DRAWING SETUP

4. Other Drawing Requirements.

a. Attributes – Attributes may be used to store data in the drawing. Do not use attributes to store large amounts of data (greater than 10% of drawing size) or types of data that are better stored in external databases. (Facility data drawings are the only exception on a case-by-case basis).

b. Blocks – Any graphic entity that occurs repeatedly in drawings should be made into a block. Do not block the entire drawing or large portions of the drawing. Attributes contained within a block should pertain to the current project. Use logical insertion points such as the center of a circle or the lower-left corner of a square. Keep names simple and descriptive. Purge all unused blocks from the drawing. Nested blocks are permitted but should be avoided whenever possible. Draw objects used to create blocks on layer 0, so that the block inherits the properties of the layer on which it is inserted. Do not insert blocks on layer 0 (zero). Use Dynamic Blocks preferably

c. Dimensioning – All dimensions shall update automatically when the distance they are measuring changes (associative dimensioning). Dimensions should be scaled using the system variable DIMSCALE. The dimension style should be single and identical as far as possible. The font used for dimension should be Courier New as it displays the digits with a character. The height for Dimension text should be equivalent to the height of body text i.e. 2.0 for 1:1 scale. The Primary units for dimension should be Decimal with precision of 0.00. The arrowheads should be set to Architectural Tick and the Leader should be set to Dot with height equivalent to Body text.

d. Drawing Limits – The limits should be defined for each drawing in proportion of the maximum possible extents of the drawing. For e.g. if the drawing of a room of size 15 m x 10 m is to be done, the limits should be 45, 30 (3 times) of the contents. Do not set the limits any larger than necessary to accommodate the drawing. It is recommended to draw a rectangle of the size of the limits on the 0 layer. It will help to draw within limits and importantly in the FIRST Quadrant. No entities shall be located outside the drawing limits.

e. Drawing Origin – Organize drawings in model space so that the lower left intersection of the outermost column lines that remain constant on most floors is placed at 0,0,0. In order to ensure proper insertion of xrefs and the stacking of floor plans, the origin point for an entire building must be consistent between model files. Once the origin is established, it cannot be changed. For sheet files, place the lower-left corner of the sheet at 0,0,0.

f. Object Properties – Object properties (color, linetype, and lineweight) shall be BYLAYER. All the objects should have the property ‘By Layer’ unless it is indispensable to display otherwise.

We will continue the list of 'Other Drawing Requirements' tomorrow onwards.

Stay tuned…!