Standardizing Your Detail Library

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
• Library-Level Changes
• Layers
• Simple Cleanup
• Text Styles
• Individual Detail-Level Changes
• Clean Sloppy Linework
• Remove Ellipses And Splines
• Remove Excess Detail
• Update Callouts
• Demonstration in CAD

0:00 – 4:55: Intro/TOC

4:56 – 12:04: Library-Level Changes

BatchMan overview (5:18)

BatchMan is our batch file-processing system. You can use it to standardize certain aspects of files, including details.

Adding a detail file or folder to the detail system using BatchMan (6:03)

Layers (6:55)

Layer Names and Colors & Layer Colors options in BatchMan (6:55)

Changing layer names and colors in detail files (8:17)

Setting layer colors to All ByLayer (9:14)

Simple Cleanup (9:31)

Using the Purge+ option to remove layers that do not contain objects (9:31)

Text Styles (9:46)

Standardizing your Text Styles in a batch of detail files (9:46)

Saving options (10:52)

12:05 – 17:37: Individual Detail-Level Changes

Clean Sloppy Linework (12:25)

Remove Ellipses And Splines (14:32)

We recommend replacing ellipses and splines with polylines, which are simpler and are not prone to as many issues.

Remove Excess Detail (15:02)

Removing unneeded clutter from a detail will reduce clutter and make the detail more legible and generally easier to work with. It will also load more quickly.

Update Callouts (16:25)

17:38 – end: Demonstration in CAD

Standardizing details using BatchMan (19:12)

Opening a blank drawing and choosing the correct Preference Set (19:50)

Adding detail files or folders (20:45)

Layer Colors option (21:32)

Layer Names and Colors, All ByLayer, Purge+, and Text Styles options (22:38)

Layer lineweights (24:25)

Renaming layers (24:30)

Changing layer colors (25:08)

Saving the BatchMan changes (26:27)

LCF and GCL files (26:31)

The importance of having the correct Preference Set selected (28:30)

Standardizing a single detail (29:03)

Proofreading the text (29:41)

Turning off specific layers to view the detail more easily (30:05)

Decreasing the number of objects on a layer (30:30)

Removing ellipses and splines (30:51)

Using the Quick Select (QQ) tool to select specific objects such as ellipses for quick removal or replacement (31:12)

Cleaning up linework (32:07):

• Joining polylines to eliminate gaps and extra segments using SuperJoin (33:12)
• Changing lines into polylines using the PEDIT tool (34:22)
• Closing areas and trimming off excess segments using the Trim tool (35:31)

Further removing unnecessary lines or moving lines to different layers to change their lineweights (36:50)

Why we recommend using polylines instead of lines (39:02)

Selecting all linework and running the OVERKILL command to remove overlaps (40:41)

Turning all layers on using the LAYERON (LAYON) command (41:27)

Updating Detail Callouts after making a change (41:35)

Using the Match Properties (Mimic) tool to apply the properties of one object to another (42:26)

Changing the size and scale of the Detail Template to account for objects such as Bubble Callouts and schedules (45:40)

Keep in mind that BatchMan includes so many options because they've all been requested by users. Please let us know if you have any requests for BatchMan capabilities (or any other tool, for that matter). (47:46)

The LISP option in BatchMan, which loads a LISP file into several files (49:23)

The Purge+ option is a PURCG plus an Audit for drawing cleanup. (49:54)

When and how often to run the PURGE command (50:41)

Rescaling hatches (53:06)

Why you need to open and clean Xrefs manually rather than using BatchMan on them (53:35)