Implementing Your Office CAD 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
• Brief Recap
  • What Makes a Good Standard
  • AutoCAD Standard and Beyond
• Topics to Cover
• Leaders, Text, Blocks and Hatches, Layers/CTB Settings, BatchMan
• Today's Approach
• Walk Through Applying a Standard to a Plan

0:00 – 5:38:Intro/TOC

5:39 – 8:24: Brief Recap

What Makes a Good Standard (5:39)

• Legibility
  • How easy is it to read?
• Efficiency
  • Does it foster accuracy?
• Short learning curve
  • Can someone new apply it quickly?
  • Can someone in another discipline pick it up?
• Adaptability
  • If something needs to be changed for a specific client, can the change be accommodated?

AutoCAD Standard and Beyond (7:28)

AutoCAD definition of a CAD standard (7:28)

• A set of common properties for named objects such as layers and text styles
• Layers, text styles, linetypes, Dimension Styles

CAD standards can include much more (7:52)

• Preference, blocks, hatches, plot settings, leader types, detail callouts, schedule settings, sheet setup, and keyboard commands

8:25 – 11:29: Topics to Cover

Leaders, Text, Blocks and Hatches, Layers/CTB Settings, BatchMan (8:25)

11:30 – end: Today's Approach

Walk Through Applying a Standard to a Plan (11:30)

Land F/X Preferences overview (12:26)

Leaders (13:27)

Plant labels (13:27)

The advantages of MLeader style plant labels (13:56)

Selecting a plant label style (14:58)

Changing the landing distance of the plant callouts (15:20)

Changing the plant label arrow type (15:38)

Preference Sets (16:08)

Creating a new Preference Set (16:08)

Switching between Preference Sets (16:53)

Note that if you select a different Preference Set in an existing drawing, the drawing won't update automatically. For example, you'll need to re-label plants to have them pick up the label style from the new Preference Set.

Text Styles (18:52)

Managing your Text Styles (examples: Plant Callout, Schedule Title, Schedule Text) (18:52)

Reloading all Text Styles in a drawing to follow the current Preference Set using the REAT command (22:15)

Working with text on the fly (22:40)

Custom content (adding your own blocks, modifying existing content, etc.) (25:17)

Modifying Land F/X planting symbols (25:27)

Using our Redefine Block tool to redefine existing blocks in your drawing to their new customized versions (27:54)

Our cloud-based blocks (29:36)

Saving your custom blocks into the Land F/X system using our Save Block tool (30:42)

Saving a large number of blocks into the Land F/X system (34:23)

Placing your custom blocks in CAD (35:33)

Saving your custom hatches into Land F/X (37:22)

Selecting a different color for callouts from our default teal (color 133) (38:13)

Layer management (38:47)

Using our Save and Load Layers tools to save and apply a set of layer properties to a drawing (39:15)

Using the Purge command to purge empty layers from a drawing (40:39)

Layers, lineweights, CTB files, and plotting (41:20)

Setting up your CTB file to work with Land F/X (43:08)

See our Change Land F/X Line Colors & Block Layers documentation page for instructions for setting up your own CTB file to work with Land F/X, including setting up the Land F/X Line Colors Worksheet.

Selecting the correct CTB file (49:46)

Ensuring that your CTB file is in the LandFX/Admin folder (50:10)

Editing layer information (51:18)

Non-plot layers (51:38)

Making changes across multiple files, or folders of files, using our BatchMan tool (54:07)

Why we recommend storing your office's shared LandFX folder in a shared online location using a service such as Dropbox or Google Drive (58:29)

Moving your LandFX folder to a shared online location (1:01:10)

Note that we don't recommend using OneDrive with Land F/X.