What's The Advantage Of Storing Details And Notes In A Separate Plan?

[zowie123]

Hi,

 

I"m reorganizing my systems and have been reading many strategies of how people organize their details and notes.  

 

I like Scott Halls Save As Method (S.A.M) because all improvements to layer/anno and all else are there and in place for the next plan/ layout.  

 

Here's the question:

 

Some people suggest keeping a plan just to store cad details and notes. So at a minimum you'd have 3 files associated with any one job: a layout, working.plan and a detail.plan.

 

What is the advantage of keeping details and notes in a separate plan as opposed to the main plan particularly if you're using the save as method?

 

Thanks for your consideration,

Zowie

[Joe_Carrick]

Zowie,

 

I personally prefer using Templates vs the SAM - but mainly because I do different styles of Architecture and Templates help me set up a project with all it's own defaults.

 

As far as the Details being in separate Plans, it just allows me to pick the Details I want for any given project - Send to Layout.  I actually have several Detail Plans dedicated to:

 

Foundation, Retaining Walls, Framing, Roof, Railings, etc.  It's like a Library but everything is better organized and I don't have to worry about scale.

[zowie123]

Thanks for your input Joseph,

I guess the issue I've run into with templates is that I never go back and update my good productivity ideas to the template.  Sometimes they're slight tweaks that I do on the fly and forget about, but find myself redoing them again on the next plan/layout.  I'm feeling I could cut down on repetitive tasks if I build on each plan/layout, which the S.A.M allows.

 

That being said, some people want 18x24 and others want 24x36, so I already have two different animals to tend to even with the S.A.M. It would be great if layouts scaled more easily.  

 

Z. 

[BryceEngstrom]

 

I guess the issue I've run into with templates is that I never go back and update my good productivity ideas to the template.  Sometimes they're slight tweaks that I do on the fly and forget about, but find myself redoing them again on the next plan/layout.  I'm feeling I could cut down on repetitive tasks if I build on each plan/layout, which the S.A.M allows.

Yes, I too wish I was more diligent about updating my templates.  I get caught in this same trap all the time too.  Just get so busy and trying to get to the next project all the time.

[DRAWZILLA]

Yes, I too wish I was more diligent about updating my templates.  I get caught in this same trap all the time too.  Just get so busy and trying to get to the next project all the time.

I keep my template plans and layouts in my X6 folder so when I come across something not just right, I just open them and fix and re-save for any new jobs. It would be nice if Chief had a "Make default" for everything that would automatically go to your templates

[BryceEngstrom]

Yeah, I've done that on occasion as well.  Just don't do it enough.

[mydog8it]

The downside I've experienced when sending details to layouts directly from their own plan file is that if you try to export a dwg of your layout, everything in the referenced plan file exports into the dwg rather than just the one CAD detail you added to the layout. It was a mess. Not sure if this is still the case in X6 as I haven't tried it...

 

I still keep details in their own plan files so if I need to edit it's easy to find them, but I started blocking them, adding each detail block to my library, then adding the CAD detail blocks that are frequently used to my layout template. That way I don't have to add and resize them every time I start a new project. I've noticed my layout files load much faster doing it this way, too.

[zowie123]

Thanks for your help with this one too.  It's very helpful to hear how people organize and why.  Good input joy.

[jbaehmer]

I too use the template method.  I have my "detail" plan set up so my title block is on the main plan window and all my details are "CAD Details" within the plan.  I have found doing it this way helps the program operate faster.  I have done it where I had all me details on the main plan window, but the program slowed down.  Once I moved each detail to its own "CAD detail" within the plan, overall performance improved and I haven't dealt with the program slowing down nearly as much.  This also may help to the "downside" of what mydog8it is talking about.  I don't add my details to my library.  With how I have my file organization setup I don't believe it would be feasible.