AutoCAD® 2012 FOR DUMMIES®

Sending Strategies

E-mail and FTP (File Transfer Protocol) have largely replaced blueline prints and overnight delivery as the standard means of exchanging drawings. Some companies even use specially designed Web-based services, such as Autodesk's Buzzsaw, as a repository for project drawings from all the companies working on a particular project. Whether you're exchanging drawings in order to reuse CAD objects or simply to make hard-copy plots of someone else's drawings, you need to be comfortable sending and receiving drawings electronically.

Sending and receiving DWG files doesn't differ much from sending and receiving other kinds of files, except for the following:

• DWG files tend to be bigger than word processing documents and spreadsheets. Consequently, you may need to invest in a faster Internet connection. For instance, if you're still relying on dialup modem access to the Internet, it's probably time to upgrade to broadband.
• You can easily forget to include all the dependent files. I tell you in the next section how to make sure that you send all the necessary files — and how to pester the people who don't send you all their necessary files.
• It's often not completely obvious how to plot what you receive. Read Chapter 16 and the “Bad reception?” section, later in this chapter, to solve plotting puzzles.

Whenever you send DWG files together, follow the Golden Rule of Drawing ...