Managing the different plans of a project

3D Design Volume Model
1

Hello

I come back with a question of organization and management for a slightly larger architectural project, but it could probably concern any type of project.

On this project, I imagined creating several types of different plan groups  , for example the layout group, the group of the ground floors of the south building, the floors of the south building...

In each group, there could be several plans, for example in the group of locations, the plan of the existing situation (surveyor's survey , etc.), the circulation plan, the layout plan of the buildings, etc.

At first, I imagined that the easiest way would be to have, for a group, a single drawing and presentation sheets for each particular shot of this group. For each presentation sheet, we would create specialized layers, one for the general layout, one for the circulation, one for the layout of the buildings...

Second stage of my reflection. As for each particular plan, for example the general layout, it could be interesting to have several layers (the surveyor's plan, the subsequent additional surveys, the dimensions and the localized information...), I thought of creating groups of layers, which could be activated separately to appear on a specialized plan (presentation sheet).

However, the presentation sheets always  show us what is visible in the active object space at the time we are working. Of course, when a plan is finalized, you can freeze it in a PDF for example, but if you review the project,  you have to do a whole series of manipulations to re-create a presentation sheet.

This would have the advantage that any change on one layer can draw attention very easily to changes that may need to be made in other layers.

 

Before going any further, I would like to know if work experience has put in place other procedures for managing the different plans of a project and their interference during modifications during development.

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It's typically autocradian work

What you want to do on Draftsight

I think you need the pro version of Draftsight

 

@+ ;-)

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Hello

 

In your place I will already make a kind of flowchart on Word or Excel to have all the levels of plans, a tree structure that will allow you to quickly determine the links and impacts of one plan on another.

 

Because I have the impression that it's a lot of levels and that it's hard to manage.

 

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Hello, in my opinion, you are complicating your life. ^^

 

Organize all your files well, then as @Tomalam, make an organizational chart.

 

Then yes, @GT22 right, to do something + push, you need a pro version.

 

I hope to have answered your questions.

 

Good luck!

 

 

 

 

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I didn't really understand what you're looking for:

    - Working with several different Xref type planes?

    - Working with different "Views" type layout?

    - Be able to freeze or lock layers to prevent changes to layer objects?

    - Or simply have the advantages (or disadvantages) of a drawing inserted as a block?

 

sorry if I didn't get the concept...

 

 

 

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Thank you already to each one. As for the organizational chart of the plans, I have already started and all this will be in an Excel file that I will complete and modify during the realization. That's what I would have done, maybe a little less formally, 30 years ago with modified layers and  counterlayers.

But I want to use computer resources on this project, personally, and not having a good idea of all the possibilities of the program, I have difficulty clarifying the question. This is well known. Rather than talking about what I have imagined as a solution, I will start from my first question.

 

To start with another example, I have a plan of the existing situation of a building. The drawing will include the three levels and some sections. As I don't have an easy way to print plans in A1 or + format and I've always found it very cumbersome, I'm going to set up various presentation sheets, which I'd like to call " Plan ", one for the Ground floor plan, another for the floor plan, one for the AA cup plan, ... and the same for a few parts to be seen in more detail.

This being the existing situation, I have to make plans of the projected situation and then on this projected situation, a plan for the electrical circuit for example, for the sanitary facilities...

In a paper tracing work, I would have drawn counter-layers from the existing situation (copy of the first one on a new paper layer) that I would have modified. And then I would have made a new layer for the electrical circuits... This paper layer method had a big drawback, as soon as you made a change on the initial layer, for example by moving a partition, all the other layers had to be modified in depth.

This is certainly an advantage of CAD programs

But I see several ways to use their possibilities (and there are probably others that I haven't imagined.)

As for the building in question, I draw all the views on the same layout, in different layers: the existing situation, the projected situation, the electrical circuit, the sanitary facilities... the advantage I see is that everything is visible at the same time to visualize any conflicts and to make changes along the way and that each layer can be seen separately for ease of use. reading. It sounds pleasant, but the paper outputs from the presentation sheets (for example the plan of the projected situation or the plan of the electrical circuits) must be redone after each modification. In addition, it is a method that can be cumbersome in terms of management and weight of the computer file.

The other solution is to make different drawings for each stage (existing situation, projected, electricity, etc.) from copies of layers made in another drawing. Each drawing is lighter, but changes in one drawing do not immediately affect other drawings.

Are there more effective and simpler solutions?

I hope I have been more precise in putting my question on paper.

 

Thank you

Bernard

 

 

 

7

I think I understand the request. I have 3 very different cases and 3 possibilities:

 

   - My house, I retrieved from a specific software the 2D plans of my house to be able to bring the electrical, sanitary, heating, and furniture (kitchen, bathroom), VMC installations,... In fact, the DXf of my house was imported, I purged and put everything on a "plane" (layer) called "achitecte". I placed a remarkable 0.0 point and 2 1m orientation lines. These are in fact the insertion points and the scale reference to adjust all the other planes from different sources and other scales. This being done, I opened a neutral plan and inserted my (clean) house as a block. For each, I then created plans (layers) for each type of action (VMC, Electrical circuit, Slab reservation, water, box,...). a socket block, for example, is inserted on the Electrical Equipment layer, for example. To place the furniture, I deactivated the circuit layers (water, electricity,...) but kept the electrical and computer equipment (to avoid putting a piece of furniture in front of a socket.

   For the passage of CMV, Electric, water,... From one floor to another, I constantly updated my "Slab Reservation" block in my different drawings, so that I could control the passages.

    Advantage, easily transportable (1 drawing per floor), I activate or deactivate (when printing or viewing) the plans that don't interest me, always complete but it weighs a bit heavy.

 

    - Building case, when I worked for the sanitary equipment of a hotel, the plans were imported as for my house except that all the floors were on the same drawing but on different layers. The base point (updating of the architects' plans) was often a vertical technical shaft in the middle of the building, or more often an elevator cage. The advantage of the latter is that it goes from the cellar to the roof in a straight line with constant ribbing (normally). All the equipment was inserted on functional layers bearing the name of the floor (e.g. 01-ECS_circuit) Big disadvantage, the weight of the files, big advantage, the floors look similar, so if a modification has to be made to the building plans, we activate the floors concerned (frozen for the walls) and we stretch, Moves.... For your information, with the Autocad version (full) of the time, we even took out the equipment names directly from the plans via scripts. We didn't miss a tap or a bathtub!

 

    - "Architect" / "DDE" case, has it to save space, everything is done in Xref. The advantage is that we only use what interests us (the lot that belongs to us) we work on it and then we send the file concerning the lot. Big disadvantages, you have to check the modifications of the Xref, the links to these files and be sure to always send all the referenced files (but lighter). Surprises appeared when the files (Xref) included changes...

 

    For the rest, please specify the type of principle that can best correspond to your desire / activity to go into more detail.

 

 

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Thank you Mwalti for your shared experience.

 

Two small questions:

  • When you say "large files" for the example where all the plans of the various layers of the building are on the same drawing, what does that mean. It seems to me that Draftsigth is not a big eater of space or system resources, but does that mean that you need a really specialized machine to be able to use them.
  • The idea of a base layer with the walls and some basic information, put in the form of an easily usable block from drawing to drawing seems interesting to me. But would this block be updated in the various drawings where it would be used? (as is the case for blocks in a single drawing )

 

If this can be done more or less automatically, it would be a good compromise between:

  • Everything on the same drawing with the possibility of seeing, as you write, if the CMV pipe does not pass in front of the power outlet, and
  • While independent and the need to individually modify all drawings when making a change to the structure.

 

Thank you Bernard

 

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Here are my comments in order:

 

   - When I talk about large files, these are architechte type files with cuts. Coming from software that is often not autocad, hatching is broken down and appears as an independent entity. e.g. Hatching under autocad = Outline + a modification, in basic export, thousands of lines, I'm not talking about wood or concrete with + complex patterns., A normally constituted machine can respond (with memory, average game graphics card and disk space). The rest, the power, gives flexibility and response.

    - The building, taking just one floor, is like a plan on a blank sheet of paper type A0. We find all the hatching, ribbing,... It is frozen at the moment T and reacts like the paper plane, hence the idea of the block that is inserted (not exploded). On top of it we insert the layers (transparent) with the different activities (plumbing, electricity, VMC, furniture, ...) These layers or planes are on top with a pencil (erasure, modifications,...).

   Sometimes the paper plan is modified (the building itself), the idea is to say, I change this paper plan by the new one either by inserting the new block with the same name (it will ask if it needs to be regenerated) or by deleting the old one and inserting the new one with another name (you have to think about purging to lighten the old blocks). An Xref (under Autocad) can be blocked (I haven't tried it yet under drafsight), this means that if your plan changes (linked file) it will be updated automatically each time you start your drawing. By being blocked, he reacted like your paper plan. In this case, be careful, you have more difficulty managing the changes to your linked plan if you work in a group.

 

 

    - The subtlety of modification when the walls are moving consists in freezing the planes that should not be impacted and freeing up where changes are made. Simply capture the area and stretch it from the change of position. Hence the interest in creating your layers with the different functions. Another advantage of the layers is the change of colors, if you have all the strokes of your layer of the color of your layer, if you change the color in the properties of the layers, all the elements will follow. Very interesting when you want to print on different printers (not always very compatible with each other).

 

 

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