Introduction Working With AutoCAD and QCAD Terminology QCAD is QA Software s Drawing Upload Utility for use with AutoCAD and QA Software s project collaboration system Teambinder. The purpose of this document is to give users insight into what QCAD does and explain some of the terminology that is used when setting up and using QCAD. For projects using Teambinder, drawings created in AutoCAD can be issued with extreme ease using QCAD. The QCAD utility: Converts DWG files to PLT files Automatically extracts the drawing attributes such as the Drawing number, the Revision, the Status, the Title, the Size, the Revision notes, the Discipline, and the Scale. Automatically zips the DWG and PLT files with the drawing attributes. Automatically sends the resulting zip file to Teambinder where the package is validated and processed. Teambinder then: Notifies the sender that the drawings were either accepted or rejected. If Accepted, Teambinder then notifies other parties via a distribution matrix. The notified parties can download the drawings direct from the email notification messages. The QCAD software is distributed to parties on a per project basis and is licensed per project. Once the project is completed the QCAD software should be uninstalled. For more information on QCAD, contact QA Software: Head Office: Address: 3/13 Acacia Street (PO Box 1906), Byron Bay, NSW 2481, Australia, Phone: +61 (2) 6680 9482 Fax: +61 (2) 6680 7877 Research & Development Center: Address: 339 Queensberry Street, North Melbourne, VIC 3051, Australia, Ph: +61 (3) 9326 8455 Fax: +61 (2) 6680 7877 Email: Internet: sales@qa-software.com support@qa-software.com www.qa-software.com Page 1 of 7
Attribute/Title Blocks In order to use QCAD, each drawing must contain a QA Software approved attribute/title block. The attribute/title block must contain fields into which the details of the drawing are to be entered. In general the mandatory fields that a title block must contain are: Document Number Title Revision Status Category Discipline Page 2 of 7
XREF s Introduction QCAD enables users to configure whether they wish to Bind or Insert their XREF s when uploading documents or whether to leave the XREF s out altogether. The following is a brief explanation of what binding and inserting XREF's does. An XREF is a reference to an external drawing file from within a drawing. This allows separate drawings to be attached, overlayed while maintained in separate files. If a document is altered, any XREF that refer to that drawing will also be updated. Binding vs. Inserting XREF's Binding an XREF to a drawing makes the XREF a permanent part of the drawing rather than an externally referenced file. The externally referenced information becomes a block. When the externally referenced drawing is updated, the bound XREF is not updated You can bind an XREF to a drawing using either Bind or Insert. The option you choose determines how named objects, such as line types, layers, and text styles are integrated into the drawing. If you use Bind, named objects are prefixed with a blockname$x$ string, where x is a number that is automatically incremented to avoid overriding named objects in the drawing. If you use Insert, named objects are merged into the drawing without any prefixes. If duplicate named objects exist, AutoCAD uses the named objects in the drawing. If you do not know whether duplicate named objects exist, use Bind rather than Insert. Note: 1) This binding will not affect the original drawing; the QCAD will make a copy of the source drawing and then insert the XREF s into it. 2) Inserting XREF s may increase the DWG file sizes significantly. 3) Any subsequent changes for the XREF drawings will not affect the drawings, which are already uploaded to the server. Page 3 of 7
Plotting Documents with QCAD As indicated in the introduction, QCAD will automatically convert the DWG created in AutoCAD to a plot (PLT) file. In order to generate this PLT file, there are a number of settings that must be configured in QCAD. Setting these configurations prior to using QCAD is necessary to ensure that high quality PLT s are generated with the correct content. The following configurations need to be set prior to using QCAD: Plotter Driver Paper Size Plot Area/Type Plot Orientation Plot Scale Plotter Driver The plotter driver is the driver used by QCAD when generating the PLT file. It is strongly recommended that the plotter driver be standardised across all Teambinder users prior to commencing use of QCAD to upload documents to the Teambinder system. If QCAD is being used in a collaboration environment with Teambinder and Webdocs Pro, the plotter driver must be authorised for use by QA Software to ensure compatibility with the Webdocs systems. Note: The plotter driver that is used requires no actual hardware, as the plots are generated to an electronic file and not a hardware plotter. Paper Size A standard or set of standard paper sizes should be decided upon prior to use of QCAD. These paper sizes are defined in QCAD, which will use these sizes when generating the PLT files for distribution. To make the distribution and set-up easier the Printer and Paper Size settings can be included into a PC3 printer configuration file and can be distributed along with QCAD. In this case the projects System Administrator needs to ensure the Printer driver used is a standard printer that comes with AutoCAD or the user already has that printer driver. When distributing the PC3 file the issues needs to be considered are 1. The user has the corresponding Printer driver 2. Any security / Configuration issues in setting up the PC3 file. 3. Automated installation of the PC3 file Page 4 of 7
Plot Area/Type Working With AutoCAD and QCAD Terminology Prior to using QCAD, the standard plot area for the project should be decided upon. AutoCAD provides six plot area options, one of these will need to be selected as your plot area when using QCAD, and these options are: Layout or Limits: When plotting a layout, plots everything within the margins of the specified paper size, with the origin calculated from 0,0 in the layout. When plotting the Model tab, plots the entire drawing area defined by the drawing limits. If the current viewport does not display a plan view, this option has the same effect as the Extents option. Extents: Plots the portion of the current space of the drawing that contains objects. All geometry in the current space is plotted. AutoCAD may regenerate the drawing to recalculate the extents before plotting. Display: Plots the view in the current viewport in the Model tab or the current paper space view in a layout tab. View: Plots a view saved previously with the VIEW command. You can select a named view from the list provided. If there are no saved views in the drawing, this option is unavailable. If this option is going to be used then QA Software needs to be informed of the View to be plotted prior to using QCAD. Window: Plots any portion of the drawing you specify. Click the Window button to use a pointing device to specify opposite corners of the area to be plotted, or enter coordinate values. If this option is going to be used then QA Software needs to be informed about the coordinates to be plotted prior to using QCAD. Plot Orientation The drawing or plot orientation, determines whether the position of the plotted drawing is landscape (the longer edge of the drawing is horizontal) or portrait (the longer edge of the drawing is vertical). This is based on the size of paper selected. Unit Of Measurement (Paper Units) Plot Scale When you specify a scale to output your drawing, you can choose from a list of real-world scales, enter your own scale, or choose Scaled to Fit to scale the drawing to fit onto the selected paper size. Usually, you draw objects at their actual size. That is, you decide how to interpret the size of a unit (an inch, a millimetre, a meter) and draw on a 1:1 scale. For example, if your unit of measurement is millimetres, then every unit in your drawing represents a millimetre. When you plot the drawing, you either specify a precise scale or fit the image to the paper. Plot Offset This attribute determines where the plot sits on the Paper. The PlottPlot offset can either be, Center the plot, an X, Y based Offset or no offset at all. Page 5 of 7
Plot Options Working With AutoCAD and QCAD Terminology Such as Plot Object Line weights, Plot With Plot Styles, Plot Paper Space Last, Hide Objects Active Space This will determine which space to be used when QCAD plots the drawing either Model or a Paper space. By default QCAD will use the paper space that was active when the drawing is last saved. If the last saved space is Model space QCAD will switch to first available paper space. Plot Configuration file This indicates the Plot Configuration file (Colour Table: CTB file) used when plotting the drawings. It will be recommended that if a single CTB file can be standardised across all the consultants for a given project. This will help to eliminate problems like the line thickness when converting the PLT files TIFF format. Page 6 of 7
QCAD Configurations Default Options QCAD requires users to set up the default options/configurations to be used. These options include: Teambinder User details (User ID and Company ID) Teambinder Project to upload documents to. Plot configurations (i.e. the plot configurations to be used when converting a DWG to a PLT) These default options will need to be completed prior to uploading any documents from QCAD. Please refer to the QCAD help file for further details. Attribute Mappings QCAD requires that any attributes used in the title block be mapped to the corresponding Teambinder field. This will enable QCAD to extract the data from the title block and automatically populate the Teambinder document register with the correct data. Please see the QCAD help file for further details. Page 7 of 7