design. Elements are drawing files that can be XREFed to other files (Constructs, Views, Sheets or even other Elements) as project needs dictate. Elements are also ideal for saving data related to the project that does not get inserted directly into the project drawings, like test files, sketches or libraries.

o Construct—A unique piece of the building occurring within a particular zone (Division) on a specific floor (Level) of the building. They are distinguished from Elements by their unique identifiable physical location within the building. Constructs are drawing files that are XREFed to other files (other Constructs, Views and Sheets) as project needs dictate. A Construct is like a piece of a jigsaw puzzle. Each piece is unique and all are required to show the complete picture (See Figure 4).

o View—A “working” report of the building model. A View gathers all of the Constructs (and their nested Elements) required to correctly represent a specific slice (or view) of the building. They also serve as ideal locations for project annotations like dimensions and tags. Views are drawing files that are XREFed into Sheets as project needs dictate.

Figure 4 – Each Construct is like a unique piece in a jigsaw puzzle

For example, imagine a 3 story commercial building. You might create Elements to represent a typical egress stair, typical restroom layouts and even furniture grouping configurations. You would have at least one Construct for each floor, although there could (and often would) be several. For instance, in many cases it is advantageous to separate the interior from exterior construction. In this case, you would have a “First Floor Interior” Construct and a “First Floor Exterior” Construct. Nested within interior Construct would be the Elements for stairs and toilet rooms. A similar structure would be established for each of the other floors. If some unique element occurred on one or more of the upper floors, such as a Curtain Wall that spans from second to third on three sides of the building, it would be built in its own “Spanning” Construct. (Spanning means that it belongs to two or more divisions or levels at the same time). This Construct would then be referenced to both (or all) of the floors to which it applied. Again, each piece of the puzzle (Construct) is unique, what you must determine for each project is how many pieces your puzzle will contain.


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When you were ready to begin creating construction documents to convey your design, start creating Views. A View allows you to create a unique snapshot of a portion of the building. For instance, if you wish to work on the 3rd Floor East Wing in plan, you would create and work in a View that would gather and correctly represent all of the Constructs (and their nested Elements) that are required by that physical portion of the building. Another similar View could be made of the same physical slice of the building but for a reflected ceiling plan, and yet another for furniture or finishes. Views are not limited to just plans. Views can be made to accommodate the creation of Sections, Elevations, Schedules and even full 3D Models as well. Be careful however to distinguish the “working” nature of Views from the “output” or plotting nature of Sheets.

Figure 5 – Views assemble certain pieces of the “puzzle” as required to convey a particular type of drawing

ADT 2006 Sheet Files:

o Sheet—A “just for printing” report of the building model. While Elements, Constructs and Views are all to be considered Models as defined by NCS/AIA, the ADT 2006 Sheet exactly emulates the purpose and intent of the NCS/AIA recommended Sheet file as noted above. A Sheet file will gather all required building model components (Views and nested Constructs and Elements) and compose them on a title block sheet, at a particular scale and ready to print.

Figure 6 – A Sheet is used to compose one or more Views for printing

There are those that argue that annotation and dimensions ought to be placed in the Sheets. Some go further to promote that these items be placed in Layout space on top of viewport images of the project files. While both of these approaches are certainly possible and neither is necessarily discouraged by the ADT toolset, the approach championed by this text is as indicated in the definition of “Sheet” above. It is the position of this text that Sheets should be set up once and maintained from then on as “for plotting only” files. The goal is to provide a set of files (one for each physical paper sheet in a document set,) that are always ready to be opened and printed with no advance notice or tweaking required.


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When project team members are allowed (or encouraged) to work in Sheet files, it is possible or even likely that they will leave the drawings in a state that is less than ideal for ready printing. For instance, one might close the drawing with Model Space active, or change the LtScale, or accidentally forget to freeze or thaw the correct layers or activate an improper Display Configuration. These are just some examples of the types of small mundane settings that if set incorrectly at the time of plotting can force re-printing. Not only is this frustrating to the person making the plots, it needlessly wastes time, paper and money. It is therefore strongly recommended that Sheets be used for plotting only and all work be performed in Elements, Constructs and Views. More specifically, edits to the physical geometry of the model are to be performed in Elements and Constructs while all text, notes, dimensions and other annotation is reserved to View files only.

Relationship of all the parts

So now that we have defined all of the individual components, let’s try to understand how they all fit together. One analogy that works for illustration purposes is that of a tree. A tree has a trunk that supports the entire tree. From there it has major branches and then smaller branches and leaves. If we diagrammed our project navigator using the tree as a model, the Constructs would be the tree’s trunk, the branches would be Views, and the leaves would be Sheets.

Figure 7 – The interelationship of Constructs to Views to Sheets.

Annotation and View Files

Let’s consider some of the rationale behind the organizational philosophy of the Drawing Management system. It is intended that you make a separate View file for each unique type of drawing or document required in your construction document sets and other project deliverables. Specifically, each type of drawing, change in scale and/or change in discipline would require a separate View file with its own unique annotation. In this way, we can include completely unique annotation, dimensions and notes in each View and ultimately their associated Sheets without the traditional morass of layer configurations and other issues inherit to housing data required by several drawing types within the same file. This approach solves many common problems inherit to process that has evolved for most AutoCAD drawing files in production today. Consider the following common problems with construction document annotation in drawing files:

Various drawing types often have similar but not identical annotation needs Similar or even identical annotation is often required at multiple scales in different drawings Project requirements often require multiple user access to files

As a point of discussion, consider the simple matter of adding Room Tags to the Spaces of a project. While it is true that this type of annotation would be required in nearly every type of plan (floor plan, reflected ceiling plan, MEP plans, etc.), each drawing type has its own unique and often incompatible needs and requirements for these labels.

For instance, in the architectural floor plan, the best position for a Room Tag might be in the center of the room. However, when we switch to the reflected ceiling we notice that this position, while optimal for the floor plan,


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places the symbol directly on top of a light fixture or other notes making the RCP drawing difficult to read. If you move the label for the reflected ceiling, when you return to the floor plan, you might now be obscuring information in the floor plan.

Furthermore, you may wish to have one type of symbol for the floor plan (including both the Room Name and Room Number for instance), while in the reflected ceiling or the MEP plans you may wish to see the Room Number only. Traditionally, these would require a symbol with multiple embedded layers. While a workable solution, the reliance on layer configurations often leads to improper settings in the Sheet files which ultimately lead to wasted plots, wasted time and wasted money. Not to mention that each of these alternate tags is actually a completely separate symbol that is placed on a unique layer, therefore the attribute data within those symbols must be duplicated across multiple versions of the symbol and manually coordinated as changes occur.

Another common annotation problem arises when a model file must be used at two different plotted scales; such as an overall plan and an enlarged detail plan. In this case, annotation must be scaled differently for each plotted scale. Traditionally, this would again require several scale-dependent layers, symbols and dimension styles with redundant and manually coordinated data input.

With separate View files, the solution to both problems is simple. There is no conflict between multiple copies of the same symbol, because each drawing has one copy of its own unique annotation. With separate View files, you would have two completely separate symbols, each inserted within its own unique View file. In other words, one symbol is used by architectural for 1/8” plans and an entirely different symbol could be used by MEP for the same or different scales. Only the discipline(s) that needed the View in question would reference it, other disciplines simply ignore the file.

At first, this seems to merely spread the redundancy across multiple files rather than within a single file across multiple layers. However, this is where the intelligence of the ADT Project Management system comes into play. All tags throughout the project, regardless of the specific drawing into which they are inserted reference the same Property Set Data at the Construct level. In other words, ADT tags merely reference the data that is attached to the objects. The data whether graphical or non-graphical, belongs to the object itself, which means that it always lives in the Construct. The tag simply reads this data and properly displays it in any View file. In this way, the Room Names and Numbers remain synchronized throughout the set, even though each drawing has its own unique set of tag objects. Each of those tags can be in a different physical location relative to the associated Space (inside the room, outside the room, centered, not centered, it makes little difference). Each of those tags can use a different symbol which displays different properties and each of those tags can be inserted at their own unique scale. Therefore, when the View is dragged to the Sheet, all annotations will appear at the correct size for plotting without any further effort or layer mechanics required!

Figure 8 – Comparing different Views of the same Constructs.

Finally, if Views are maintained for each type of drawing, many personnel issues are resolved as well. It becomes very easy to have two individuals working simultaneously on different annotation tasks at the same time. One person can work in a floor plan View, while another works in the reflected ceiling. Both are able to annotate their respective files independent of one another. MEP can work on their own view and freely move a room tag out of the way without requesting the change be performed by the architect in his or her background file. However,


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since both of their respective View files reference the same Constructs, if one should open one of those Constructs and move a partition, delete a Door or change the underlying annotation property data, the change would be updated in all associated Views.

For all these reasons and many more, the Drawing Management system in ADT is designed around the philosophy that each drawing type and scale requiring unique annotations should be configured within its own separate View file. One or more of these Views can be dragged to the same Sheet, so there will not necessarily be a one-to-one correspondence between the Views and Sheets. For example, for a small scale project there would likely be four separate floor plan View files (one for each floor), yet if space permitted, they all could be placed upon the same Sheet.

Remember the tree analogy above. Constructs are close to the trunk, while the Views and Sheets branch out from them. The more people who need a piece of data, the closer it should be to the roots (like geometry and schedule data). The more specialized the item (like discipline specific annotation), the further out on the branches it should be placed. Following this logic you can begin to make decisions about where certain project items ought to be placed. We have already discussed Walls, Doors, Windows and other “real” pieces of the model. They belong to Constructs and are required by everyone. Room designations are really two separate components: the label or tag itself, and the data to which the tag refers. The fact that a particular room is named: “Office” is “real” (though admittedly not in a physical sense). While we cannot physically touch the notion of its being named Office, no one can dispute that its designation as such is as “real” as the Walls from which it is comprised. However, the label that indicates it as being “Office” is a component of a particular drawing, and is not “real” in the sense that tags are not constructed with the building nor painted upon the office floor. Therefore, the tag being annotation only, is placed in a View but attaches to the data contained in the Construct which informs it that the Space in question is in fact: “Office.” Further out on the branches would lay the Sheet which has the unique purpose of composing on paper a certain subset of information for a particular documentation need.

Ease of Use Working in Project Navigator makes project management very easy. All files associated with the project are listed in Project Navigator in one of the four folders (Constructs, Elements, Views and Sheets), or a sub-folder within these. Open files by simply double clicking their name on the palette. To XREF one file to another using Project Navigator, double click the host file to open it. Simply drag from the Project Navigator into the drawing window in ADT. XREFs will use Attach and write a complete path using the UNC naming convention. The exception is Constructs dragged to other Constructs. When this occurs, Overlay XREFs will be created instead. New files can be created via the right click menu on the palette, or by dragging drawing data from the current drawing to the folder in Project Navigator where you wish to create the new file.

Maintains a Project Database Several bits of information are stored about your ADT projects. These data can be modified at any time. Some of the data are fixed pieces of information such as the project name and number. There are also plenty of user-definable fields such as address and phone information for the various parties with interest in the project. This data is stored in a main project information file, which is a text file with an APJ extension. The APJ file lives at the root of the project folder. It is the APJ file that the Project Browser in ADT shows when you browse projects. In addition, each drawing file added to the project has an associated data file with an XML extension.

Project data (saved in the APJ file) can be edited directly within ADT. An XML editor is not required, neither is any knowledge of XML. If you wish to edit the fields in the project database, click the Project tab of the Project Navigator, then click the small “Edit Project” icon at the top right corner. There you can modify the basic project settings. If you want to edit, add or delete the extended data fields, click the “Edit Details” icon. In the Project Details dialog are listed all data categories, fields, and the add and delete icons. (See Figure 9).


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Figure 9 – Editing Project Information.

The other XML files (one for each drawing in the project) are created automatically by ADT when files are edited in Project Navigator. There is no UI (User Interface) for these files. These files are edited automatically when changes are made in Project Navigator. If you browse your project in Windows Explorer, you will see both the APJ (Autodesk Project Information) and the XML files. Never delete or move those files, it will have an adverse effect on the project. In addition to the APJ and XML files, the AutoCAD Sheet Set file has a DST extension and will be found in the same folder as the APJ. All of the Sheet Set data is stored in this compiled file. Unlike the APJ and XML files, the DST is not a text file and cannot be edited outside of AutoCAD/ADT.

Figure 10 – APJ, DST and XML files as seens from Windows Explorer. Do NOT delete.

All of the data that is stored in the APJ file is easily accessed in ADT Schedule Tables via a Project Property Set. In addition, any Schedule Table can be created and printed in the drawing set, or exported directly to Microsoft Excel. In this way, complete quantities, square footage calculations and project data can be extracted from your ADT Building Model and post processed to form reports of the critical data important to a project team. This aspect of ADT projects is perhaps one of the most widely untapped areas of potential readily available to ADT users.

Automated View and Sheet creation Views are generated automatically based on the prompts in a wizard and the level structure of the project. If changes occur in the project that affects a particular View, it can be regenerated with a single right-click.

Creating a new Sheet is a simple two-step process. Right click a Sheet Set or Subset and choose New>Sheet. Open the new Sheet and then drag a View (or a Model Space View indented beneath it) from Project Navigator to the drawing window of the new Sheet. This simple process will XREF the View file on an appropriate layer in Model Space, create an MView in Paper Space Layout, place the MView on a non-plotting layer, set it to the proper scale, Display Configuration and optionally restore a Layer Snapshot. The MView will automatically have its viewport scale locked. If callouts and other field code references exist, these will all be updated to reflect the drawing’s position upon the Sheet.


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Figure 11 – The Re-path icon on the Project Navigator

When Views are dragged to Sheets, be sure open the Sheet with a Paper Space Layout active. Do not switch to Model Space first. Drag the View onto the Sheet Layout. All XREFs will be attached in Model Space on a unique layer. Use the grips to adjust the size of the viewport if necessary. Project Title Blocks by default use Field Codes that link to the Project Data contained in the APJ and Sheet Set files. So this data should also input and update automatically simply by creating the Sheet.

Automatic Re-pathing and View Regeneration Should any changes to file names, folder names or locations take place, you will be prompted by Project Navigator to “Re-Path” the project to reflect these changes. Always answer yes if prompted. If you answer no, you will not be given another opportunity to re-path later. Therefore, you would have to edit all XREF paths manually—a very tedious process. In addition to re-pathing, the system will also prompt you to regenerate Views should the level settings change. If you rather not wait to be prompted, you can re-path the project yourself at anytime by clicking the Re-Path icon on the Project Navigator and you can Regenerate a View by right-clicking on it in Project Navigator. (See Figure 12).

Figure 12 – The Re-path icon on the Project Navigator

Working with Projects Now that we have reviewed many of the features and benefits of the Drawing Management system, let’s take a closer look at a few important concepts and techniques.

Project File Naming There are almost as many ways to name files as there are firms using ADT. However, as different as the naming scheme in one firm might be from that of another down the block, there are many similarities from firm to firm. In most cases, you will easily be able to adapt your existing scheme into the use of Project Navigator without too much difficulty. While ADT imposes no “required” method for naming files, there are certain guidelines that can assist users in the naming of their files. The most important consideration when developing a file naming scheme for ADT Projects is to be very careful not to choose names that contradict the intended use of a particular type of file. In other words, Constructs are not Plans or Elevations, therefore they should not have names like “Plan01,” “01 Floor Plan” or “A-FP01.” Constructs are actually models and are used generate Plans, Sections, Elevations, Details and 3D Views files. It is View files that are specific types of drawings like Plans, Elevations and Sections. Therefore, it is recommended that your file naming for Constructs not include any reference to a particular type of drawing and rather be descriptive of the Construct’s contents. Use “drawing type” naming for View files. In most cases, your firm already has a model file and sheet file naming convention well established.


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Typically, the existing model file naming convention will work well for View files, the sheet file naming will not require a change (although the default behavior of Sheet Sets may make you consider a change) and only Construct naming will need consideration. Below is a summary of potential file names based on the recommendations of the US National CAD Standard as adapted to the Project Navigator and suggestions made here. For complete information and to purchase a copy of NCS visit: http://www.nationalcadstandard.org/.

An NCS Model file name is composed of a Discipline, plus a drawing type Code, followed by an enumeration (which typically corresponds to the floor number), though not always. (Elevations for instance would just be numbered sequentially in any logical order).

For example:

o A-FP01 = Architectural First Floor Plan o A-EL01 = Architectural Elevations (first group of elevations. There could be others named 02, 03, etc.)

The hyphen is used between discipline and code, but not between code and number.

NCS Recommends the following codes for “Model” files Use these designations for View file names:

o FP = Floor Plan o SP = Site Plan o DP = Demolition Plan o QP = eQuipment Plan o XP = eXisting Plan o EL = ELevation

o SC = SeCtion o DT = DeTail o SH = ScHedules o 3D = isometrics/3D o DG = DiaGrams

Technically, “FP” would be used for any type of Plan and they would simply be enumerated. So, the first floor plan might be: A-FP01, while the first floor ceiling plan would be: A-FP02, or something. However, A-FP02 for a ceiling plan on the first floor is confusing to most people and it is highly likely you would run out of codes with only two digits. Therefore, the following abbreviations are used almost universally by most firms instead:

o CP = reflected Ceiling Plan o RP = fuRniture Plan

o EP = Enlarged Plan

While “A-3D01” would technically be correct for the name of a composite model, I prefer this:

o CM = Composite Model (This one is my addition) So the file would be named A-CM01 (You could also use A-CM00 for the first composite model in a set. It is not that critical with which number you start).

NCS knows nothing about Constructs. Since their names indicate drawing type and function, they are best suited to use as View file names. Consider descriptive names for Constructs such as:

o 01 Walls o 01 Shell and Core o 01 Floor o 01 Floor Plate (not “Plan”)

o Stair (for spanning Stairs) o 00 Stair (alternative for stairs) o Roof o 01 Slab

For Sheets, the NCS system is fine. They recommend the number of the Sheet; which typically includes the discipline code as well. The number is in two parts, the first digit is a code indicating drawing type, and the remaining two are an enumeration.

o 1 = Plans (Horizontal Views) o 2 = Elevations (Vertical Views) o 3 = Sections (Sectional Views) o 4 = Large Scale Views (Plans, Sections &

Elevations that are not Details) o 5 = Details

o 6 = Schedules and Diagrams o 7 = Used Defined o 8 = User Defined o 9 = 3D Representations (Isometrics, Perspectives

and Photographs)

Examples:

o A-101 – (Architectural First Floor Plan) o A-102 – (Architectural Second Floor Plan) o A-103 – (Architectural First Floor Reflected Ceiling Plan) o A-201 – (Architectural Building Elevations) o A-301 – (Architectural Building Sections)

Here again, the codes are very broad, so it is certainly possible on a big job to run out of numbers. Many firms develop similar systems of naming, but conceptually they are usually very consistent with these. One factor to consider, while there is neither functional nor philosophical reason why existing sheet file naming in your firm cannot simply be adopted, the integration of the Sheet Set Manager within Project Navigator introduces some hard coded assumptions about Sheet file naming which may be different than your current system. When you name a new Sheet on Project Navigator’s Sheets tab, you input both the Sheet number and the Sheet Title. These two values, which will ultimately feed two different fields on the title block are by default concatenated together to form the Sheet File name. It is likely that this is in variance to how you name sheets today. Whether or not it will prove problematic is another matter. In most cases it is arguable that this change in naming will have little to no impact on your work flow or process. Considering the level of automation that Sheet Set manager brings to the table. Do give this new approach some serious consideration before adopting a contrary policy that may actually prove harder to manage.

Project Setup When the time comes in a project cycle to begin thinking about how many sheets of drawings will be required and what those sheets will contain, it is time to build a “digital cartoon set.” Just like the traditional cartoon set, the digital version will help make good decisions about project documentation requirements and the impact on budget and personnel considerations. One extra advantage of the digital cartoon set is that it will evolve into the actual CAD files of the project, which means that layout of a cartoon set is actually the layout of the real document set! Don’t be concerned with the finality that this seems to imply. The documents remain completely flexible and editable, making this approach consistent with the goal of progressive refinement predominant in the use of ADT.

Caution: Please do not skip this step when setting up your own projects. Establishing the Building Information Model structure and the digital cartoon set at the beginning of a project is critical to success in using ADT tools and methods with that project.

Now that we have taken a comprehensive look at the pieces of an ADT Project, the final thing remaining is a list of steps to perform at the start of a new project. The earlier you perform these steps in the life of a project the better for all persons involved. The value of developing a complete project structure early in the life of a project cannot be overstated. Take the time to do this early, and you will be glad you did. New to ADT 2006 is the ability to use a Template Project for setup of new projects. A copy of the Template Project is made when you start the new project and all XREFs and files are repathed automatically. This makes it very easy to start a new project based upon an office standard. Think of the following steps as a process to create a new template project.

1. Open Project Browser, and create a New Project.

In Project Browser (File menu), browse to a location where you wish to save your project. Choose the default template project. (Very important if you want to use Project Tool Palettes). Configure the Name, Number and Description and then create a New Project. Configure the Levels (and if using, Divisions).

o Start with the files that have no XREFs like site plans and base building conditions and work your way forward.

2. On Project Navigator, create a Site Conditions Construct.

Open any Site Conditions files (from outside sources, previous projects, clients, engineers, etc.) and run AUDIT and PURGE. Try to eliminate all extraneous data, geometry, annotations and layers. (Be sure to keep a backup of all original files. If you want them easily accessible, create an “Existing Files” folder in the Elements folder and store them there).

Copy any existing geometry from this file to a New Construct and save it as “Site” or “Terrain” (if

BD21-2— Level and Project Management in ADT 2006 by Paul F. Aubin

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it contains a 3D terrain model). You can build a simple 3D Terrain model suitable for (architectural visualization) using the Drape

Tool on the Massing Tool Palette. To use Drape, you need a series of Polylines that represent your site’s contours.

3. Import any Existing drawings into Project Navigator.

Open any Existing Conditions files (from outside sources, previous projects, clients, engineers, etc.) and run AUDIT and PURGE. Try to eliminate all extraneous data, geometry, annotations and layers. (Be sure to keep a backup of all original files. If you want them easily accessible, create an “Existing Files” folder in the Elements folder and store them there).

For Interiors projects, separate the “permanent” items from the “non-permanent” ones. Using Cut and Paste to Original Coordinates or Drag and Drop to Project Navigator, move the permanent geometry into a “Base Building” Construct, and move the rest to an “Existing Conditions” and/or a “Demolition” Construct as appropriate.

For other projects, simply right click the Constructs folder and choose Save Current DWG as Construct or use Drag and Drop to Project Navigator. (If you use Save as Construct, your new Construct will not use your office standard template. If you wish to “upgrade” existing drawings to your firm’s template—which is desirable for maintaining Display Control consistency, Copy the geometry out of the existing file and then Paste it to Original Coordinates in a new Construct).

4. Create any Typical Elements such as Cores, Toilet Room Layouts or Shell Conditions.

5. Create new Constructs for Column Grids, Core, Stairs, Enclosure or Shell, Spaces (and Ceiling Grids), and Partitions.

Create only those Constructs required by your project type. If you have “typical” layouts and configurations, create these as Elements first, and then drag them into the appropriate Constructs. Move, Copy, Mirror and Rotate Elements as required by the design. These are your “Base” files.

6. Open each Construct and establish cross-references.

Drag and Drop from Project Navigator the other Constructs that you wish to see underlain. (When dragging a Construct to another Construct XREF Overlay is used automatically). For example, the Partitions should reference the Grid, Stairs, Core and Enclosures if present.

At an early stage in the project, simply add “dummy” geometry as a placeholder for major building elements that you will add and modify later. The goal is project setup. So wherever project specific design data is not available, place in dummy geometry based on your best educated guess.

7. Create additional Base Files as Required.

Duplicate each of the Base files (Grid, Stairs, Core and Enclosures) as many times as required by the quantity of floors and anticipated number of design variations and complexity in the project. (You can do this easily with the Copy Construct to Levels right click function). For instance, you may have five Core Plans, but only two Column Grids. (If you are unsure at this point in the project, make an educated guess, remember if two floors have the same Core, or Grid, use an Element for the Core or Grid geometry and then drag this into the Construct for each floor).

8. Double-check all settings in each floor. Re-path the XREFs as required.

For instance, if the Column Grid is the same as the First Floor, but the Core is different, the Grid XREF will require no change, while the Core must be renamed and re-pathed. (Don’t forget, you can simply detach the wrong XREF, and Drag and Drop the correct one easier than manually re-pathing).

When you choose the Copy Construct to Levels option, it is very likely that the default names used by Project Navigator will be unsatisfactory. Be sure to rename them and then use the Re-


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Path icon to update all XREFs.

9. Follow similar steps to create any additional Constructs as necessary, (Constructs such as Furniture, Equipment, etc).

For Constructs that are not similar to anything else in the project, simply create them from scratch.

10. Create a Composite Model View.

Simply right click the Views folder on Project Navigator, and choose New View Dwg > General View. Follow the wizard and chose all Levels, Divisions and Constructs.

Open this Composite Model and check your progress. Open any Constructs and make adjustments to the files as necessary based upon observations in the Composite Model.

11. Create additional Views for Floor Plans.

To create a Floor Plan View, use the same process as a Composite Model, but check only one Level in the Wizard. You can also chose to exclude certain Constructs from any View as appropriate for the type of View you are creating.

Create as many Floor Plan Views as required—Floor Plans, Reflected Ceiling Plans, Furniture, Equipment, etc.

Create a Model Space View in each Floor Plan View file and name it whatever you desire the title of the drawing on the Sheet file to be. Add Titlemark Callouts.

12. Create Section and Elevation View files.

Use the Callout routines to generate Section and Elevation View files. For Sections, choose all Constructs like the Composite Model. For Elevations, include only exterior Constructs like Shell conditions, Site and Roof. This will

speed 2D Section/Elevation Generation time.

13. Create Detail Views

Use the Callout routines and create detail Views. (It is not necessary to think of every single file required at this stage, but the more files that are set up at the begging the better).

14. Create Schedule Views

Again, it is not likely that you will have enough data to create meaningful schedules at this stage, but you can setup Composite Model Views that are specifically intended to generate Schedule Tables. Then you can even create the Schedule Table objects and select the XREFs that you will ultimately schedule. In this way, the Schedules can be easily updated later when project data begins to flesh out.

15. On the Sheets tab of the Project Navigator, create new Sheets.

Assuming that you are happy with the Sheet Set organization that is created with new projects, you can begin adding Sheets right away. Otherwise, you will need to spend some time creating Subsets and organizing your Sheet Set. You must also determine the Sheet size you would like to use and assign template files to each Subset. Must of this can be saved in a Sheet Set template that can be assigned as the default for new ADT Projects on the AEC Project tab of the Options dialog.

Once you have a Sheet created, open it and drag and drop the appropriate View from Project Navigator directly on top of the Layout (Paper Space) in the Sheet file. You can drag the entire View file, or any indented Model Space View beneath it. Resize the automatically created viewport with grips as necessary and position it within the title block border as you require.

You can drag more than one View to a single Sheet, and set up more than one Layout tab if desired and appropriate.

Double-check all settings in the Sheet file. Save all Sheets with the primary layout active.


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16. Repeat for each required Sheet.

17. Check all files and settings.

All files should have some sort of geometry in them. Add “dummy” geometry to those that don’t. Delete the dummy objects once real project data is added. Run a test batch plot (Publish) on all Sheets to see if everything is configured properly. Make any required adjustments.

18. Configure Project Tool Palettes

Create Library Files for Styles and Content Create Project Tool Palettes—usually a basic “Project Tools” which is like an individual per-user

scratch pad, and a “Shared Project Tools” which is read only and set to refresh from a source for sharing tools to the whole team.

Copy required ATC and AWS files to the Project.

19. Save and Back up all files.

The keys to success in this setup task are paying close attention to detail and being very methodical about each step. Depending on the size of the project, setting up all files can be a long process, but your efforts will be greatly rewarded as users reap the benefits of a well-conceived project file structure. Make sure to double-check all settings at each critical step, particularly before saving a file or duplicating a file.

Once you have completed this process, if you often have similar file setup from one project to the next, you can use this project as a Template Project for the next project. Another very important step is setting up the Project Tool Palettes. This is new to ADT 2006 and while very powerful can be very challenging to set up at first. This topic will be covered and is documented in the paper for “BD31-3—The Autodesk® Architectural Desktop Tool System Revealed.” Please join us in that session for more information. If you are not planning to attend, the paper will be available on the AU website after the conference.

Other Items Here are a few additional Project and Drawing Management related topics.

Global Cut Plane and Spanning Elements When you create a spanning Construct (a spanning Construct occurs when you check more than one Level or Division on the Construct Properties dialog). This makes the Construct appear in all Views that reference any of the Levels or Divisions to which the spanning Construct belongs. This is typically used for multi-storey Curtain Walls and Stair objects. The Display Configuration (or Global) Cut Plane is a setting in the Display Configuration that works across all objects in a file, including spanning Constructs that are XREFed in. Therefore, if you have a Construct that spans three floors, and the geometry is different on each floor of the design, global cut plane will display the Curtain Wall correctly on each floor. (See Figure 13).


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Figure 13 – Curtain Wall Style with different graphics represented at each level via global cut plane

To adjust your cut plane settings in a particular file, open the Display Manager on the Format menu. Expand Display Configurations, and select the active (shown bold) Configuration. On the Cut Plan tab, you can change its settings. All objects will use this value when determining the display of their plan graphics. Each Display Configuration has its own setting. When a spanning element is introduced, like the one in Figure 13, it is inserted by Project Navigator at the correct height relative to the lowest Level to which it is assigned. So on a third floor View, the Curtain Wall Construct ends up being inserted at a negative value. This means that the global cut plane in the third floor View will cut the Curtain Wall correctly and show the third floor graphics.

XREF Cleanup When you separate objects into different Elements and Constructs, it is sometimes desirable to have the Walls clean up across the two files. This is accomplished with a setting in the Wall Cleanup Group Definition. When you want Walls to cleanup across XREFs, open the XREF file. Launch the Style Manager, and edit the Wall Cleanup Group definition to which the Walls you need cleaned up are assigned. If you are uncertain which Wall Cleanup Group this is, select the Wall(s) and look on the Properties Palette. You can also create a new Cleanup Group in the Style Manager. Edit the Wall Cleanup Group and click the “Design Rules” tab. Place a check mark in the Allow Wall Cleanup between host and xref drawings box an then close all dialogs. Save the XREF and then reload it in other files to see the Walls Cleanup. In order for Walls to cleanup, they naturally must belong to a Wall Cleanup Group with the same name in their own file.

Project Standards Another new and exciting feature to ADT 2006 is Project Standards. Project Standards is a feature that allows us to establish one of more library files containing master copies of object Styles an/or Display Settings and then to synchronize those “standard” Styles and Displays to all of the project files. In this way, you can keep all the files of a project current on changes being made in other files. In order to use Project Standards, you must have a project active, Project Standards must be enabled (it is not by default), one or more library files must be created and configured and then you must synchronize the project. Let’s look at the steps in a bit more detail.

Project Standards Setup If you used the out of the box template project to start your current project (or to build the template from which it was made) you will have a folder in your project folder named Standards. That folder will have a sub-folder named Content. (While these folder names are not required, they are recommended).

1. Create a Library file in the Standards\Content folder of the current project. Use an name like Project Library.dwg.

In this file, create or import Styles (such as Wall Styles) that you wish to use as standards for the


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project. These can be created from scratch of imported via Style Manager or Content Browser from other files. Pay close attention to the names of the Styles. If the project is already underway, copy Styles already in use in actual project files to this file to establish them as “Standard Styles.”

It is possible to store Standard Styles in more than one drawing file within the project folders or even outside the project folder structure. In general, it is recommended that you maintain as few Standards files as possible per project.

Save the Standards file.

2. On the Project Navigator palette, click the Configure Project Standards icon (see number 1 in the Figure below).

At the top of the dialog, enable Project Standards by placing a checkmark in the “Enable project standards” checkbox (see item 2 in the Figure above).

Click the Add Drawing icon to add a drawing to the list of Standards drawings for the project. Browse to the Project Library.dwg drawing file (or whatever you named your standards drawing

above).

A column of checkboxes will appear. When you set up project standards for the first time, you should limit the configuration to a single Style type such as Walls. This will make it easier to work with and understand at first. Later you can return to this dialog and select additional boxes.

Place a checkmark in Wall Styles and then click OK.

A Version Comment dialog will appear. Standards will compare two bits of information to decide when a Style needs to be updated. It will compare the Style name and the Version ID. The Version ID is a code created by ADT, the comment is a user friendly description that you can type yourself. Type something easy to identify.

Type: “Initial Standard Version” as the comment and then click OK.

At this point, you are ready to synchronize the project.

3. On the Project Navigator palette, click the Synchronize Project icon.

In the dialog that appears, be sure that the Action reads Update from Standard for all items (you can use the SHIFT and CTRL keys to select multiple items) and then choose Update from Standard.


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Once the project has been synchronized, you can periodically check the synchronize project dialog to see what is out of date. Users can work as normal in the project files. If they edit a standard Style, they will need apply a version id to the style. ADT will usually prompt them to do so upon closing and saving the file. Versions of a standard Style that have been modified outside of the Standards drawing can be “pushed” to the Standards file in order to update the rest of the project. To do this, choose the CAD Manager pulldown from the Window > Pulldowns menu. From the CAD Manager menu, choose AEC Standards > Update Standards from the Current Drawing. Once you have updated the Standards file, you can synchronize the project again.

Level and Project Management in Autodesk® Architectural ... · Project Browser from the File menu...

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