Frequently, we witness an organisation’s commitment to training diminish after an essentials AutoCAD training course. A three-day course is taken by a new user to learn the basic AutoCAD skills they need to get started. They are then left to their own to figure out how to learn everything else. Most users simply obtain a basic set of skills that just enable them to get by, as opposed to developing more complex skills on the job. This is due to the enormous amount of information a user must assimilate in order to become proficient using AutoCAD while carrying out their usual work duties. Without further training, users end up wasting hundreds of man-hours, improvising to finish tasks that could be finished considerably more quickly if they knew about a few advanced features. Everyone using AutoCAD or AutoCAD-based software on a regular basis can benefit from intermediate-level training. This “Beyond the Basics” training gives you the opportunity to tap into the AutoCAD features that will have a significant impact on your daily work. The following are just a few improvements you can make with the appropriate guidance. The Need for Speed
Locating and operating the geometry becomes more difficult as your drawings become more intricate. You may be manually selecting objects by hiding or freezing layers to reduce the onscreen content. How much time would you be able to save if you were able to select objects based on their properties? For instance, selecting blocks by block name or circles with a specific radius. Even if designs you are working on could have dozens or even hundreds of layers, you only need access to the ones that are necessary for your task. You frequently change layers or adjust layer properties, then you need a better approach to manage layers in a drawing, in order to work more quickly. Reduce, Reuse, Recycle Adding and removing objects, as well as occasionally importing geometry from other applications, are all part of a standard design cycle. As a result, named objects, such as layers, block definitions, and dimension styles are stored in the drawing but may not be required when the design is finished. You must develop your skills learn how to reduce file sizes and maintain good CAD management practices. It is likely that you want to import information from your existing drawings when you start a new drawing. How much time could you save if you learned about a new and very simple way to copy any aspect of a drawing to a new drawing? For example, dim styles, text styles, layers, blocks, or any component. Users may invest countless hours looking for drawing content. When it is located and brought into a drawing, it is frequently inserted on the incorrect layer. Drawings that don't appear to have come from the same organisation can be distributed to clients by various users or departments. The ability to quickly locate commonly used content and reusing content from other drawings, saves a tonne of time and ensures that all your drawings have a uniform appearance and feel. They’re not Just Pretty Pictures... There’s Data in Those Drawings A CAD drawing you produce will have valuable design information needed for your project. Understanding a few advanced AutoCAD features will help you mine your drawing for that information, saving time and reducing costly errors. For instance, you may need to calculate the area defined by a closed object or several complex objects. Or you need to track the data associated with your drawing components. In an assembly, you may need to track the quantity and part numbers required for production; in a floor plan, you may need to develop door numbers and floor areas listed in a bill of materials or a take-off sheet. Manually performing this is time-consuming and error-prone. It would be a much better approach to attach the necessary numeric and text information to your block definitions. You need an simple approach to communicate your design data, and you want to show revisions in a drawing, tabulated dimensions, door and window schedules or a parts list. To make the data simple to grasp and share with others, you want to organise that data in a table. The cost of that design as a whole may then need to be estimated using that table. Rather than counting manually, which is tedious and prone to error, you want to execute the calculations automatically. You want your table to automatically update whenever you make changes to the drawing. Additionally, you might have data stored in an Excel spreadsheet that you require in your drawing. It would be extremely time-efficient to set up a link between your AutoCAD table and your Excel spreadsheet. Furthermore, if you make that link dynamic, when you update your spreadsheet, your AutoCAD drawing updates automatically, saving you even more time. Same Object, Different Scale Annotation is an essential component of your design drawings and creating annotations can take up a sizable portion of your day. The frequent need for you to view the same design data at different scales can require you to produce multiple sets of annotation objects, such as text and dimensions, and multiple layers. Misunderstanding of scale is very common. This misunderstanding affects dimensioning procedures and hinders many users from creating multi-scale detail drawings. Wouldn’t it be convenient if you didn’t have to spend time figuring out how big the object must be created in model space so that it scales down to the correct size when viewed or plotted on a sheet? How many plots have you had to discard because of someone getting the linetype scale wrong? These issues can be completely solved by using AutoCAD to automate the process of scaling drawing objects that are frequently used for annotation. Taking Time to Save Time It will be quite beneficial to invest in your skill development by taking an AutoCAD training course. A single two-day AutoCAD training course covers each of the skills listed here as well as many others. Spend the time to improve the AutoCAD skills you use every day. Save time. Work smarter For more information on Symetri’s AutoCAD training course, click here. Alternatively, please contact us on 0345 370 1444 or [email protected] for information on running a private course for your company.
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Naviate is a product portfolio of Civil 3D and Revit plug in software that is fully integrated within Autodesk Revit and Civil 3D. The platform maximises user productivity and reduces risk of errors through an integrated suite of workflow enhancement tools, educational content, as well as technical support. In this blog we’ll focus on Symetri’s Revit plug in, which helps architects improve and simplify their Revit workflows and increase control of your data. “There are over 100 features in Naviate. While you don’t need to know them all, familiarising yourself with these 8 will allow you to streamline your work in Revit. You’ll be able to accomplish more than you could before, deliver projects on schedule and get home from work on time. Whatever’s important to you, these features are the key to making it happen.” Thorbjörn Hoverberg, Symetri 1. Colour Elements
Do you spend a lot of time reviewing your model? Normally you would need to create a schedule or select each object individually to check its parameter values, which is time-consuming and inefficient. A good alternative is Colour Elements, within our Revit plug in, which uses colour coding to identify object properties. With Colour Elements, simply select an element to get an overall view of it. For example, selecting windows will give you a colour-coded view of the dimensions of all your windows. 2. Number Elements Do you number your rooms in Revit manually? It’s a time-consuming process when there are more creative tasks we would rather focus on. Manually numbering elements in Revit is a repetitive task, and there is always a chance you could miss a number or accidentally enter the same number twice and must start all over again. Renumber Elements is a feature that solves this specific problem, which allows you to automatically number elements by drawing a line between them. 3. Edit Parameter Values How much time would you save if you could change multiple parameters simultaneously? Edit Parameter Values is an excellent tool within the Revit plug in, it works a bit like a schedule but with more features. You choose the category you want to manage and then adjust parameters at both the type and instance levels in one place. 4. Quick Dependent Views Do you generate views for sub-plans one by one? A short but effective tip is to use the Quick Dependent Views feature, which creates a dependent view for each of your Scope Boxes with a single button press. 5. Create Sheets Do you find it difficult to copy drawings in several levels? With the Create Sheets feature, you can quickly create drawings for all sub-levels. Simply create your initial drawing and then use the feature to create new drawings with the same view placement. 6. Edit Sheet Parameters Do you find it difficult to manage information in drawing templates? Edit sheet parameters helps you manage drawing information by providing a comprehensive information overview and enabling you to make adjustments to several drawings simultaneously. 7. Legend Manager How do you keep track of which drawing information is attached to which drawing? Using the Legend Manager feature within Naviate, you can quickly see an overview of all the legend views and drawings in one dialog box. You can easily organise which legend views should be on which drawings. 8. Publish and Quick Print Do you spend a lot of time printing and exporting files? With the Publish feature, you can quickly export and print drawings. Publish creates and reuses settings, automatically selects views and drawings, and applies the correct naming configurations for exported files. Under Publish you will also find the Quick Print option, which allows you to select drawings directly from the browser and print them. To find out more about Naviate, the Revit plug in, visit our webpage or download our whitepaper here. [email protected] +44 345 370 1444 |
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