103: Matching Your Office Standards

Note: The following catalog of content covered in this webinar is time stamped to allow you to follow along or skip to sections of the video that are relevant to your questions. You can also search for content on this page using the FIND command in your browser (CTRL + F in Windows, Command + F in Mac OS.)

• Intro/TOC
• What is a Standard?
• How Land F/X Helps Manage Your Office Standards (Preference Sets)
• Source Files
• Where Are The Source Files?
• How to Modify the Source Files
• Tools for Saving and Customizing Content

Changing the Future vs. the Past

0:00 – 4:01: Intro/TOC

Recap of the previous two webinars in this series (2:20):

• 101: First Steps with Land F/X
• 102: A Land F/X Tour

4:02: – 10:38: What is a Standard?

AutoCAD definition of a standard (4:45):

Standards define a set of common properties for named objects such as layers and text styles. You or your CAD manager can create, apply, and audit standards in drawings to enforce consistency. Because standards make it easier for others to interpret drawings, standards are particularly useful in collaborative environments, where many individuals contribute to the creation of a drawing.

 

You can create standards for the following named objects:

• Layers
• Text styles
• Linetypes
• Dimension styles (DimStyles)

 

What about blocks and templates? (5:10)

 

Questions to ask yourself about your standards and why they are in place (5:30)

 

What makes a good standard? (7:36)

• Goals
• How easy is it to read?
• Efficiency
• Are you able to get through things quickly?
• What you do get through, is it accurate?
• Revision time: Is it a quick process?
• Short learning curve
• Can new hires hit the ground running?
• Is it easy to pick up?
• Adaptability
• If something needs to be done in a certain way, can you do it with less hassle?

 

Think of your mission statement: What are you trying to achieve with this statement?

 

If your standards had a mission statement, what would it be? Make sure you ave a standard that doesn’t compromise the above-listed goals.

 

Having different standards is not a big deal – it’s actually what makes you unique. But:

 

A good standard needs to:

• Exist
• Be able to be enforced
• Be adaptable

 

Prime example:

A firm has a set of standards that they will not budge on adjusting. Then, after a merger or sale, the standards magically change.

 

Setting your standards (9:48):

Have a discussion with your firm. Create a checklist of all things you should think about when making and setting your standard. See the following documentation:

• Define your standard
• Save your standards into Land F/X

 

Some of the things you should talk about:

• Layers and line colors
• Text and dimension styles (DimStyles)
• Blocks
• Callouts
• CTB files
• Sheet setup

10:39 – 26:09: How Land F/X Helps Manage Your Office Standards (Preference Sets)

Preference Sets (11:08)

A Preference Set is your “home base” for a group of standards you configure. The following items are saved in your Preference Sets:

• Land F/X Text Styles
• Dimension styles (DimStyles)
• Layers
• Linetypes
• Schedule defaults
• Settings for site, planting, irrigation, and details
• Additional setup options

 

Demonstration of setting preferences in CAD and saving the settings in a drawing template (13:10)

 

DimStyles (16:40)

 

Land F/X projects vs. Preference Sets (18:10)

Preference Sets are not project-specific. They are global, and can be assigned to projects.

 

Setting up different Preference Sets for different applications (per client, per project type, etc.) (19:30)

 

Managing your Preference Sets (21:00)

 

The importance of backing up your Preference Sets (21:35)

 

Saving a DimStyle into a Preference Set (23:10)

 

Modifying or previewing a saved DimStyle (25:10)

26:10 – 29:29: Source Files

 

Where data meets content (example: assigning symbols) (26:10)

 

 

 

Where Are the Source Files? (27:10)

Our cloud-based content library, where blocks, hatches, and other content downloads on the fly, on demand (27:10)

 

 

 

How to Modify the Source Files (27:50)

Adding a category of blocks to save into our system (example: plant symbols) (27:50)

29:30 – 40:59: Tools for Saving and Customizing Content

Saving your content into our system (example: plant and site blocks) (29:30)

 

Scaling symbols (32:40)

 

Assigning a symbol to a plant and scaling that plant (33:30)

 

Placing custom plant symbols (35:40)

 

The three files generated for each saved content item: the actual source file (DWG), slide file (SLD), and XML file (37:00)

 

Modifying one of our content files (example: a plant symbol) (38:10)

 

Creating a slide file for a custom block (39:10)

 

Redefining a block that has already been defined in a drawing (39:45)

41:00: – end: Changing the Future vs. the Past

Opening the Preferences from the ribbons (41:00)

 

Customizing the Land F/X Text Styles (41:30)

 

The Text Manager (available from the F/X Site ribbon): matching different Text Styles in a plan (43:30)

 

Layer settings, and which item goes on which layer (46:40)

 

Block layers (47:50)

 

Editing multiple content files, or even folders of content files using our BatchMan tool (47:40)

 

Question: Are the plant labels in the example drawing MLeaders? (50:00)

Answer: Although our plant labels are now MLeaders, the labels in the drawing you saw may not have been, which could explain why they were not updating.

 

Changing layer colors (51:20)

 

Bringing a set of saved layer settings into a drawing using our Load Layer States tool (52:00)

 

Saving a Layer State (54:00)

 

Creating and saving custom hatch patterns (56:10)

 

Brief note on CTB files (1:01:30)

 

See our CTB documentation:

• About CTB plot styles
• Modifying existing CTB plot styles
• Creating new CTB plot styles