Topic: Civil 3D - Best Approach For Assembling The Document Set?

[Dinosaur]

Thankfully, it seems like the idea of keeping EVERY drawing in the document set for most projects has been rejected.  A small project with only a few sheets MAY be set up that way, but now there is much discussion happening about going to the other extreme with only one sheet tab per drawing file.  I know that when deadline time comes and the whole office has to jump in to meet the submittal date the one tab approch is the most flexible, but until that time I think it best practice to keep the individual drawing types in their own drawing with all sheets of that series as individual tabs within that drawing.  This is especially important in the initial layout phase.  Certain constants within those drawings such as layer visibility and properties, common paperspace annotation and even view orientations can be copied with the entire tab as the become needed without saving and retrieving layer states, page setups or named views.  I find myself making changes that are common to each sheet tab throughout the design process and I think it is easier to make these changes from tab to tab than making them between different drawings files.  When crunch time arrives and it is no longer efficient to have the drawings thus clustered, the individual tabs can be calved off and distributed as needed and simply deleting the tabs that are no longer used for that drawing.

Comments?

[Mark]

My only problem with the single document idea is when you have many layouts the program gets very sluggish with regens and what not. My typical drawing has only one or two layouts but some of the bigger ones can have as many as 50-60.

If you go with the one document per-sheet idea what do you do with the model?

[Dinosaur]

I wouldn't think of putting more that about 10 tabs in any given drawing.  Perhaps breaking it apart with all of the views running in the same general direction, or one long street or utility run having its own file would help break things into manageable units.
I have been keeping my utility alignments and pipe runs out of my model.  I may put everything into the model at some point, but thin only elements necessary in the model are the roadway alignments and their associated profiles and corridors used to generate the design surface.  The individual plan and profile sheets can be set up similar to the utility sets by xref of the model and creating profile views in one or more street plan & profile drawings.  This is all essentially the same methodology I used with Land Desktop projects allowing for simultaneous design for street/grading in the model and the various utilities in their individual drawings.  I suppose the same procedure would work as well with one tab per drawing, but I am debating the merits of using MAP queries instead of xref.  For now, at least for our projects, it seems the layout is too prone to last minute changes to be efficient.

[Mark]

I'm currently working a large project, 50-60 sheets, this should be a useful thread. I'm curious how other folks work with these large scale projects. I know the Sheet set manager sure comes in handy for these big jobs.

[Dinosaur]

The most sheets we have is ususally about 30 to 35 including details and cover sheets with any plat or easement work separate.  Even with half the sheets we find it necessary to split the design load meaning that the utilities are designed outside of the model containing the streets and grading.  I also like to keep a copy of  the existing surface in a separate drawing.  I label and explode that surface into polylines and xref this linework into any sheet that needs it.  I have a separate drawing the includes all of the Survey information, property boundary, existing easements, deed and adjacent properties.  I xref this into a drawing with the subdivision layout and attach it rather than overlay.  This prevents accidental modification of these sensitive elements.  This layout drawing is then attached by xref to each drawing file.  I will also either copy or query the layout linework into the model for design use but the model layers are set to not plot in the individual drawings.  Actually I do not xref the model linework into the drawings except for the street profiles and storm profiles if they are made within the model.  This allows the layout to be revised when necessary by anyone on the project.  The designer working on the model can see any changes through the xref and update that drawing's linework.  The separate layout drawing may not be necessary if there is good communication and all of the players have disciplined drafting skills utilizing good layer management.  We do not have such luck hence the extra care.
I group my project into the following:
Model - this MAY include the plat, easement documents and cover sheet(s) depending on the project.  If separate covers are required, I make a tab in the appropriate drawing file for each
Grading plan and Drainage maps, erosion protection phasing and detention pond tabs
Street plan and profile sheet tabs along with any curb return and cul-de-sac spot elevation details
Storm Sewer plan and profile sheet tabs
Sanitary Sewer plan and profile tabs
Water Distribution plan and profile tabs if required
Detail Sheets as required with tabs for multiple sheets if required.

As I indicated before, if one set needs to be split between multiple users, I just copy the drawing and split the tabs for each.

[Jeff_M]

After seeing this thread, it makes me glad to be the only designer/cad guy in our office that works on the Final Maps and Improvement plans. I have no one but me to share data/projects with, so my typical dwg folder for any one project looks something like this:

boundary-topo.dwg ....surfaces and all existing data goes in this one
Final Map.dwg ...subdivision plat for recordation
Base-IP.dwg ...All improvements....grading, erosion control, underground, profiles
Details.dwg ...typical and project specific details

And because of this I'm having a hard time deciding on the use of Vault with C3D.....

[Dinosaur]

And I am not even using Vault - still on 2006 unless I can prove to the boss I can retrieve his "special" toolbar from r2005 and instantly restore it without any of those little "cloud things" every time he pooches his menu file or otherwise needs to reinstall AutoCAD (at least once a month - don't ask).  This has nothing to do with Civil 3D however as I have been dealing with said issues for 10 years.  I envy you your solitude; it was mine for a time when they would not allow Civil 3D on their machines.