Topic: General Notes, how do you do them?

[Bob Wahr]

We currently have a lisp routine that brings our general notes in as TEXT.  It is serviceable but a pain to edit.  If ACAD would ever figure out how to bring in a word doc it would be awesome, but since they haven't yet, I'm trying to figure out a way to do it with line indentions and text wrapping.  Either last night or this morning, I was thinking about bringing our master into excel in sections, then having a form that allows the selection of the needed sections, compiling it so necessary editing could be done, then taking it into a table.  It seems like it should work, but I also didn't get any sleep last night so I really can't tell if I'm even making sense.

Thought I would check and see how others are doing it.

[Matt__W]

We have all of our general notes as mtext in different blocks (for C,S,M,E,P,T).  Just explode the block after inserting and edit the mtext as needed (if at all).

[M-dub]

FWIW  (not much)

Ours are always pretty simple... The ones that go on the drawings, anyway.  The more detailed stuff will stay in the Scope of Work document.

[CAB]

I must have missed something.
Insert Word Doc as an OLE object, that doesn't work for you?

[Bob Wahr]

Oh hell no.   

I hates me some OLE with a passion.  That and the notes are too long.  Usually ends up 4-8 columns on a d size sheet.

[CAB]

Hee Hee Hee 
They have caused crashes for me in ACAD2000.

[Bob Wahr]

I thought you were serious.  I was going to have to dust off MP's "adjusting scorecard" line.

[James Cannon]

Does anyone else still run into problems with mtext truncating their notes?

With the advent of the new columnar functions of MText, I find it nice, despite performance drags, to put my notes all in one mtext object, and occasionally when copying in stuff to later trim, I get some overflows.  Would be nice if they bumped up the cap again, just a bit.

[Bob Wahr]

Last time I tried it, I got truncated badly.  I'll try it again when I load 2010

[Kate M]

Does anyone else still run into problems with mtext truncating their notes?

With the advent of the new columnar functions of MText, I find it nice, despite performance drags, to put my notes all in one mtext object, and occasionally when copying in stuff to later trim, I get some overflows.  Would be nice if they bumped up the cap again, just a bit.

AFAIK the cap is effectively removed in 2010. Haven't personally tested it though.

[James Cannon]

Does anyone else still run into problems with mtext truncating their notes?

With the advent of the new columnar functions of MText, I find it nice, despite performance drags, to put my notes all in one mtext object, and occasionally when copying in stuff to later trim, I get some overflows.  Would be nice if they bumped up the cap again, just a bit.

AFAIK the cap is effectively removed in 2010. Haven't personally tested it though.

Rock on!

I have another guy's cds in my desk drawer to install it, but haven't gotten to it yet.

[alanjt]

i just create any notes as mtext, make a block, then drop them from tool palettes. you can have tool palettes explode the block as it comes in. easiest way i've seen.

[MickD]

^^ ditto, we just add/delete job specific items when needed.

I use palettes for all of my notes from very simple item descriptions or stamps to general notes.

[CADaver]

FWIW  (not much)

Ours are always pretty simple... The ones that go on the drawings, anyway.  The more detailed stuff will stay in the Scope of Work document.

I'm with you, one note sends them to the project spec. doc. and we're done.

[Alan Cullen]

We have all our general notes set up as mtext in one reference drawing...notes for roadworks, stormwater, earthworks, sewer, water etc. when we want a specific note we copy/paste from the reference drawing and edit to suit. Never had a problem doing it that way. And all general notes stay standardised throughout the office.

[Willie]

We have a couple of notes saved on our template.  Normally we fine tune the notes as per the project and drawing requirements. Seems to work OK.

[Daniel J. Ellis]

My current doesn't use them, we don't need to because of the nature of work we do, but in previous firms we've used xrefs.

dJE

[Alan Cullen]

My current doesn't use them, we don't need to because of the nature of work we do, but in previous firms we've used xrefs.

dJE

I couldn't think of anything worse than using general notes as x-refs. 

P.S. I hate x-refs at the best of times. I'm civil and we have no need for them. 

[jonesy]

Our notes are in tables. Delete the row that is not needed in the drawing, and I'm done

[CADaver]

P.S. I hate x-refs at the best of times. I'm civil and we have no need for them. 

wha ... ahhh never mind

[Slim©]

P.S. I hate x-refs at the best of times. I'm civil and we have no need for them. 

Being from a Civil/Survey background, I have found that when Existing Topo and Boundary drawings were XREFed into the Proposed plan drawings the accidental loss of information was prevented. When working in the Land Survey Dept. Survey Techs were the only ones that could edit said survey drawings. If an Engineer needed additional information it could be made available to them. I have witnessed on numerous occasions the accidental loss of information by Engineers because of their need to hit a deadline. It doesn't happen all of the time, and yes there are and have been backups. Just my $0.02.

It also helps when General notes are involved. You only have to edit one drawing file not every one in the set.

[kdub_nz]

P.S. I hate x-refs at the best of times. I'm civil and we have no need for them. 

wha ... ahhh never mind

Thanks Randy, If I can ignore it so can you