Easy Migration Through CAD Standards

Whether you have CAD Standards in place or you don't see the need, here are some tips for smoother migration from one software release to the next. General CAD Standard Information has been mentioned in previous blog posts. One of the ones that outlined the most was here.

You may have CAD Standards, but keep information on each workstation in your firm. That's probably better than not having any standards at all, but the real key to CAD Standards is to keep one copy of files that everyone accesses. Here are some brief examples.

Step 1
Create a directory on your server called CAD Standards.
Create sub-directories (bare minimum) for:
· Plot Styles
· Templates
· Profiles
· Titleblocks
· Procedures
· Styles (For ADT & ABS)
· Misc.
· Optional directories here or elsewhere for Drivers and one for Service Packs

Step 2
Create your CAD Standards for the above and place in appropriate directories.

Step 3
Point to these locations from the Files tab of the Options dialog box.
Add the paths to the Support File Search Path.
Point your plot style location (Under Printer Support File Path) and template location (Under Template Settings) to the appropriate directories.
Change QNEW to point to the template that you want your Autodesk program to use.
Set your own custom dictionary and put it in your Misc. directory. (Under Text Editor, Dictionary, and Font File Names)

By putting content on the server, all you are doing is pointing to where it is. When you upgrade your software or hardware, you don’t have to migrate all the content that is located on your workstation. It makes migration much faster and easier and standardizes all the content that everyone in your firm uses.

I’ll expand more in depth on each of these directories and procedures in future blog postings. I’ve had several people ask for general advice so I wanted to accommodate the requests with a starting point. I'll also cover some standardization with Revit as well.