AutoCAD® 2008 and AutoCAD LT® 2008 Bible

Chapter 26. Keeping Control of Your Drawings

IN THIS CHAPTER

• Working with the DesignCenter

• ccessing drawing content with the Tool Palettes window

• Setting standards for drawings

• Organizing your drawings

• Working with sheet sets

• Maintaining security

• Keeping track of referenced files

• Handling errors and crashes

• Managing drawings from prior releases

When you create a drawing, you not only create objects, but you also create a complex structure to support those objects. You create named blocks, layers, layouts, text styles, dimension styles, and linetypes to help define those objects. And you spend a lot of time creating them! All of these named drawing components can be reused and organized for greater efficiency, using the DesignCenter.

Tool palettes are a multifaceted solution that enables you to execute commands, as well as to insert hatches and blocks. You can also insert tables, xrefs, images, and gradients.

Having standards for named drawing components, such as layers and text styles, is important for consistency and readability. AutoCAD offers a comprehensive system for maintaining CAD standards. Security is also important, and AutoCAD offers excellent features to help you with this. AutoCAD LT does not contain all of these features.

Sheet sets enable you to manage sets of drawings. You can automate the placement of viewports, as well as view and call out labels. You can plot or publish sheet sets as one group. AutoCAD LT does not offer the sheet-set feature.

You also need to keep track of ...