Publish Drawing Sets with Ease in AutoCAD 2004 Speaker: Heidi Hewett Assistants: Shaan Hurley & Matt Murphy

Transcription

1 December 2-5, 2003 MGM Grand Hotel Las Vegas Publish Drawing Sets with Ease in AutoCAD 2004 Speaker: Heidi Hewett Assistants: Shaan Hurley & Matt Murphy GD21-4L During this hands-on lab, you will publish an electronic drawing set consisting of multiple sheets conveniently merged into a single file. Combining named page setups with the AutoCAD 2004 Publish functionality, you will learn to effortlessly distribute drawing sets to others in your organization or project team. In addition you will learn how to batch plot drawing sets using the Publish tool as well as Autodesk's free, lightweight viewer, Autodesk Express Viewer. About the Speaker: Heidi is a technical marketing manager at Autodesk and has been using AutoCAD for 17 years. After earning her B.S. in Architectural Engineering from the University of Colorado, she worked as a lighting designer for a small electrical engineering firm. Heidi joined Autodesk in 1992 and has held a variety of AutoCAD-related positions, including product support technician, training specialist, and senior applications engineer. In her current position, Heidi assists the AutoCAD development teams in developing and delivering technical marketing material for AutoCAD and AutoCAD LT. heidi.hewett@autodesk.com

2 Table of Contents Table of Contents...2 What is Publishing?...2 Creating a list of drawing sheets...2 Working with page setups...4 Publishing Drawing Sheets...5 Viewing Electronic Drawing Sets...6 What is Publishing? From v. pub lish ing To prepare and issue (printed material) for public distribution or sale. As a veteran AutoCAD user you may not associate the term publish with getting your plots out the door but its time to add PUBLISH to your command vocabulary! The new Publish functionality in AutoCAD 2004 provides an easy way to publish drawing sets. It gives you the flexibility to publish directly to paper, or to an electronic Design Web Format (DWF ) which can be distributed in lieu of paper drawings. The DWF file format has evolved from a representation of a single plot to a container that can hold a multiplicity of sheets. This file format is the electronic representation of a drawing (or plan) set. These AutoCAD publishing tools enable you to create complete electronic drawing sets in a single DWF file. You can now minimize the number of files being transmitted and avoid confusion regarding file order for viewing and printing. Distributing DWF versus DWG files helps ensure data security because, unlike DWG files, DWF files cannot be modified. You can further enhance drawing security by using password protection; ensuring that the DWF-based drawings cannot be viewed or printed by unauthorized personnel. Creating a list of drawing sheets The new PUBLISH command displays the Publish Drawing Sheets dialog box and automatically lists all layouts in the current drawing as well as the model tab. You can quickly add sheets to the drawing set using the Add Sheets button or by dragging and dropping DWG files directly from Windows Explorer. You can remove unwanted sheets from the drawing set and arrange the order in which they will be published or plotted. Figure 1. Top portion of Publish Drawing Sheets dialog box 2

3 A right-click menu offers similar options as the buttons in the Publish Drawing Sheets dialog box as well as some additional controls. You rename the sheet as it appears in the list, control whether the dialog box displays the drawing file path names, and specify if layouts or the model tab are automatically included when you add a new drawing to the sheet list. When you are satisfied with the contents and arrangement of the drawing sheet list, you can save it to a Drawing Set Descriptions (DSD) file. If you need to republish the same drawing set at a later date, you can simply restore the DSD file and you re good to go! 1. Start AutoCAD From the AutoCAD/Sample folder, open 8th floor.dwg. 3. Access the Publish dialog box using one of the following methods: From the File menu, choose Publish On the Standard toolbar, choose the Publish button Figure 2. Right-click menu At the Command prompt, type PUBLISH 4. Right-sheet names and experiment with the following options: Display drawing file path Include Layouts When Adding Sheets Include Model When Adding Sheets 5. Choose the Add Sheets button and select a different drawing from the AutoCAD 2004/Sample folder. Notice whether if the model and/or layouts tabs were automatically added to the sheet list depending on the options you specified in the right-click menu. 6. Rearrange the drawing sheets Select one or more sheets Choose Move Up or Move Down or Drag and drop the sheet names to a new location 7. Remove some sheets from the sheet list Select one or more sheets Choose Remove or Right-click and choose Remove 8. Save the sheet list to a Drawing Set Description (DSD) file. Choose Save List Select the location and file name to save Choose Save 9. Choose Close to exit the Publish Drawing Sheets dialog box. 3

4 Working with named page setups If you are not yet familiar with named page setups, first introduced in AutoCAD 2000, now is the time to learn. Using named page setups you can apply consistent formatting rules (such as orientation and scale) to the drawings in your sheet list regardless of the current plot setting saved in each drawing. Before you can utilize page setups in Publish Drawing Sheets dialog box, you must first have some named page setups saved in a drawing. It doesn t in what drawing the page setups are saved, they could even be saved in a standard template (DWT) file. 1. Select the 8th Floor Power Plan layout. 2. Right-click over the layout tab and choose Page Setup. 3. Select the Plot device tab and ensure that Autodesk-MONO.stb is selected for the plot style. 4. Select the Layout Settings tab and ensure that the following settings are applied: Paper size: Arch E1 Plot area: Layout Plot scale: 1:1 5. In the upper right-corner of the Page Setup dialog box, choose Add. 6. For the New Page Setup Name, enter Mono Arch E and then choose OK. 7. Select the Plot device tab and set the plot style to None. 8. Select the Layout Settings tab and apply the following settings: Paper size: ANSI A Plot area: Extents Plot scale: Scale to Fit Plot offset: Center the Plot 9. In the upper right-corner of the Page Setup dialog box, choose Add. 10. For the New Page Setup Name, enter Color ANSI A and then choose OK. 11. Choose OK to exit the Page Setup dialog box. Notice that the paper size has changed 12. Right-click over the layout tab and choose Page Setup. 13. From the Page Setup Name drop-down list, choose 11x17 Scale to Fit 14. Choose OK to exit the Page Setup dialog box. Notice that the paper size has changed. 15. Save the drawing. By default, each sheet in the drawing sheet list will plot using whatever settings are saved in the drawing (DWG) for that particular layout. You can change the page setup information that AutoCAD uses at the time of publishing from within the Publish dialog box. As long as you have access to a drawing or template with named page setups, you can apply those page setup options to any of the sheets in the sheet list. 1. From the File menu, choose Publish. 2. In the publish dialog box, choose Load List 3. Select the DSD file that you saved previously. 4. Choose Replace 5. Select the 8th Floor Power Plan. 6. Right-click and choose Copy Selected Layout 7. Select the 8th Floor Power Plan again. 8. Right-click and choose Copy Selected Layout 9. Select one of the copied layouts, right-click and choose Change Page Setup. 10. Choose Color ANSI A and then choose OK. 11. Double-click on the <Default> page setup for the other copied layout. 12. Choose Mono Arch E and then choose OK. 13. Choose Save List and then Save. 4 Figure 3. Change Page Setup dialog box

5 Publishing drawing sheets Drawing sets can be published either electronically to a DWF file, or to any plotter or plot file that is specified in the page setup of a DWG file. Publishing to the plotters specified in page setups enables you to combine the flexible plotting options offered by the core AutoCAD program with the ease of using drawing sets. You can plot multiple drawings in the order specified by the drawing set and to the devices indicated in the page setup. This simplified, flexible batch-plotting requires minimal user interaction. Publishing to a multi-sheet DWF file enables you to create an electronic drawing set with multiple sheets conveniently merged into a single file. You can protect your DWF files by applying a password and you can effortlessly distribute these sets to others in your organization or project team, via , ftp, or project websites, or even on CD. Figure 4. Lower portion of Publish Drawing Sheets dialog box Whether you publish to a plotter or to a DWF file, when the publish process is complete, you will be notified via the Publishing Complete dialog box. In the Publishing Complete dialog box, you can choose to can create a log file listing the sheet name, layout name, full drawing file path and status for each sheet in the drawing set. With a log file, you can quickly analyze the status of the drawings to determine which, if any, must be republished. If you published to a DWF file, the Publishing Complete dialog box enables you to immediately view your new DWF file. 1. In the Publish dialog box, select Multi-sheet DWF file. 2. Enter a password 3. Choose Publish 4. Reenter your password and choose OK. 5. In the Publishing Complete dialog box, choose Save Log File 6. Choose View DWF File Figure 5. Publishing Complete dialog box Figure 6. Change Page Setup dialog box 5

6 Viewing Electronic Drawing Sets Creators and consumers of design information can readily access design drawings in DWF format throughout the life of the project. Multi-sheet DWF files can be easily viewed and printed in order with Autodesk s free DWF viewer, Autodesk Express Viewer. Autodesk Express Viewer is a small, fast viewer with simple, easy-to-use tools for anyone who needs to quickly view and print to-scale DWF files. You can open a DWF file either by double clicking on it in the Windows Explorer or by choosing Open from the File menu. Autodesk Express Viewer supports viewing for all DWF file formats, including the new DWF 6. A simple and intuitive interface provides access to viewing and printing functionality using familiar methods including pull-down menus, a toolbar, and a right-click menu. You can use familiar viewing tools such as pan, zoom, zoom rectangle, and fit in window to easily manipulate the display area. Using the Views and Layers tools, you can restore named views that were saved in the drawing and turn specific layers on and off. With Autodesk Express Viewer, you can view any drawings included in a multi-sheet DWF file. You can select specific sheets from the sheet list or use the Next and Previous buttons to cycle through the drawings in order. DWF file recipients have control over their printed output without the need for AutoCAD software, while the DWF file creator is assured that the actual design data remains secure and unchanged. Figure 7. Autodesk Express Viewer Figure 9. Sheet list With Autodesk Express Viewer you and your design partners can print and plot drawings with the same fidelity as if they were printed directly from the AutoCAD source. You can print to scale, tile drawings across multiple pages, and more. You can view and plot just the information you want without having to open the drawing in AutoCAD. 6 Figure 8. Print dialog box

7 1. From the File menu, choose Page Setup. 2. Do one of the following to open a DWF file in Autodesk Express Viewer. Immediately after Publishing from AutoCAD, choose View DWF File from the Publishing Complete Dialog. Double-click on a DWF file in Windows Explorer From the Start menu, choose Programs>Autodesk> Autodesk Express Viewer and then use File>Open to locate and open the DWF file. 3. In the Enter Password dialog box, enter your password. 4. From the toolbar, access the list of files. 5. Select different drawings (notice the sheet size). 6. Use the right-click menu or the toolbar to: Zoom and pan. Access the Print dialog box to review printing options 7