management of layer sets, annotation sets, default drawing settings, wall definitions

[djhplanning]

I am struggling to manage my layer sets, annotation sets, default settings and wall definitions.  I have numerous drawing projects going at once (about 12).  Some of them already have different settings.  It seams like every time I work on a drawing project I am always tweaking a layer set, annotation set, default drawing setting or adjusting a wall definition setting on the fly.  What is the best way to manage this so I am always using the most current settings.  If I change a setting in one drawing I am working on, I have to always try to remember to export the updated settings so they are available to import on another drawing.  Do I need to start exporting the settings each time I close a drawing and importing all the settings when I open a drawing file.  Is it possible to just have these settings automatically be used in any drawing file I open (similar to preference settings) without having to import them into the individual drawings.  It seams like there would be no reason to have separate settings for each drawing you work on anyway (unless you have some builder clients with there own graphic standards or something).  If I don't export the settings right away when I make the adjustment, I never know what drawing project has the most recent settings.  Any suggestions as to how to best manage this would be a big time saver.

[Joe_Carrick]

Set it up in your default Template.  Or you can just save the current project as a Template and then do a "Clean-up" to get rid of the building, etc when you start a new job.  Some call this the SAM method.

[djhplanning]

I have a template drawing set up that I start with.  Eventually maybe I will have the template drawing setup exactly and have nothing to ever change during a project. But, something always comes up that I end up having to adjust on the fly while working on the new drawing.   This will only be saved in the new drawing and not the template drawing.  Unless I go back and open the template drawing and make the change again in this drawing.  In the meantime I have probably started a couple of more drawings and have made adjustments in those drawings as well.  It sounds like I have to start exporting every time before I close the drawing and import the settings each time I open the template drawing and start a new project.

[glennw]

There is an option that may make it a little easier than exporting and importing any defaults.

Keep a shortcut to your template plan handy.

When you want to change a default setting in the template plan, open it up and use Import Default Settings. 

You are given a choice as to what settings you want to import into your template plan.

 

This saves manually changing the setting or exporting and importing various default settings.