Project Navigator to the Rescue in AutoCAD Architecture: Fix Standard Mismatches in a Project

SRIDHAR SUBRAMANI: Good afternoon. Thank you for choosing the class Project Navigator to the Rescue in AutoCAD Architecture Fix Standard Mismatches in a Project. My name is Sridhar Subramani. I work for Autodesk for the past 12 years. I'm a principal QA analyst and a product owner. I'm a frequent presenter in AU [INAUDIBLE]. Also, I write technical solutions that are published on Autodesk web site. And also, I participate on the news groups. So without further ado, let's get started.

So we all know the class summary. Some of the key learning objectives are at the end of the session. So we are going to learn how to set up a project, how to create a project and construction documents, and then how to set up the standards, and then how to fix the standard mismatches, and finally we are going to publish an entire project.

So next, introducing the project organization. So before we go to the benefits of using drawing management and project organization, let's see some of the issues that we come across. So architecture projects are fairly complex arrangements of drawing files. There are multiple floor plans, ceiling grates, you have staircases, bathrooms. All these are common across multiple drawing files. Working on large architecture projects, one of the issue is they're all different drawings. All these drawings are different drawing files, or separate drawing files. Like your floor plans, elevations, sections, details, rendered images, all these are separate files.

Managing these files takes a great deal of effort. Coordinating the external references across different views while placing on the sheets or making sure the keynote is of same skill or your room tags, door tags, they're all consistent across different sheets. And managing the standards. Is all these are issues. So for example our door style across multiple drawings are seen in different styles. This may be because you've accidentally changed the door style or may be intentional. So managing all these things through Project Navigator will help you.

So let's see some of the unique benefits of using Data Drawing Management and Project Navigator. So Project Navigator is an optional tool. However, it provides some compelling benefits. First, we have the ability to coordinate View Title References and Callouts, which will eliminate error-prone and labor work. Second, we are given a method to describe the building, so that all the building components are managed, and all the external references are coordinated while inserting. Third, we are given a mechanism where we can set up a standard and synchronize those drawings across different projects. These are some of the benefits of using drawing management system.

The next thing is Project Browsers. Project Browser is where you create your projects and manage your projects. So this acts as a dashboard for your project as well as your project-centric information. So the next topic is your Project Navigator. In a Project Navigator, we have four steps. The first step is the Project step, which gives you your basic information about your project number, project name, and the levels and divisions. So what are levels? Levels are your horizontal slices of your building, which are unique drawing files. Whereas your divisions are your vertical slices of your building, which are also unique drawing files.

The next one is the Construct step. The Construct step in a Project Navigator manages all your drawing files, which are your actual project design drawings, and not the annotations. The design drawings represent your building components. Third one is the View step. View step is where you assemble all your constructs so that they represent different floor plans, elevations, sections. And you also annotate your views in the View step.

The next one is Sheets. Sheets, as it implies, is where you create sheets for your construction documents that you can plot or publish. This is where you drag and drop the views into the sheet. The next one is Levels and Divisions. So on the Project step, we talked about the levels. And levels are your horizontal slices, and divisions are your vertical slices.

So now let's start creating a project in AutoCAD architecture. So I'll click on Project Browser. So maybe for convenience I'll [INAUDIBLE] demo. In the Project Browser, you have few options here. You can browse a project or you can create a project from scratch. So I'll click on New Project option. The new project number, I'll name this as to 2016-project01. And the project name as AU2016. The product description is optional.

You have another option here. Create From Template Project. What this means is you can use your previous project as a template for the new project that you're creating. That means it copies all your project information, folder structure, templates, and tools. For now, let's leave the template option blank. Click OK.

So we have created a new project. Select the project, and right-click, and select Project Properties. This is where you see the information that we have entered. I want to use relative paths for my project. I'll set this to S. And now here is where you set up your company templates. For all your views and sheets, you can set up your company templates. For now, I'm going to leave this as blank, and click OK.

So whenever you modify the extra paths, you get a message saying that the path option has been changed. Do you want to convert the existing external references to relative paths? I'll select Yes in this. Click Close. The moment you close the Project Browser, Project Navigator will open. That's where you have your basic information about your project.

Now let's start creating levels for our project. Click on Edit Levels. By default, there's always one level created. So I am going to rename this level as Ground Floor, and a floor-to-floor height as 15 feet, and add a description as ground floor, ground level. Now we have one level here. So I'm going to add two more levels. And rename this as the first floor, this as second. First level, this one second level.

So if you notice here, the floor-to-floor height is 15 feet, and the total floor elevation is automatically calculated. That is because you have set the option here, Auto-adjust Elevation. If you uncheck this, I'll modify the floor-to-floor height as 20 feet. See the floor elevation is not adjusted. So let me enable this back, and I want to readjust all the levels. The moment you select the option Auto-adjust Elevation, the floor elevation is updated. So let me create two more levels. So this time I'm going to name this as third level. And finally, this as roof. Click OK. So I'll switch back to 15 feet. Click OK.

So now that we have created the levels in the project, so now it's time to create the constructs. So there are a few ways how you can create construct. The first method is you might have existing drawings that you can convert.

AUDIENCE: Does it matter right now that your roof's lower than your third floor? Or your second floor?

SRIDHAR SUBRAMANI: Sorry?

AUDIENCE: Your roof's lower than the rest of them.

SRIDHAR SUBRAMANI: All right, so we can rearrange them here. So the constructs, so we can drag and drop existing drawings as constructs from the Windows Explorer. Second one is we can create constructs from existing drawings where if you open a drawing, you want to copy only a certain portion of the drawing as a construct. You can just select that portion of the drawing, drag and drop as a construct. Then you can create constructs from existing construct. Like assume you have multiple floors. A few floors are identical. You have created one floor. So you can make a copy of another construct.

Finally, there is another topic in Elements. So element is a generic block for your multiple use, like your staircase or bathrooms, or furniture. So all these things, which are common across multiple floors, can be created under Elements. So let's see this in action. So let me switch to Windows Explorer here. I have a few drawing files here. So before creating the constructs, we can subdivide the constructs into categories. That is your folder structure in your project. So I'm going to create a new category. Name it as Plants. I'm going to create another category. Name this as Building Outline. So from the Windows Explorer, I'm going to drag and drop the ground floor onto the plans. Cancel, so let me-- so it's prompting me for a read-only file. So let me drag and drop again.

So we can see then Add Construct dialog box. A drawing file name is named as a construct. This time I want to create this as a ground level. Set up the ground level, and click OK. So we have created one construct. Similarly, I'll drag and drop the second level onto the plans. Select second level. Click OK. So I'm going to repeat the same step with the exterior facade, so drag and drop this onto the building outline. So this time I want to select two constructs.

The moment I select the second level, I can see a message here. The construct has been set to spanning by selecting more than one check box. So what this means is whenever you insert this construct, the lowest level will act as an elevation and objects are shared across multiple levels. So I'm going to enable all the three levels. Click OK. So we were able to create the constructs using the drag and drop option. So let's see how we can create a construct using another construct I'll right-click on an existing construct. Select Copy Constructs to Levels. I want to copy this to the first level. Click OK.

So now that you have a level here, you can go ahead and rename the level as First Level. So you get a message here. Renaming or moving files or categories may require project to be repathed. So I'll select Repath option. This is a advantage of using Project Navigator. Similarly, if you consider this, doing it with AutoCAD, whenever you rename an external reference file, so you get a message box saying that File Not Found or Unreferenced. So all these are taken care when you're using Project Navigator.

So now let's see how to drag and drop objects onto the constructs. So what I'll do is I'll grip-select objects, drag and drop them. In this case, let me open a new drawing file. For example, a third-level drawing. Select objects. You can deselect objects that you don't want to drag and drop.

Drag and drop onto the plans. So now, you can see here a message. New Construct. I'll name this as Third Level, and enable Third Level, and click OK. So if you see, if you notice here, the objects are already moved. If you don't want the objects to be deleted, you can use the Control key when you drag and drop.

So we spoke about elements. Let's assume your subcontractor is working on a drawing. So what you can do is you can, instead of adding that as a construct, you can link the drawing file, for which you can use the Alt key and drag and drop that drawing file. Click OK. So if you notice here, there's a small check mark here, indicating that it's a linked file, and not a part of the actual drawing. So we now know how to create constructs. Let me switch to the presentation.

So the next topic is creating the plan views. So now we know how to create constructs in different ways using your existing drawings, or copying from the existing constructs. Let's go ahead and create some plan views. So in the next exercise, what I'm going to do is create a plan view, create few elevation views where I'm going to use a tool where it creates four elevation views automatically. I'm going to create two section views, and I'm going to create another annotation view under. I'll build a door schedule.

Let's see this in action. So let me go ahead and close the drawing files that I don't need. So I'm going to activate another project where the remaining constructs are already created. Click on the Project Browser. Browse. I'm going to select an existing project where all the constructs are already created. Click Close. I'll switch to the-- just a moment-- just browse the project. Project two.

All right. So let me switch to the View step where I can create new constructs. So here, I'm going to create the second level dimension floor plan You can select the folder dimension. Right-click, and just say New View Option. Select General. I'll name the view as 02-dimension.

And another category, I've already set to the dimensions. Or you can go ahead and set up a different category. And here is a drawing template that we have set in the project properties. So I'll leave it as blank. Click Next. So I'm creating a dimension plan for the second level. Click Next. So this is where your constructs come in handy. Where you have an option to select which constructs should be listed in the view. So here I'm going to uncheck the Building Outline and Framing. Click Finish.

So you can see the view is automatically created. If you think you need to unload some of the other constructs, you can go ahead and right-click and just say Detach. So we have created our second floor dimension plan. So let's go ahead and create a few elevations. I've already created a building model. So which I'm going to open the drawing file.

So this is my building model. I'm going to create an elevation view. Let me open the tools. Switch to Document, Property Palette, Document tool. I want an exterior elevation marquetry tool. So I'm going to pick a point right above the building here. Draw a rectangle here. Pick a point below the building. And we have a new place callout option. Either you can just place the callout marks, or go ahead and create the section and elevations. So you can also name your model space views. I'm going to leave this as Default. So I want all the four elevations. Your north, east, south, and west elevations.

So I want to also place a title mark. And the scale I've set is 1/8 inch over. 1/8 inch is equal to one foot. That means when you're placing this view in a sheet, what is the scale that you want? By default, I'm setting it as 1/8 of an inch. However, while placing your view, you can still change the scale factor.

So for this one, I want to create a new view drawing. For the new view, I'm going to name this as Building Elevations. And which category do you want to create the drawing? So I want to select the Views dropdown. And I've already created a folder Section Elevations. Select Sections and Elevations. Click Next. I want all the levels in the elevations. So click Next, and here you have an option. What constructs do you want to represent in your elevation? So maybe I'll uncheck the building outline. Click Finish.

So you're prompted to place the elevations. So I'm going to pick up one right about the site. And specify some distance so that all the four elevations are equally placed and they don't overlap over each other. I'm going to pick a point here. And it's going to create four elevation views for me.

If you notice here, there's a callout marks here with a question mark, which are fields. These are going to get updated when you place your view on a sheet. And in the Project Navigator, if you notice, we have a drawing here called Building Elevations. Under that we have four named space, named Space Views. So you can click one of them. Let me double-click the east elevation. So it'll automatically zoom to the east elevation. And if you see, the title mark, here even we see a question mark here. This is when you place this view in a sheet, this will get updated. So let me close this drawing file. Let me switch back to the building model.

Now let's see how to create a section view. This time I'm going to select a section mark. [INAUDIBLE] tool. So I'm going to create a east-west section. I'm going to pick up point right here and go all the way towards the right side. Pick a point. Press Enter. I'm going to move all the way up, so that all the objects are, all the building elements are covered. Pick a point. So in the Place Color dialog box, I'll name this model space view as East-west Section. Again, I want to create the section. Place the title mark. I'll do it in the scale as it is. 1/8 of an inch is equal to one foot.

So I want to create a new drawing for this section. Click on the new drawing option. I want to name this view as Building Section. I want to place this under Sections and Elevations category. Click Next. I want to include all the levels in the section. So here, you have an option to choose what constructs should be listed in your section. I'm going to uncheck the building outline, or maybe the framing. Click Finish option.

So I'm going to pick a point for the placement of the section view. The section view is already created. If you notice here in the Project Navigator, we have an east-west section view. We can open this file where it automatically gets zoomed to the section. So let me go ahead and close this. So I'm going to create another section view, north-south section view. I'm going to select it to the same tool. Section Marquetry. I'm going to pick a point right about here. Pick another point below the building. Press and enter. Move towards the right so that all the objects are covered. In this case, I'm going to rename this as North-south section.

And I don't want to create a new drawing file. I want to use an existing drawing to place this section. So I'm going to Use Existing View Drawing. So you're prompted in here. So this is the same structure what you see in your Project Navigator. I'm going to select Building Sections and click OK.

So if you notice here, since I have selected an existing drawing, that means in this existing drawing there's already a section placed. So I don't want to overlap on that. So I get a visual indication saying that there's a section already here. So pick a point so that you don't overlap the existing section. So I'm going to pick a point right next to that.

So we have created a north-south section as well. So let me double-click and zoom to this section. Let me zoom in further. If you notice here, we have both the sections. So you can always move and rearrange them.

So now we know how to create elevations and sections. Let's try to annotate some drawings. Let me open an existing drawing here. 0,1 dimension. Let me zoom to this area. I'm going to select the door here. If we select the door, this is an external reference file. Let's assume you are using AutoCAD, and you have referenced the file. All your door information is in your house drawing. But you have referenced this drawing. If you want to have the same information in the reference drawing here, you have to duplicate the information. And if you have multiple views, you should make sure you switch on and switch off your layers. So it is tedious as well as time consuming. Whereas using Project Navigator is very easy.

So what we can do is, I'm going to switch to the annotate tab. Go to door tag. Select the door tag option. I'm going to pick the door and place it. If you notice here, this is not a house drawing. But still I'm able to extract the properties or definition from the host drawing, and place it in the view file. This is the advantage of using Project Navigator. If you see here, the data source is 01-shell drawing. So all the information is coming from the first floor shell drawing. I click OK.

So now that we have placed a annotation, let me grip select the door, right-click, and open the extra file. So I'll open Property Palette. Switch to Extended Data tab. Let me zoom through this area. Select the door. If you notice here, the number is 01. So let me modify the number to 10.

And if you notice here, I don't have any tag information here. It's still in the database. Save the drawing file. Close it. I can see a notification here. So let me reload the file. The tag is automatically updated. This is the advantage of using the Project Navigator. Similarly, you can do the same thing for your room tags, windows. You can do the same thing. So it'll always extract the properties and definition from your host drawing.

So now we know how to create annotation view. Let's create a door schedule for our entire project. I click on the schedules. Right-click. And I say, New General. This I'm going to call this as Door Schedule. I want to place it under Schedule. I'm going to do leave the drawing template as it is. Click. Next I want to create a schedule for all the floors, all the levels. I want to Select All Levels. Next. So you can uncheck the constructs that you don't want to view. So I'm going to uncheck the building outline, maybe the framing foundation, and spaces. Click Next.

So we have created a new view for our door schedule. So Let's go ahead and insert the schedule now. From the Annotate panel, Door Schedule. I'm going to select Door Schedule option. I'm going to drag a window across the complete building. Press and enter. I'll click a point and press Enter. So if you notice here, all the door information, although I haven't created all the door information. This is a right time where we know where we are at the project. What is pending in our project. So this gives a clear indication.

So now that we have created a schedule, let's assume you want to place this schedule in the sheet. Just you want to place this schedule alone. You don't want to place the complete drawing into the sheet. So what we can do is we can create a named view. Right-click on the schedule and select New Model Space View. The New Model Space view, I'll name this as Door Schedule. Door Schedule View. And you need to define the window, what should be seen on the sheet. I want to pick the Define Window window. Pick a point here so that we are enclosing the complete schedule. Click OK.

So now we were able to create a view. So later, when we are talking about the sheets, let's see how to place this view in the sheets. Let me switch to the presentation again. So we have seen how to create different types of views. The next thing is managing the sheet set properties. So we can create sheets. So let me switch to the Sheet step. Click on the other project and say Select Sheet Set. Oops.

So let me save this. I'm not able to see the sheet set properties.

For some reason I'm not able to see the sheet set properties. All I wanted to show is the sheet creation, the templates that we are using, so what we have set in the project properties is what you'll be seeing under the sheet set. Sheet creation template.

So on the sheets, the next topic is about the subsets and sheets. So when you're creating your sheets, you may want to organize your sheets within the subsets. So subsets should match your company standards. So there are few advantages of that. So if other people are working on the same project, it'll help them in finding the right sheet to work on. The second benefit is you can select that subset alone and publish it, instead of publishing the entire project. So let's try to create a few subsets and sheets in our project. So I'll switch to the sheet stack. So under elevations, I'm going to create a few subsets. I want to select the Subset option. Select Exterior. Exterior Elevation. And you've found you can maintain the folder hierarchy or click OK. So I'm going to create another subset. Interior Elevations.

So now we know how to create the subsets. So let's quickly go and create few sheet files. On the exterior elevations, I'm going to create a new sheet. So I'm going to name this as EA-301 and call this as North Elevation. And you can automatically open the sheet file. So now that we have opened the sheet file, let me switch to the views and drag and drop the view onto the sheet. So I'm going to drag and drop the north elevation view.

If you notice here, the scale, what I have set by default is 1/8 of an inch is equal to one foot. You can right mouse click and select the scale when you're inserting. So I want to just move this further down. So now that we have inserted a north elevation view. So let me save this file. In the same way, we can create another sheet for section. Create a new sheet and call this as A401. And call this as Section. Or maybe North-south Section. Click OK. Switch to your views. North-south Section, just drag and drop it onto your sheet. Pick a point to insert your view. So I'm going to create another. I want to create up a enlarged stair plan, and link it to the sheet with the callout option.

So in this case I'm going to select the views. Open the second floor dimension views. So I want to create an enlarged staircase plan. So go to your tools. This time I want to use a detail boundary tool. I'm going to pick a point right over the stairs. Pick another point. To make sure the staircase is enclosed, just pick another place your callout option. Press Enter.

This time I want to insert only the callout. I don't want to create a section or elevation view. Or I don't want to place a title mark. So I'm going to use, name this as Detail Stair Plan. I'm going to use the current drawing. So when I set up the current drawing, it'll prompt me to select the window, so that I can place this view in the sheet. I'm enclosing the view. And if you notice here, the view is not yet tagged. So let me switch to the sheets view. I'm going to create a new detail. I'm going to create a sheet, new sheet. I'll name this as EA-501 stair detail. Click OK.

So now that we have a sheet open, and the 02 view. So let me save this drawing file. Switch to the view. So I'll close some of the drawings so that I can see. So in this sheet now I'm going to place the view that I've created now. Detailed Stair Plan, drag and drop it. So now I've created a view. So I can see also the boundary here. Double-click, insert the view. I'm going to switch off the layer. I'm going to click outside.

Now I'm going to link the sheet with the view. I'm going to use the Title Mark option here. Pick a point so that it'll automatically extract the information. If I zoom in here, test automatically extract that information. So let me drag a window and drag it down. If you see, the view number is still not yet updated. So let's link this title mark with the view. I'm going to drag a window. Now drag this onto the detail stair plan. If you notice here, the view number is automatically updated. So let me save this file. I'm going to close this. So let me reopen the 02 dimension plan. If you notice here, the title mark is also updated with the number, as well as the sheet number. This how you link a callout with the sheet.

So we saw how to create subsets and sheets. And we saw how to use callouts for creating the named model space views. So let's insert a sheet list table. So once you are through with all your sheets, you can create a new sheet. I'll probably call this as C, cover sheet. Click OK. So now that we have a sheet here, so right-most click. And say Insert Sheet List Table. And click OK. So based on those sheets that we have created, you can insert the sheet. I'm going to insert another sheet list here. So I right-clicked on the general and inserted a sheet list so that I could see only one sheet. I right-clicked on the complete project and inserted a sheet list, so that I have all the sheets that are created in the project.

So now we have built our project. So let's see how to enable and configure the project. So AutoCAD architecture. So in architecture, we have three ways of, we have three standards. The first one is your styles, the second one is your display properties, and the third one is your AutoCAD standards. So we can have a standard file for each one of them, or we can have a standard file for all of them in one drawing file. Or you can have a separate standard file for a door style, for example. And all the standard files can be saved as a drawing file, or as a template, or as a DWS file.

So synchronizing drawings and projects. So over a period of time, when you're working on a project, your standard files might get modified or updated. So you can either update your standard file, or update the drawings within the project. Let's see how this works. So I'll close all the drawing files.

So I have only one drawing file. Let me move to the constructs. Architecture core. I'm going to open 01 core drawing. So I'm inside these drawings. Let's switch to the Manage tab, and let's configure our standard. Click on Configure I'm going to enable the project standard. So let's switch to the standard styles here. I have an option here whether I want to see all the objects that are available in AutoCAD architecture, or I want to further segregate based on architecture objects, or documentation objects, or multipurpose objects. In this case I'm going to select architecture objects. Now here, we have enabled the standards, but we haven't assigned the standard file to this project. So let's assign a standard file to this project. Click on this button Add Drawings. Locate your standard file. In this case it's in the standards folder. I'm going to select the standard file Project and Layer Standards. Click Open. I'm going to enable that standard here.

So I've assigned a standard file. Now which are the objects that I want to check in my project? So I can select all the applicable objects. In this case, I'm going to select the wall styles. I want to check the standards only for the walls. Click OK.

So before that, let's see how synchronization works. There are three ways of synchronizing your project. The first one is automatic, which is very aggressive. What does that mean? It means whenever you open a drawing or save a drawing, if there is a mismatch of standard, it'll give you a prompt saying that there's a mismatch of standard. Do you want to fix it? So the most efficient way is maybe manual. Whenever you want to synchronize, whenever you want to check for the standards, you can check. So I'll select Manual option and click OK. So whenever you update the versions, it'll prompt you to update the versions. You just enter one.

So now that we have configured a standard, let's see how that works. Let me zoom into this area. I'm going to modify this wall style. I'm going to select the wall. Let's say Edit Style. I'm going to modify the material to maybe a thermal moisture and click OK. Now I've modified the wall style. Let's go ahead and check the synchronizer drawing and see. So I'm interested in the wall style, so let me scroll all the way down. We have two sessions here. The top session and the other one. What does the top session mean? That means an object is following the standard, but it is not up to date. It is not in sync with your standard file. Do you want to update it based on the standard, or you want to skip it? In this case, I just go ahead and Update from Standard. Click OK. If you notice, it is back to the standard that I have created.

So let's assume I'm going to insert a wall now. Want to click on the wall style. I'm going to scroll all the way down. Maybe, for example, I'm going to select a wall and randomly insert a wall here. I've inserted a wall. Save the drawing. I'm going to run the Configure tool now. Synchronize the drawing file.

If you notice here, in the second section you can see a warning message. What this means is this style doesn't exist in my project standard. But the user is using this style. What do I need to do? Whether I want to skip it or ignore it. So there are two options here. Let me click on this and say Synchronize Project. Update the Standards from Drawing.

This way there are two options. Either the CAD Manager can tell the user, no, you cannot use this wall style. You have to follow the standard. Or the user can tell the CAD Manager saying that, look, this is a new wall style, which I want to use. I want to use in this project. I want to add this style to the project standard. In this case, you can just click Add Project to Project Standard, or you can skip. In this case I'm going to add it to the project standard. So when you configure again, you will see that drawing is up to date. So this is how you configure and check for the standards.

So finally, generating the reports. So whenever you synchronize your drawings, you can generate an audit report. So the audit report gives you the list of standard mismatches in your drawing file and also in your project. I'm going to click on this Project Standards dropdown. Select Auditor, Report or Auditor, Current Drawing File. Sp I'm going to select the current project drawing file. So you can place the audit report. Maybe in this case I'm going to place this under the project folder. Click Save.

Let's go ahead and open the audit report. This is an HTML file where all the standard mismatches will be listed so that you can also go ahead and fix them. So the CAD Manager can comfortably run this report once, and just send it to the user, saying that these are the mismatches in your project drawing. Just go ahead and fix them. So instead of CAD Manager sitting and fixing each and every error or mismatch in the standard drawing.

So we saw how to generate reports. Finally, let's see how to publish the complete project. So now that we have created a project, created the constructs, different views, and we have also created our construction document data, our sheets. The final step is to publish your entire project. So let me switch to AutoCAD architecture. Go to the sheet step. On the top most projects, right most click and say Publish. Publish dialog box. This gives you the entire list of sheets that you've created. And you can hit the Publish button by selecting the option, either you want to publish in DWF or PDF, which is widely used. Hit the Publish button. I want to publish this. Select OK.

So we are publishing the entire project. So it's going to take a while. So once you have published, you can open the PDF file. Oops. I don't remember the name. So let me click and just say Publish window, Publish data. This time I want to publish PDF. Publish, and OK.

AUDIENCE: AU2016.

SRIDHAR SUBRAMANI: Yeah, AU2016. So cancel. OK, so click on the Publish tool. So this gives me the list of error messages in the file. Let me go back to the document. OK, I'm going to open the PDF file. So here we can see the list of construction documents that we have published. So like I was talking about the subsets, you can always right-click on a subset and just say Publish to PDF. So this is quicker when you want to publish just one set off sheets. Questions.

AUDIENCE: How long do you think it'll be before AutoCAD Architecture [INAUDIBLE].

SRIDHAR SUBRAMANI: We are still under development, so we are still integrating all the new features.

AUDIENCE: It'll be for a while then?

SRIDHAR SUBRAMANI: It's going to be quite a while, yeah.

AUDIENCE: I have some users that use vanilla AutoCAD and some users using AutoCAD Architecture and the Project Navigator. I wanted the regular AutoCAD users, the vanilla users, how are they going to open the drawings? Just with the sheets and open--

SRIDHAR SUBRAMANI: Just go to the sheets and open the drawings.

AUDIENCE: So we don't need to re-extract or [INAUDIBLE]--

SRIDHAR SUBRAMANI: No, we don't need to do. So we can directly go to the view files or your sheet files and directly open them where all the extracts are maintained.

AUDIENCE: Does it create folder structure?

SRIDHAR SUBRAMANI: So when we are creating the constructs, the folder structure, either we can copy from the existing project or we can create the folders on a [INAUDIBLE].

AUDIENCE: But I can't tell if users have the folder structure.

SRIDHAR SUBRAMANI: Right.

AUDIENCE: The Guest Standards option is not a part of the Project Navigator. It's a completely different plugin [INAUDIBLE].

SRIDHAR SUBRAMANI: It's part of the Project Navigator where you can enable the project standards. And there is another standard with AutoCAD standards. That's entirely two different things here.

AUDIENCE: [INAUDIBLE] Sheet Set Manager, because there's a Sheet Set Manager [INAUDIBLE].

SRIDHAR SUBRAMANI: Exactly. Here.

AUDIENCE: [INAUDIBLE] from the Project Navigator.

SRIDHAR SUBRAMANI: The Sheet Set Manager uses the AutoCAD standard file. So we can also enable the AutoCAD standards files inside this standards. So we can have one standard, which is for architecture, as well as AutoCAD.

AUDIENCE: All my users use the AutoCAD architecture but they do not use ADT walls in the smart objects. How can they do it without the levels? I don't have to do levels. Can they do it without levels?

SRIDHAR SUBRAMANI: So we can also do it without level but--

AUDIENCE: Everything's 2D.

SRIDHAR SUBRAMANI: Yes. Then we cannot use a Project Navigator, because we don't have the 3D objects with--

AUDIENCE: We're using Project Navigator with 2D objects. But we don't have levels.

SRIDHAR SUBRAMANI: So we can still use it here. Still we can still use.

AUDIENCE: All of our stuff's two-dimensional, and we use levels more or less to keep our base plans organized so that we don't create a new view. You say, oh, I want a view of my first floor. Then as you're passing things to it it'll all be showing you the first floor, the constructs. So we use, we don't even technically use the levels in the sense [INAUDIBLE]. It's just an organizational [INAUDIBLE].

SRIDHAR SUBRAMANI: So whenever you're using the Project Navigator, I would always suggest use. Build on the constructs as much as possible. This gives you flexibility when you're creating the views, so that you don't have to exit out of, or unload or reload many extra files, or put them in a different layer, switch off, switch on. So it gives you more flexibility if you have more constructs in different drawing files. And also multiple people can work on different constructs so that you can put them together.

AUDIENCE: Just careful about, you said you have users that aren't using Project Navigator that are accessing those files. That's all well and good. Just make sure they're not leaving the XRF with the XRF Manager. [INAUDIBLE] Project Navigator is actually managing the [INAUDIBLE]. So if they use XRF Manager and they drop in an XRF, it won't show up in the Project Navigator. Project Navigator doesn't help them. Weirdly, it'll show it's loaded, but it won't be visible. It's the weirdest thing [INAUDIBLE].

SRIDHAR SUBRAMANI: So all the reference files are tracked by an XML file behind. So when you go to your project folder, you can see an XML file, which is tracking all the information about your excerpts.

AUDIENCE: Project Navigator creates an APJ file.

SRIDHAR SUBRAMANI: That's right.

AUDIENCE: APJ.

SRIDHAR SUBRAMANI: APJ file.

AUDIENCE: [INAUDIBLE] move it somewhere else, will it screw up things?

SRIDHAR SUBRAMANI: So we need to repath.

AUDIENCE: It has to be in the same [INAUDIBLE].

SRIDHAR SUBRAMANI: It has to be in the same location where the project files are.

AUDIENCE: Can two or three people be accessing the APJ file?

SRIDHAR SUBRAMANI: So we can always put our project in a shared location. So we can browse to the project and then we can start creating our construct things.

AUDIENCE: It'll always repath.

SRIDHAR SUBRAMANI: It'll always repath. So the handout, what I've given here, probably will take about one and 1/2 to two hours. And I have the data set files also uploaded onto the server. So if you're new to Project Navigator, I would encourage you to just go back and try. And you can send me an email so that probably if you have any questions or if you have rushed through some of the topics now, I can answer your questions through email. So I have a detailed step-by-step procedure. What are the steps I have followed right now? All the steps are in the handout, which I have provided, so you can try that out. If you have any questions, do let me know. I'd be happy to assist you. You can always send me an email anytime. You can also send feedback to the same email, so if you want any new features, or if you have any questions related to AutoCAD Architecture, you can send me an email. I'll try to answer them. All right. Thank you very much.

AUDIENCE: Thank you very much. Great class.

SRIDHAR SUBRAMANI: Thank you. Thank you.