We are trying to set up a cad standard and make it very simple to use, so that students can use it in schools, thereby bringing on a new generation of draughtspeople, but it must be robust enough so that the building industry will also adopted it.
It has been written to be incorporated into a “company’s cad standard manual”
What do you think of the "system" ? will it work?
constructive comments only please.
Basic Drawing Set Up
The whole concept of the CAD Standards is based on “what you see is what you get”, with light colours in the background and brighter colours to the foreground. Technical building details that are in front of the main drawing plane, these details are to be picked out using a “phantom” line-type and coloured light grey.
There would be a Master prototype drawing, which will have some building elements already set out on their respective layers, the layers will include, line-types, colour, line-weight, and their own names, including dimension styles, already to use at the start of a new project.
The layers should have “D”, “H”, “T”, “Z”, text written on them,
D is allocated to Dimensions.
H is allocated to Hatches
T is allocated to text.
Z is allocated to drawing symbols.
An example layer name is set out here, by using letters pl-wall-T
There should be 2 plot file provided, for The Company’s projects, to suit A1 drawings.
One a full black ctb file the other is a mix of colour and black that should work with Autocad LT
All users MUST use the same properties as set out in the Master drawing; for example, all external “walls” are to be white, set at .35 line weight, the company must decide what colours are fixed to the building elements.
This way all The Company’s team members will get to know what the colour represents, standard building components, from the planning department through to the technical department.
(We are not sure if this is achievable throughout the UK)
Pen Colour , Line Thickness and Linetype Scales
Plotters have a physical lower limit of line thickness of 0.1, the thicknesses the human eye can recognise are 0.10, 0.18 0.25, 0.35, 0.5, with 0.7 being enough for our technical drawings, these thickness also match the ISO drawing standards. Planning drawings can be any thickness, by using Polylines, hatches and solid fills.
At the moment the first 10 colours are used by most Architectural practices throughout the UK for construction lines.
To make the new system as user friendly as possible, and much more flexible, a standard pattern has been developed using the pen colour numbers with the pen thickness/weight. When you want to print a thin line, you would use 0.1, 0.18, therefore, pen colours/numbers are as follows, you may notice below that, to produce a line with 0.1 thickness, the colour number ends, with a “0”.
To produce a 0.18 line weight, the number ends with “1”, a line with a weight of 0.25, the colour number ends with “2”
I hope you can now see the pattern that should be easy to remember.
1 = 0.1, 2= 0.35, 3=0.5, 4=0.18, 5 = 0.7, 6 =0.18, 7=0.35, 8=0.18, 9=0.1
1 to 9 will print black, the other numbers would print colour on the mixed ctb file
10, 20, 30, 40, 50 and so on = 0.10
11, 21, 31, 41, 51 and so on = 0.18
12, 22, 32, 42, 52 and so on = 0.25
13,14, 23,24, 33 and so on = 0.35
15,16, 25,26, 35 and so on = 0.50
17, 27, 37, 47, 57 and so on = 0.70
from 250 to 254 are the grey colours and reduce from 0.5 to 0.1, with 255 set to 0.25 for text.
Screening would help reduce the density of the line weights for A3 prints however this would introduce a third CTB file.
If you want to produce very wide lines, convert it to a polyline, then add a width to it, you MUST NOT change the CTB file. WE will all be using the same file on all the drawings, thereby keeping the same standards through out the Company.
The line type scale should be set to 10 for all drawings ranging from 1:1 to 1:200 and 75 for drawings ranging from 1:200 to 1:2500. Both scales use the Autocad ISO.lin linetype file, as stated above
In a multi-disciplined practice the M+E designers and the Architects are both required to produce drawings with thick lines, for the client, however when co-ordinating within each others drawings, they must be interchangeable.
The Architects want thin lines from the M+E designer and the M+E want thin lines from the Architects.
There is an easy method to solve this problem. (Look at your layer colour chart)
For example to change the printed output from 0.35 to 0.1 i.e. from thick lines to thin, the easiest way to achieve this is to change the colour in the layer manager by choosing a similar colour.
In the example, i.e. 0.35 to 0.1, just pick the colour two rows up, these will produce a thinner line thickness.
This system should also work with Autocad Lt restricted colours See below.
See below for pen numbers, colours and line weights.
Full numbers and colours
N/A = Not able to be used (you cannot see them on the screen)
1 0.10 61 0.18 121 0.18 181 0.18 241 0.18
2 0.10 62 0.25 122 0.25 182 0.25 242 0.25
3 0.18 63 0.35 123 0.35 183 0.35 243 0.35
4 0.18 64 0.35 124 0.35 184 0.35 244 0.35
5 0.25 65 0.50 125 0.50 185 0.50 245 0.50
6 0.25 66 0.50 126 0.50 186 0.50 246 0.50
7 0.35 67 0.70 127 0.70 187 0.70 247 0.70
8 0.18 68 N/a 128 N/a 188 N/a 248 N/a
9 0.10 69 N/a 129 N/a 189 N/a 249 N/a
10 0.10 70 0.10 130 0.10 190 0.10 250 0.5
11 0.18 71 0.18 131 0.18 191 0.18 251 0.35
12 0.25 72 0.25 132 0.25 192 0.25 252 0.25
13 0.35 73 0.35 133 0.35 193 0.35 255 0.25
14 0.35 74 0.35 134 0.35 194 0.35 253 0.18
15 0.50 75 0.50 135 0.50 195 0.50 254 0.10
16 0.50 76 0.50 136 0.50 196 0.50 255 0.25
17 0.70 77 0.70 137 0.70 197 0.70
18 N/a 78 N/a 138 N/a 198 N/a
19 N/a 79 N/a 139 N/a 199 N/a
20 0.10 80 0.10 140 0.10 200 0.10
21 0.18 81 0.18 141 0.18 201 0.18
22 0.25 82 0.25 142 0.25 202 0.25
23 0.35 83 0.35 143 0.35 203 0.35
24 0.35 84 0.35 144 0.35 204 0.35
25 0.50 85 0.50 145 0.50 205 0.50
26 0.50 86 0.50 146 0.50 206 0.50
27 0.70 87 0.70 147 0.70 207 0.70
28 N/a 88 N/a 148 N/a 208 N/a
29 N/a 89 N/a 149 N/a 209 N/a
30 0.10 90 0.10 150 0.10 210 0.10
31 0.18 91 0.18 151 0.18 211 0.18
32 0.25 92 0.25 152 0.25 212 0.25
33 0.35 93 0.35 153 0.35 213 0.35
34 0.35 94 0.35 154 0.35 214 0.35
35 0.50 95 0.50 155 0.50 215 0.50
36 0.50 96 0.50 156 0.50 216 0.50
37 0.70 97 0.70 157 0.70 217 0.70
38 N/a 98 N/a 158 N/a 218 N/a
39 N/a 99 N/a 159 N/a 219 N/a
40 0.10 100 0.10 160 0.10 220 0.5
41 0.18 101 0.18 161 0.18 221 0.18
42 0.25 102 0.25 162 0.25 222 0.25
43 0.35 103 0.35 163 0.35 223 0.35
44 0.35 104 0.35 164 0.35 224 0.35
45 0.50 105 0.50 165 0.50 225 0.50
46 0.50 106 0.50 166 0.50 226 0.50
47 0.70 107 0.70 167 0.70 227 0.70
48 N/a 108 N/a 168 N/a 228 N/a
49 N/a 109 N/a 169 N/a 229 N/a
50 0.10 110 0.10 170 0.10 230 0.10
51 0.18 111 0.18 171 0.18 231 0.18
52 0.25 112 0.25 172 0.25 232 0.25
53 0.35 113 0.35 173 0.35 233 0.35
54 0.35 114 0.35 174 0.35 234 0.35
55 0.50 115 0.50 175 0.50 235 0.50
56 0.50 116 0.50 176 0.50 236 0.50
57 0.70 117 0.70 177 0.70 237 0.70
58 N/a 118 N/a 178 N/a 238 N/a
59 N/a 119 N/a 179 N/a 239 N/a
60 0.10 120 0.10 180 0.10 240 0.10
2.3 Project and Site Drawing File Naming Conventions
The following outlines the file naming conventions.
When characters are not used they are to be missed out and not substituted.
X-Ref 1
Job No 2
Site Name 3
MasterPlan/Zone 4
Building 5
Floor Level 6
Type of Drawing 7
Drawing Number 8
Rev 9
Field 1: X-Ref (1 character only when used)
When the drawing is a model file it is to be preceded with the character X to donate that it is an X-Ref.
The xref layers are then forced to the bottom of the layer manager, thereby placing the working layers at the top of the list thereby making the layer manager easier to use for everyone.
Field 2: Job Number This should only be used for the folder/directory and in the
title block of a plotted drawing.
The name having four numbers but could be 6 alphanumeric characters
but under special circumstances the suffixes may be included. This could
also be a Client or Contractor code if required.
(By keeping the file path name short, it is easier to see, a file in Window
explore, when searching for that drawing).
Field 3: Site Name Site name; shown in the drawing title block only
Field 4: Master plan/Zone drawings (2 characters) i.e MP, A, B, etc (see below)
Field 5: Building (1 characters normally but can be unlimited if required) 1, 2,
etc, a zone within the building has a number, but can be unlimited if
required)
Field 6: Floor Levels BA= Basement, G00= is ground floor, L01= First Floor,
L02=Second floor this includes mezzanines levels etc.
Field 7: Type of Drawing sets (2 characters max)
Field 8: Drawing No
Field 9: Rev
Field 4 Master plan/Zone drawings
Code Description
MP Masterplan
S0 Site
S1 Site Zone 1
S2 Site Zone 2
A0 General Building (for whole building)
A01 Building A Zone 1
A02 Building A Zone 2
A03 Building A Zone 3
B0 General arrangement of the Building (for whole building)
B01 Building B Zone 1
B02 Building B Zone 2
B03 Building B Zone 3
Field 6: Floor Levels (3 characters)
Used to identify the floor, elevation or section reference
Table
Code Description
B02 Basement 2
B01 Basement 1
G00 Ground Floor
L01 First Floor
L02 Second Floor
L03 Third Floor
…. ….
RL--- Roof Level (to be used at the highest level on split roof designs)
If you can improve on the above "system" please let me know
A complete document with coloured images is available on request
I hoping to get intelligent replies
all the best
Regards
Hornet
For the Alphabetical naming layering system with filter system on the left , see below for some different fields
GA for General Arrangement, PL for Plans, EL for Elevations, SC for Sections, SI Site, CE Ceilings, RF Roof, DR, Drainage, FU Furniture, LA Landscaping, EE Electrical, HE Heating, AH Air Handling, ST Structural,
FS Foundations/Slab, RD Room details, DDA Disabled, FR Fire Strategy, SU Security, AC Accoustic, WT Wall Type, DE Details, WC Toilets, VSW Vertical StairWell, etc.
