Sheet Sets and More in AutoCAD 2005

In This Issue:

• Sheet Sets
• Other New Features
• Conclusions

In past issues of the AECbytes newsletter on Autodesk University 2003, I discussed the announcements Autodesk made related to its Building Information Modeling (BIM) strategy and the DWF format (Issue #2), and also described some of the AutoCAD and AEC related products by other vendors that were on display at the Exhibit Hall (Issue #3). At that time, the specifics of the next release of AutoCAD were only revealed to media personnel and were under embargo until mid-Feb. Now that the embargo has been lifted, here is a look at what AutoCAD 2005, expected to ship this quarter, has to offer.

Sheet Sets

The most critical new feature in AutoCAD 2005 is the ability to organize, create, and publish multiple drawing layouts into a single sheet set. Before this, a drawing set had to be organized manually, which was time-consuming, tedious, as well as error-prone. The individual drawings could be spread across several different files, and collating them and ensuring that they were properly ordered and accurately numbered was not an easy task. AutoCAD 2005 simplifies this task with a new tool, the Sheet Set Manager. Here is a brief overview of how it works.

A new Create Sheet Set command in the File menu opens a wizard that guides you through the process of creating a sheet set. There are two ways to create a sheet set: by using an example sheet set, or by using existing drawings. The first method is ideal for the situation where the necessary drawings have been created but the layouts have not yet been set up. The example sheet set works like a template and provides the organizational structure and default settings for the new sheet set, including the title block format, all of which can be modified as required. Once the setup is complete, you can compose the individual sheets in the set by placing saved views from different drawing files. You also have the option of importing layouts when needed. The individual sheets you create using this method are saved as separate drawing files, in which the original drawing files (from which the views or layouts were placed) are linked as xrefs. Any change made to the original files can be incorporated by reloading them in the Xref Manager dialog. The sheet set itself is also saved as a separate file with the .dst extension.

If you have already created the layouts for your drawings and simply need to assemble them together into a sheet set, you would use the second method. This allows you to specify one or more folders that contain drawing files, the layouts from which can then be automatically imported into the sheet set. No new drawing files are created. This method will not draw on the full capabilities of the sheet set feature to manage and synchronize sheet numbers, view numbers, callouts, and so on, since the title blocks and views have already been defined.

The actual management of the sheets is done with the Sheet Set Manager tool, which opens up as a modeless dialog box on the screen, similar to the Properties dialog (a modeless dialog is one that remains open while you work with other tools and commands). Here, you can open existing Sheet Sets or create new ones, see the list of sheets in the set, and also see the individual views within a sheet. Sheets can be arranged into separate groups for better organization. The details of a sheet as well as a thumbnail preview can be seen in the dialog. A sheet file can be opened by double-clicking on its name in the sheet list. If the sheet set was created using the example sheet set method, you need to specify the folder locations of the AutoCAD files whose views you want to use. These "resource drawings" are displayed in the Sheet Set Manager dialog along with their saved views, which can be selected and placed on a sheet. Sheets and views are automatically numbered and these update automatically when any change is made to a name or a number, ensuring consistency. Additional features include the ability to place view labels and callouts for cross-referencing that are also automatically numbered and synchronized, and the ability to automatically create a title sheet with a sheet list table that can be updated easily to reflect changes.

Once the sheet set has been created, the entire set or selected sheets can be published to the multi-sheet DWF format for electronic viewing or to a plotter for creating hard copies. You no longer need to plot individual drawings one by one. In addition, the option for background plotting is available, which allows you to start a plot or publish job and continue to work on a drawing. When the actual AutoCAD drawings need to be sent to a consultant or client, an eTransmit option is available that lets you assemble a transmittal package as a Zip file, self-extracting EXE file, or folder. In addition to the selected data files in the sheet set, this package includes the necessary xrefs, plot configuration files, font files, template files, and so on to ensure that the files are correctly viewed at the receiving end. And finally, an Archive option is also available for creating a compressed archive of the entire sheet set at any time.

Other New Features

AutoCAD 2005 has some new customization capabilities. It allows new tools to be created by dragging objects such as dimensions, multiline text, gradients, blocks, and hatches from the drawing area onto a tool palette. Frequently used commands can also be set up as tools and customized by setting properties such as layer and linetype and adding flyouts (a set of nested tools). Tool palettes can now be logically organized into groups, and screen space can be saved by displaying only the tool palette that is needed.

On the drafting front, a number of enhancements have been made. Instead of drawing lines to create tables and legends, a new table object is available whose configuration can be defined using a dialog box. Fields can be inserted within any text object to display drawing data that is expected to change, such as sheet number, date, drawing title, and so on; these fields can be updated to reflect changes. The display and plotting order of overlapping objects can be changed without regenerating the drawing. A new TEXTTOFRONT command is available for displaying all text and dimensions in front of other objects, and you can also assign a draw order to a hatch pattern in advance. Design review is easier with the ability to open up a marked-up DWF file in AutoCAD and view the markups, make the necessary corrections to the drawings, and change the status of the markups. To emphasize multiline text and dimension text in a visually complex drawing, an opaque fill or background mask can be added to it. New text symbols are available for commonly used notations such as angle, delta, property line, and centerline. A hatch object can now be trimmed like any other object, and a gap tolerance can be set to hatch an area that is not enclosed. You no longer need know the text type before choosing an editing command—both the DDEDIT and ATTEDIT commands can be used to edit attributes.

The final set of enhancements is geared towards improving overall productivity. The Layer Properties Manager dialog has been streamlined to organize and manage layers more efficiently, and includes layer filters and layer groups. A new Maximize Viewport button is available on the status bar in paper space to quickly expand a viewport for editing. Text in OLE objects inserted from other programs such as Microsoft Excel is now automatically scaled to approximate the text size in the original application. A new object snap modifier is available to locate the midpoint between any two points. Object snap can now be turned off for hatches. A new Object zoom tool allows you to zoom to the extents of a selected object. An image can now be inserted with a relative path based on a folder organization, not an absolute or exact path. Licensing has been improved with the ability to borrow a license to use AutoCAD for a computer not connected to the network. A new time-tracking Express Tool is available to track the amount of active editing time spent on a drawing.

On the documentation front, a slick New Features Workshop is available that provides a useful overview of the new features, and links directly to the tutorials. It serves as a handy training tool for the new version, and can reduce the need to take a class or avoid it altogether. A new Info Palette is also available with a Quick Help tab, which is context-sensitive and displays a changing list of procedures relevant to the current command. This provides a convenient way to get relevant information while working. The content can also be locked at any time to provide help with following a specific procedure.

Conclusions

AutoCAD 2005 does not qualify as a major upgrade of the application compared to its predecessor, AutoCAD 2004 (see my review of AutoCAD 2004). However, the key new Sheet Set feature is very useful and will be welcomed by the vast majority of design professionals who still continue to rely on AutoCAD for preparing drawing sets. In fact, considering that in AutoCAD, most drawings that are part of one set reside in separate files (unlike the single file concept of a BIM application like ArchiCAD or Autodesk Revit), the sheet set feature seems to be such an obvious necessity that you have to wonder why AutoCAD did not have it a long time ago. Even the other enhancements in AutoCAD 2005 are all related to drafting and productivity, emphasizing the continued focus of the application on 2D design and documentation. The 3D capabilities, badly in need of a makeover, have been untouched in several releases. Perhaps it is time for Autodesk to consider a reduced-priced version of AutoCAD, other than AutoCAD LT, without 3D at all?

About the Author

Lachmi Khemlani is founder and editor of AECbytes. She has a Ph.D. in Architecture from UC Berkeley, specializing in intelligent building modeling, and consults and writes on AEC technology. She can be reached at lachmi@aecbytes.com.

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