All About Templates

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
• Drawing Templates (DWTs) vs. Project Templates
• Drawing Templates Explained
• Project Templates Explained
• Demonstration of Creating Drawing Templates
• Demonstration of Creating Project Templates

0:00 – 3:51: Intro/TOC

Template defined (2:45)

A template is a pre-created document that is already set up with preliminary tasks. You can use the template to save yourself a lot of time because it moves the starting point of a new document further along than if you were to start from scratch.

In word processing, a template might have formatting of the page and text style set up so you can start writing immediately when you start a new document.

3:52 – 5:02: Drawing Templates (DWTs) vs. Project Templates

In AutoCAD:

A drawing template is a copy of a drawing file (DWG file) that can include all kinds of AutoCAD objects and drawing settings.

A drawing template is saved as a DWT file. This is a copy of your AutoCAD drawing file that a new drawing can be created from.

In Land F/X:

A project template is a copy of your project data.

A Detail Template is like a title block for your details.

5:03 – 11:43: Drawing Templates Explained

What is a Drawing Template (DWT)?

• A file that AutoCAD uses to create a new drawing file.
• Essentially the same as a common AutoCAD format or DWG.

Why are DWTs useful?

• Saves time by removing the need for preliminary drawing setup.
• Ensures that the drawing setup is consistent across all your drawings and among your office team members.
• Enforces office standards.

What can be saved in a DWT? (6:36)

Anything that can be saved into a DWG, including:

• Drawing space settings
• Block definitions
• Annotation styles
• Linework
• Layer settings
• Layouts

Example of an AutoCAD drawing template (7:07)

With Land F/X, what should be saved in a drawing template? (8:30)

• Unit settings
• Your preferred drawing space settings such as grid display
• Layout page setup

You no longer need a cluttered drawing template because Land F/X provides resources to organize and store the clutter.

Land F/X resources to help manage template items (9:40):

• Layer States: Store layer information into a .lay file for better organization and quick access.
• Preference Sets: Easily manage Text Styles, default Land F/X layer settings, callout styles, dimension styles, schedule default settings, and more.
• Block libraries: Access all our block content, and keep your own block content organized and readily available.

11:44 – 19:43: Project Templates Explained

What is a project template?

• A project template is just a read-only version of project data.
• The project data is the most important aspect of Land F/X. It's the information behind all Land F/X content allowing it to work intelligently with our tools.
• A template can only be used for importing data into a new project.
• The only way to make changes to a template is to create a project with those changes and overwrite the template.

What can be saved into a project template? (14:10)

• Planting
• Reference Notes (RefNotes)
• Concept Graphics
• Irrigation (not recommended)
• Concept Plants
• Details
• Sheets

Why use project templates? (15:14)

• Keep your standardized project data safe.
• Quickly available for any project.
• One-time setup.
• Repeat clients.
• Make changes as needed per project.
• Get straight to designing.

Tips for creating project templates (17:51):

• Wait to have at least a couple of projects completed.
• Plan this out with your team so that everyone is on the same page.
• Start a new project and use Import to add data from existing projects.
• Remember that you can always alter the information as needed on a project-to-project basis.
• You can create more than one template.

19:44 – 46:30: Demonstration of Creating Drawing Templates

Why you don't need a cluttered drawing template when you're using Land F/X (20:38)

Layer States (layer settings) (22:12)

Preferences settings, including Text Styles, Dimension Styles (DimStyles), Plant Schedule defaults, and plant label styles (25:42)

Saving custom symbols into our libraries (30:13)

Our block libraries, and saving custom blocks (33:19)

Our hatch libraries, and saving your custom hatches (34:19)

Setting up a new drawing template (37:05)

Setting your units and turning off the grid (39:31)

Setting LTSCALE and PSLTSCALE to 1 (40:03)

Setting UCSFOLLOW to 0 (40:36)

Why you shouldn't assign a Land F/X project to a DWT (41:06)

Saving your DWT (42:00)

Assigning a specific drawing template to open when you use the QNEW command when opening a new drawing (43:49)

46:31 – end: Demonstration of Creating Project Templates

See our Using Plant Templates webinar for a more in-depth look at working with project templates.

Setting up a Land F/X project template (47:19)

We recommend creating a template based on an existing project that contains all or most of the data you plan to use in multiple projects.

Creating a new project (49:45)

Importing plants, Concept Plants, and Reference Notes (RefNotes) from another project or template (50:30)

Why we don't recommend putting irrigation equipment in a template, even though we offer this option (53:43)

Using your template in a new project:

• Creating a new project based on a template (not our recommended method) (54:58)
• Creating a blank project and importing what you need from a template (our recommended method) (57:43)

Backing up and restoring projects and templates (59:30)