Set up borders

Set up a new border in AutoCAD

In AutoCAD, under the CadTracker ribbon, we’ll click Set up borders. We want to add a new one, which is located on our NAS.

This is an A1 border, and we have an attribute to show the intended paper size. We can search for the attribute by its tag or prompt and select it.

Map the project attributes

Under the project tab, we’ll search for the project number attribute and select it.

Another way to map attributes is to pick them. We’ll pick the alternative project number attribute.

Pick multiple border attributes

When you’re setting up a border from scratch, the easiest way is to Pick multiple border attributes. We’ll select all the Drawing attributes that we want to map, the Operators, and the Current revision. For the issue lines we only want to pick the attributes for one line, because we’ll get CadTracker to automatically populate the rest.

Now CadTracker will prompt to pick each attribute that we selected.

Public issue history lines

Under the Public issue history lines tab, we can very easily add the rest of our lines because our attribute tags are sensibly and consistently named. If we add one too many lines, CadTracker won’t find any attributes that match the pattern.

Copy from another border

We have another A1 border with the title block on the right-hand side. It has a lot less attributes, but they use the same attribute names as our standard border, so setting this one up will be very easy because we can copy the mappings. Click Copy from another border and select the border we set up previously.

We can see the result of the copy. This border only has three issue lines, so we’ll remove the extra six that were copied.

Standard drawing types

These borders are likely to be used in many projects, so we’ll set them up as default drawing types which will be automatically copied into all new projects. In CadTracker, click Tools > Drawing > Types. We’ll add a new drawing type.

The border file can be an absolute path, relative to the project folder, or relative to a site folder. We usually recommend copying the borders into the project folder, as this allows you to modify the border with client logos or project info. As long as the attributes and the file name are the same you don’t have to set up a new border. See the Quick Project Wizard video to learn about setting up a project template folder.

For this demo we’ll use an absolute path to our NAS. You can set up multiple drawing types using the same border DWG. Each drawing type just needs a unique name. We’ll call this one M+A A1 detail. We’ll assign an A1 PDF plot setting.

We’ll set up another drawing type for sketches, and we’ll also set up the A1 side border.

Project drawing types

Now we’ll edit our existing P123 project and copy the new drawing types. Click Copy standard drawing types and select the new types we just created.

Add borders and create new drawings

Back in AutoCAD, we can create new drawings using our new drawing types. We’ll add a border, add a number and some titles. Click OK and we can see our attributes have been populated.

We’ll add another drawing using our sketch drawing type, and one more using the side border drawing type.

Rev drawings up for approval

Now we’ll revise the drawings up for approval to check our public issue history lines. We’ll select the drawings, set Mary as the Checked by operator, Approved by Admin, and select a PDF plot.

The drawings have been revved up, and our issue line is populated.

View PDF plots in CadTracker

In CadTracker we can see our PDF plots by going to the project start page and selecting the Drawings tab.