Using Autodesk Architectural Desktop
to Speed Production Drawing: Part 2

Quite often an Architects first reaction to Autodesk’s Architectural Desktop (ADT) is that, while impressed with its 3D and BIM (Building Information Model) capabilities, they still have to work with partners (Engineers, contractors, etc) using vanilla AutoCAD, and are primarily concerned with getting out productions drawings. This article focuses on one of the capabilities of ADT that assist the development of production drawings, whether the firm is working with 3D models, or 2D AutoCAD style drawings.

Linking Callouts with Project Navigator

One of the biggest and least productive headaches of managing a drawing set is making sure that all of the section, elevation and detail callouts are properly coordinated between drawing sheets. This task has been completely automated in ADT. For example, if we want to link the section to the right with the detail we just created, we will place a callout on the section identifying the sheet and detail number on that sheet. (In the same manner this section needs to be linked to the plan from which it is derived). But the Sheet identifiers will not be defined until the details are placed on a sheet, and even then are subject to change. Once the detail has been linked to this section, ADT will automatically maintain the information if the sheets are renamed or renumbered.

The Tool that makes this all work is the Project Navigator. The Project Navigator defines first the project wide information: title, owner, address, locations of files, catalogs, and project specific tool palettes, the template files to be used in a project, and so forth. It also divides the project drawing files into three categories.

• Constructs are the plan drawings that define your building.
• View drawings contain the Section, Elevation, Details, and schedules which will be placed in your production drawings. Many views can be placed in a drawing, where each view is defined by an AutoCAD named view.
• Sheets are drawings that are meant to be plotted; they are created with the project title blocks, and views are placed onto the sheets via drag-and-drop.

The general rule for Project Navigator is “Design in constructs, Annotate in Views, Plot in Sheets”. This allows the design problem to be broken down by whatever categories are efficient in your organization – floors, areas, disciplines, systems, etc. A view can be constructed from any necessary construct components – an elevation of the structural components of all floors, a schedule of all lighting elements in a building, etc. Sheets take view elements and provide the context for plotting, borders, title blocks, etc.

When the constructs are created utilizing the capabilities of ADT, all four kinds of views (elevations, sections, schedules, details) can be created using standard tools, and are automatically linked from the original view (or construct) where they are called out, to the view and to the sheet on which they are placed.

To start with we will use the Callout tool from the documentation palette, and place a bounding box around the area to be (or already) detailed. The menu that pops up is the same whether we are generating a section, elevation, or detail. Notice that we now have four options for placing the callout.

Callout Only is used in a situation like ours where we have already created the detail, or where you have a pre-existing library of detail drawings that you re-use in different projects. In the latter case you simply save the detail drawings into the project as view drawings; existing named views become the individual detail views.

New View Drawing, and Existing View Drawing are used when you are generating a section, elevation or detail from existing construct drawings. (Note that you are not (necessarily) sectioning/elevating/scheduling the drawing in which you place the callout mark. Instead you will open a dialog asking you to specify the construct elements you wish to include in your view. For example you might place an elevation mark in the first floor plan, but include all floors of your building in your elevation..

You can also place the element in the same drawing in which you are working. You can also place a title mark in the detail automatically (like the section title mark we are looking at) which includes the Detail identifier, name, and scale you select for the detail.

In this case, we selected callout only. You can now associate this callout with a specific view simply by dragging the tag VIEWNUMBER/SHEETNUMBER) onto the detail you want (in this case “roof detail” on Roof Detail (2)). As you can see below, the result is that the words

(VIEWNUMBER/SHEETNUMBER) are replaced with a set of question marks. This means that the callout is linked to a view, but the view is not yet placed on a sheet.





When the detail is placed on a sheet, as at right, the question marks are replaced with real values. If the sheets are renamed or renumbered, the values are automatically updated. If the sheets are renumbered, or the detail is moved, the callout is automatically updated.