Some CAD print help

I do my EE drawings on 1 sheet. I like this because it keep everything on 1 sheet and you don't have to open 60 different drawing.

The hang up is when you go to print this means you have to do a window print for each page.

Does anybody have a better way of doing this? Hopefully I explained it OK. Long days and short night make me hard to understand.

Autocad???

If so create a "layout" for each of your drawings. Tip: save this as a template so you never have to do the layout process each time. Then use the "batch plot" feature. Select what layouts you want printed and bang, 60 pages all at once... I used to do it like this before acade so i know it works. Oh and save your sheet set in your project folder to avoid reconfiguring the batch plot dialogue next time you print.

I will try it today thanks.

"Batch Plot" feature? Where do you find this and are we talking full-blown AutoCAD, AutoCAD LT, or both?

I have AutoCAD LT and do the same thing with drawings on a single page, layouts, templates, and another form of "batch" plotting where I select all my desired layouts and "Publish" the selected layouts. Like you describe this prints all of them in one shot.

I don't feel I need to do it any differently than I already am, but knowing yet another method is always nice.

Steve

I am working in LT. I am researching how to make a title block now. I am looking for a way to cut down on my time. I am a basic AutoCAD user and trying to learn some more so I can be a little more effective with my time.

I did make some basic layouts for my prints. Now I can do documentation is 30% of the time that I was doing it. Excel and Notepad can be a handy tool.

Jeff, how many times has your end customer asked you to break the file up into separate files at the end of the job? I do the same thing you do, and because of some of their standards I have had customers make me bust it up.

Jeff - What I have done for title blocks is, first, I made separate borders for all the various sized drawings and then made sure all the fields where the job-specific title block text go are exactly the same size from one border to the next. I then created a single text-only block that I can insert into each drawing. For me, this makes it really simple.

Steve

DamianInRochester said:

Jeff, how many times has your end customer asked you to break the file up into separate files at the end of the job? I do the same thing you do, and because of some of their standards I have had customers make me bust it up.

Click to expand...

I have never been asked to break them up yet.

As an end user of your cad drawings i must say that drawings on layers is a royal pain. Everytime we get a 60 sheet drawing, we have Engineering bust it into sheets for us. I have to agree with the sheet layout format. while it is still a little bothersome, it beats the 60 layer approach. I'm new to this plant and still learning. autocad electrical is on the list.

regards,
james

James - I agree that multiple layers on electrical drawings are a pain. When I make my own drawings, I use one layer for everything and put all the sheets in a single drawing. To date, my largest drawing has right at 100 sheets while most are less than 20. I have separate layout tabs for each of the sheets for printing purposes only. For the plant floor, I print to PDF and create a single, combined document with all sheets that then can then reprint as needed. No need for separate drawings for each sheet in AutoCAD.

Steve

I do all my schematics on one drawing, create a layout for each drawing. In most cases the title block and border are placed in the dwg multiple times, unlike a mechanical drawing where the dwg or "model" space is exclusively for real stuff and the layout tabs contain all the annotation.

I will arrange the electrical "sheets" in model space, equally spaced in a grid (5 across 5 tall or 10 across ? tall) with a bit of space between them, and then create one layout, set the properties to extents, and make the viewport the same size as the outer border and on a non printing layer with a z-order lower than the layer in which your title blocks reside.

I rename that layout tab "1", then set all the print properties, preview it get that first one right, then make a copy of it for each of the remaining sheets. In each copy, you just rename it and move the viewport by the offset for the next page. I prefer to have the print scaling and viewport scaling 1:1 so if I am typing text in model space I know exactly what size it will end up being on paper.

I use single digit layout names especially when there are more than about a dozen pages so that they fit along the bottom without side scrolling.

Make sure you have the option to view the layout tabs turned on.

I have 2010 AcadE but have yet to properly train myself to take advantage of some of the coolities and wondrousnesses like sheet sets and projects, although I do find the library extrememly useful. I have an 8-hour course on DVD that I have only found time to squeeze in about an hour's worth...this is one of those things I may need to go to actual class for so I can focus and make eye contact with a human instructor to speed the understanding.

The method above works for everyone, if you save as 2006LT (or older where required). I have had a couple of phone calls or emails delaying progress:, "Hey, Paul, can you convert that to an older version, my machinist/electrical engineer couldn't open it..."


rant on:
Seriously considering switching to Solidworks for mechanical we have a new engineer who is fluent with it.

Layers? Yes, up to a dozen layers can be super useful and time saving, but just three or four obvious ones are enough. I don't mind the AutoCad Electrical layers scheme, but it is overly complicated.

I like layer controls so I can lock things that needn't be selectable during editing, like rung numbers, and for color and linetype/style control. I like the built in pdf printer including layer controls, so your customer with Acrobat Reader can turn them on and off for printing or reading on screen. I have seen this work very well with a complex pneumatic circuit, you could switch on and off major circuits very cool to help understand the flow...

Whoa OkiePC, you need to watch that dvd. Your driving a super charged mustang in the slow lane....

I am actually surprised that you guys are using "vanilla" AutoCAD for your schematic drawings..

Some time ago, my boss insisted that we move to a "smart' electrical drawing package. After looking at Eplan and AutoCAD Electrical, we ended up with Promis-e.

After using different versions of Promis-e (with different CAD engines) we are now using Promis-e with AutoCAD 2012. (This IMHO is an expensive option)

But there are so many advantages, such as automatic wire numbering, automatic cross-referencing, automatic cable schedule generation, even automatic generation of drawing index.

Now, I am not going to say that Promis-e is great or bug-free, I am using it as an example of what is available.

I have also used PC Schematic and it is much cheaper than Promis-e and probably easier to learn.

Ian

Whoa. I've been using ACADLite for... 10+ years, and for the last 7-8 of them the "Publish" command has been available to create a single PDF file with as many drawings in it as you want. Up until the 2010 version, it was a two step process. Since, it's a one-step process.

I have not seen a drawing set in a single ACAD file in years... it is so much easier to manage where each sheet is a single .dwg, for me anyway. I would think that full-blown ACAD would have this capability as well, although I don't know that.

Ian, your point is well taken although for a lot of us, the electrical packages are more trouble than they are worth. I did use Promise-E once, many years ago so it is most likely better now. But still many drawing sets the data were not filled in, or were wrong, so the advantages of having a database system behind your schematic drawing tool was lost. For small drawing sets - say up to 20-30 sheets on a machine or skid-type system - normal ACAD can be pretty effective. I grant you that for large stuff or process systems spread over many units and a lot of floor space, something like Promise can help. But you still need engineers and designers who know how to detail and check the prints from time to time, LOL!

Paul T

This site has some good tutorials although they are for autocad electrical I'm sure some of the tips will work with standard autocad.http://www.ecadconsultant.com/tips.html#Template